The Everyday

~A quote from this morning at the Shaeffer house: *Emi wants Marty to sing her a song* Marty: How about you try singing it, Emi? Emi: You sing it, Marty.~ Emi woke up early this morning, so we made a loaf of banana bread together. She loves being my little helper in the kitchen. This morning we were also able to get a run in and go to dance class. By the time dance was done, I thought it was lunch time (not 10:30 am haha). Oh the things you can accomplish when your child wakes up early! Although I will say Emi and I both took full advantage of sleeping when it came to nap time.  Emi wore her fairy dress today! Today was princess themed day at the studio, and Adelaide's hand-me-down seemed like it could pass as a princessy type dress. This afternoon we had a birthday party for Myla W. across the street. There were lots of little ones from the neighborhood and it was fun. All the parents came too, so it was fun to socialize and get to know our neighborhood a little bit better. After

 One of my favorite words Emi is saying these days is "You-ga-corn" (Unicorn). We love this little girl!

They say a picture is worth a million words... Today Emi and I did some Halloween shopping! I'm very excited about my Halloween decor finds. In the evening, Emi and I went to a flag football game of some of the YW. Then Marty got home from softball (they won! He had 5 catches in a row!) and swapped me out, and I went to the temple with the YW.

We were bringing dinner to a family who had a baby yesterday (!) in our ward. They recently moved in, and it was throwing me back to when I had Emi and hardly knew anyone in our community. I was re-remembering how hard it was, and so I decided that I'd make our meal to them extra-special to help them feel loved. On the menu: Wild Rice Soup, Breadsticks, Peaches, Brownies, Ben n Jerry's Ice Cream, and Fudge Sauce. I kid you not, I was in the kitchen the whole afternoon.haha. It was fun and I was also glad Emi took a good nap today!  The brownies, that I've made at least 30 times before, turned out gooey and I didn't catch it until they'd been cooling for awhile and it was too late. So I ended up tossing those, but Ben n Jerry's is good too. I also accidentally put the spoon from the soup into the fudge sauce, so I tossed a batch of Fudge Sauce and started over. But other than that it went pretty smoothly. I hope they liked it!  It's funny that yesterday someo

Monday is gym day for both Emi and I--Chuze for me and My Gym for her. It's nice starting out our week that way. In the afternoon, Kimber B. dropped off some curry leftovers from our Pagosa trip and it was nice to not have to worry about making dinner!  Neither Marty nor I can remember what we did Monday evening, so I guess it was good. Lately, it seems like all we can think about is hearing back on HBS interviews. They're supposed to let us know by the end of the month if it's a yes or no! Emi riding her bike to the mailbox today. I ended up pushing her most the way! haha.

Today was clean up and head home day! Every one of our friends have been SO helpful throughout the trip with seeing what needs to get done and doing it. This has been such a fun group to be with! The fog was so pretty this morning. Mid-morning families started leaving and by early afternoon Marty, Emi, and I were headed home. We've loved this trip. Marty and I are completely exhausted--we're getting used to this whole hosting thing. I think I was one degree less stressed than I was with the Rosen Fam Pagosa trip...so progress, right? What we learned this trip with lots of kids: Put the telescope in the Master Bedroom as soon as you get there (We had it out initially but quickly moved it to the Master), the craft bin is nice to have, bring a few kid-friendly games/toys that the kids can play with, The General Store is always a hit, food and drinks stay in the kitchen or outside (even though it's tempting to bring them over by the couches), and shut the doors slowly. On our d

We headed out early this morning to go to the Hot Air Ballon Festival in town. It was really cool! (Thanks Angela for letting us know about it!). Afterwards, we came back and some of our group headed out to do things while others of us stayed back with the kids. One couple was out so long, I started getting worried about them. We ended up sending 2 search cars out, and it turns out that they were having a great time---they went to the waterfall hike in the Ranger, hiked it, and then came back. Most of afternoon was rainy. We sat on the back porch and enjoyed the rain. I could've just been left alone there for hours with a pile of blankets and a good book.  The rain stopped in the late afternoon and we did "Dad Pinatas" just like at the Adair Family Reunion. The kids loved it! We had a feast for dinner! Jaran and Deb know how to do food. We had tacos with every topping you could want! Emi with her diaper hat. haha. In the evening, the adults watched the BYU game, ate lots

Marty and I watched the kiddos in the morning so the adults could go explore without having to worry about little ones.  After they got back, we headed to the ice caves. It was a lot of fun! Then we came back for lunch and pretty soon Deb and Jaran B. had arrived with Macy and Rylin. The rest of the afternoon consisted of hanging out and getting ice cream at the General Store. Kimber and Drew made yummy Thai Curry for dinner and afterwards we did S'mores around the campfire. Emi really latched onto Rylin today. Rylin is such a sweetheart--she's being so patient with all the little kids! After all the kids were in bed, the adults were sitting around talking when Jaran noticed a mouse just staring at us from the fire place. We made it our goal to trap the mouse. We literally sat around the fire place for HOURS. I can't even understand how we sat there for so long but it was crazy! We learned that mice (at least CO ones) like the old fashioned traps better than the new ones. I

 Started out the morning with Kevin H. and Mike P. on a run. We went 7 miles and it felt good!  After I got back, we started getting everything packed and headed out the door (and showered of course!). We were picking up our Chick-fil-A breakfast when I realized the Great Harvest Bread I got for our trip yesterday was sitting in the freezer at home (Uggh!), so we headed back home to pick it up...and then we were on our way! The drive went great, the fall colors were beautiful, and we arrived at camp in the afternoon close to the same time as Kimber and Drew B. We hung out, ate pizza, and then took the kids on a ride to the Schoolhouse for sunset. It was chilly, and Emi was not happy about wearing her helmet or riding with dad, so I ended hopping on on their ATV mid-ride...and she still wasn't stoked. Meanwhile, Bowen and Marlow were having a grand old time! haha. We ended up taking off Emi's helmet and I sung songs to her the whole ride...which made it bearable for her.  Sunset

Emi and I did some errands and Pagosa prep today! On one of our errands we dropped off some things at Goodwill. I was talking to a friend in the ward literally last week, and she mentioned how Goodwill doesn't take toy donations. Anyway, while we were dropping off our stuff the lady in front of us was trying to donate toys (but she found out you couldn't). I saw that one of her toys was super cute, and asked her if she'd be okay with me taking it for Emi. She agreed, and now Emi has a fun new toy to play with! Win win. Emi with her new toy. One of our errands included a stop at the park for Emi to get her wiggles out. In the evening, I went out to dinner with all of the other YW leaders. There was a Stake Activity scheduled today, so we all took the day off, and went out for a birthday dinner to celebrate Stephanie H., Mindi H., and Heather J. It was so fun to just get to chat with everyone (about non-YW stuff) and enjoy a meal together. I love the people I work with in YW.

This afternoon Ronny and Jules came over for a few hours to hang with Emi and I. We played a bunch and did a craft together. Sometimes when I watch other people's kids I go into teacher mode and try and figure out a way to structure the time they're here and do some sort of planned activity. In the evening we met as a YWs Presidency. We held our meeting, and then went and visited 2 of our girls. I've been feeling like we need to do individual visits to our girls for the past while, and have been ignoring it (because I know how busy my counselors are), but I felt like this was something we really needed to do. I let them know, and they agreed to go! I think it went really well, and after visiting them I can see how important these visits can be.

I helped one of my YW Counselors assemble these cute journals for our YW today. They're so cute! I'm excited to give them to the girls. Unrelated, but lately I've been noticing that when I'm overwhelmed about something, I just procrastinate it. haha. I'm trying to be better at just getting things done instead of postponing. One of those things is getting rid of a changing table in our front room. A family in our ward gave us a toddler bed, and also dropped off a changing table that matched the toddler bed a month or two ago. We didn't need the changing table (since we already have one), but it looked way too big to fit in our car to drop off at Goodwill. So I've just been letting it sit there (and drive me crazy) because I was too overwhelmed to figure out a solution. Well today I finally just put a picture of it on a HR FB Moms Group and offered it to anyone who would pick it up. Within a few hours it was picked up and out of our house. Getting rid of it wa

Because we celebrated Emi yesterday, today was a little bit more chill. We opened presents (her big present from mom and dad this year was a Strider bike) and had German Pancakes for breakfast. We went to church in the morning, and went to some friends in the ward's house for dinner. During the day, Emi got lots of birthday love from family.  Marty and I are both so grateful for our Emi. She's a ray of sunshine in our lives and we love her to pieces. Happy birthday Miss Emi Rose!

We had the best time celebrating Emi today! The library planned the whole party and they did an incredible job. We had story time, crafts (picture frame decorating and animal mask making), polaroid photo ops, and we opened presents and ate cake. After Emi's party we went out to Texas Roadhouse as a family (although that may have been more for Marty and I than her haha). Pictured: Marlow, Bowen, and Brye B., Ronny and Jules P., Henry B., Kaylee and Cooper P., Easton S. (and Emi of course!) Not pictured: Emma N., Thomas and Sophie B., and James T. I had so much fun making this cake for Emi!