Blessing Day

I know I am a slacker! Here (finally) are Amani's blessing day pictures. It was an awesome day with lots of awesome family here! Her circle was amazing and full of love. Thanks to everyone who came and shared this special day with us. We had a good dinner afterwards (thanks to everyone who helped and definitely to my parents for letting us take over their house for the day.)

Her blessing dress was mine and my mom's blessing dress. It was fun to be able to pass it down. The quilt she is lying on is a quilt my aunt made for her. It was beautiful.

My mom and dad with our little family!

Grandpa Nelson with Amani.

Empey Family-4 generations

My mom's side of the family-5 generations! It was awesome!

Amani was able to have 6 grandpas in her blessing circle. It was amazing.

One of Dave and I's bestest friends, Paul Broadbent, was able to come up from Utah to celebrate with us. We were so excited to have him here. It was a blast! Thanks for coming, Paul! We love you!

Alright. This post only took me a week to finish! By the time this is finally posted, it is March 15th. :) Oh well, I am just glad I finally got it posted. Amani had her 2 month check up last week and she is 24 inches long! She definitely has her daddy's height. I had her weighed again yesterday and she is 12 lbs, 12 oz. She is getting so big, so fast! It is exciting! I will get some more pictures and will try and get them posted soon! :)

7 weeks old

I know! I have been a slacker with the pictures! I went back to work last week, so I am never home and if I am, I am hangin out with Amani. So she is taking a nap right now so I thought I would post some pics real quick. Her blessing was 2 Sundays ago and I will post those pics later. She is growing up so fast. She is starting to get stronger and is starting to hold up her neck more. I can't believe it! She has started smiling more and I am getting more caught on camera. So here are a few pics from the last month! Oh, and no seizures since the medication was started! Yeah for phenobarbital twice a day!

She has started to giggle. It is so cute!

She loves to pose. She was lying on Dave's chest and this is just how she happened to position herself. She is so funny!

She does the funniest things with her hands.

Cutest outfit ever!

Yay! Smiles on camera!

3 weeks

I figured it was time for some more pictures. Amani has been doing really well the last couple weeks. Still no seizures or any problems there. We are getting her medication dosing figured out and she is starting to get used to it so she isn't as sleepy all the time. She is starting to wake up and play more. I have been lucky and gotten a couple smiles on camera but it is hard to catch it when it happens. She giggles a lot-especially when she is sleeping. She is hilarious and keeps me and Dave laughing all the time.

One of the rare times I catch a smile. This is with my camera phone so the quality isn't as good but I am glad I caught it.

This is my favorite outfit she has right now. It has cute little bugs! She looked so cute so I had a get a picture. And I am a sucker for hats-I love them! She always has hat hair. But, it is okay because it has been so cold here and she has needed them to keep her head warm. Win-win situation! Hooray!

I caught half a smile with my camera.

She is a very calm baby (luckily!) She likes to just lay on the couch, look around, and hang out with mommy!

Bath time! She looked so cute wrapped up in her towel yesterday that I had to get a picture. If it looks like she is smiling a little, it is because she just peed all over Dave. It was hilarious! She loves taking baths-she likes to splash with her feet. She just gets mad when you start to scrub her with soap-it is her personal time and mommy ruins it!

We are looking forward to her blessing on the 17th. We are excited to see everyone!

Week #1

Just born! So cute!

Our new little family

She always keeps her hands up by her face.

She was holding her binky in her mouth with one hand and was sleeping with her arm across her eyes to block out the light. She is so funny!

Coming home from the hospital the first time

1st Sunday

Our little thug

This is from our camera phone so not the best quality but so cute! And yes, that is an iv in her arm. For those that don't know, we had a stressful first week. Monday night, our little girl had a little episode where she flushed red, started to twitch, went limp, and stopped breathing. It was very scary for Dave and I. She had 2 more episodes like this before we got to the doctor on Tuesday. She then had an episode for the doctor and he decided to admit her to the hospital. After many tests (head CT, lumbar puncture, lab draws, urine caths, EEG) they discovered she had a seizure disorder. She now must take phenobarbital for the next couple years. Dave had this same type of thing as a baby and it went away, so we believe that hers will go away too. We are lucky to have good insurance and a good family to help us through this. She was such a little trooper through all the tests and the whole adventure.

She was using her iv arm and the board as a weapon! Watch out for the swinging arm!

So cute!

We came home from the hospital today. It is nice to be home! I will try and keep pictures coming as I get them! Thanks to everyone for their caring phone calls and support through this tough first week! We love you all!

Amani Jo Empey

Here is our beautiful new daughter-Amani Jo Empey. She was born January 10.2008 at 17:07, 20 1/2 inches long, and weighed 7 lbs, 12 oz. She had her tongue discovered right after birth and loves to play with it. Here are just a few pictures from today. My 13-year old sister was taking pictures for us and did a pretty good job. My dad got some really good ones, so as soon as I can get them on my computer, I will post them. I just figured I would put what I had on here for the Empey family asap! :)

Right after birth

Proud Daddy

Proud (and tired) Mommy

Mom and Dad Empey, Granpda Nelson, Daddy, and Amani

After her bath-she loves to keep her fists around her face

Decent amount of light brown hair!

Halloween & Dave's Birthday

Dave & I have had a fun week. The Monday before Halloween, we went over to Kris and Andy's for the annual Empey Halloween party. It was so fun to see all of the kids in their costumes. They were so adorable! I have the cutest nieces and nephews. I just wish all of them could have been there!

Emmaus so cute!

Eli the pirate

Hannah was such a pretty princess.

Nessie looked super sexy!

Eden the ballerina-I was lucky to get this picture-she was in mid-spin.

Tommy the power ranger

Emma the vampire princess

On Halloween, we went over to my parent's house and watched my brother and sisters get ready to go trick-or-treating. Dave and I then had to go to childbirth class. Those things are hilarious, but informative!

Sunday was Dave's 25th birthday. Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Nelson came up from Pocatello; Kris & Andy, Trina, and all the kids came over to my parent's house. We had dinner and cake and ice cream. It was lots of fun.

Dave and his new Yankee Mr. Potatohead.

Dave and his sisters-Kris & Trina

Dave & Mama Empey

My mom knew if she wanted a picture of me, she would have to do it when I didn't know what she was doing.

Then, I decided to at least let her get one decent picture. My best friend/twin brother, AJ, loves to put his hand on my belly. He has never felt her kick but he loves to try.

Pregnancy is going good. It is so nice to not wake up every morning and not be sick. Yeah for gallbladder surgery! Amani is getting bigger and more energetic. She wiggles and kicks most of the day. It is always fun to feel her move. Just 10 weeks left! The final countdown is on! I am so excited!

22 and 99

This last week, we had the opportunity to celebrate my 22nd birthday and Grandpa Nelson's 99th birthday. I love being able to share the same birthday with him, just 77 years different. We had a party at my parent's house Thursday night. Trina and Kris and their kids came over with mom and Grandpa. It was a blast.

We had really good ice cream cakes from Coldstone-peanut butter perfection! I recommend it to everyone. Fabulous!!!

We also had a cake just for the 99 candles for Grandpa. It was amazing that they fit all the candles on there. It took awhile to light them.

By the time they brought the cake over to the table to me and Grandpa, half of the candles had melted into the cake. It made it even better. (and of course, we didn't eat it-yuck!)

We then blew out the candles on our individual cakes. Grandpa just kept laughing about everything. All the candles to blow out and all the cakes.

We opened presents. I got a beautiful statue from Mama Empey. It was one of those Willow Tree figurines. This was the one of a pregnant woman. It was beautiful.

My mom got me the 2 movies I had been wanting all week-Jungle Book and Fantastic 4-Rise of the Silver Surfer!

My sisters made me a candy posterboard! The sweetest present I got! It was so sweet and had so much meaning behind it. I got to get a picture with all the kids. It was an awesome birthday!

I just had to add this picture to the end. It is my favorite. Eden was playing with the spoon-you can hardly see it but it was the cutest picture and I had to add it.

And the flavor is....

So today was my 20-week ultrasound!! I never thought this day would come and yet it has come so fast at the same time! Well, I have had the feeling it was a girl and everyone else has thought it was a boy! But, the mother instinct wins in the end, and it is a girl!!!! I am so excited! The ultrasound was amazing. It is crazy to see the baby that is living inside of you and seeing it move-which is exactly what it does all the time. The tech that was doing her ultrasound was having a hard time getting all the measurements that she needed because the baby wouldn't hold still long enough for to take the picture. And then when she would hold still for that random couple seconds, it was in the wrong position to see what we needed to see. It was funny but frustrating. It shows what I have to look forward to! We are going to name her Amani Jo and probably call her AJ. Amani is Swahili for peace. One of Dave's companions from his mission gave him the idea and he has loved it ever since. I think it is a cool name so we will go with it. The easiest way to describe how to say it is it is like Armani the designer without the r. I am excited because now I know to look at pink stuff instead of blue stuff. I am glad because girl stuff is so much cuter than boy stuff! Anyway, my due date is now January 13th and the ultrasound showed that she is looking to be a healthy little girl! I will keep everyone updated with any new info I get. I will also get our summer pictures posted on here soon because I have been kind of a slacker.