4th of July

We had an awesome and busy 4th of July. I love my job and being able to have holidays off. I can't imagine having to miss them again. On the 4th, we were able to go the the Idaho Falls parade. Nothing too exciting but tradition is fun. It wasn't as hot as we thought it was going to be so that was nice. We were able to cheer on Sydney-my little sister-who was on her middle school cheerleading float. Amani slept through most of it. But when she wasn't sleeping, she was hanging out with my mom's best friend, Brenda Silvester.

Obviously, you can see why Amani loves Brenda. She was in candy heaven!

After the parade, we went to my mom's boss's house to go swimming. I had just bought Amani a new swimsuit and new float toy wanted to see how she liked the pool.

Here she is in her new swimsuit! So cute!

This was her first reaction to the pool. She loved it! Luckily, Dr. Rencher had left the pool heater on so it was nice and warm. :)

This is her new float toy. It is so nice. It holds her up so she doesn't sink and she can kick and play and doesn't have to be held. It will also help build some muscles. Love it!!! And so did she!

At night, we went to the Idaho Falls fireworks. They are my favorite part of the 4th of July. I look forward to them every year. They are so awesome the way the sync them with the music and everything and they get more awesome every year! They were pretty sweet this year too. Amani watched them the entire time! All 31 minutes! She sat and watched in amazement and I watched her in amazement. I couldn't believe how calm and content she was watching them.

On Saturday, we went up to Island Park for the Empey Family Reunion. This was going to be the longest road trip Amani was going to be on (even though it would be only a half hour longer than our usual Poky trip). But she hates the car.

So we stacked her up with all her toys. It was hilarious.

Saturday afternoon, we went up to West Yellowstone so Dave could get extra credit in his Geology class. We walked around the main street and went into a candy shop. Amani was getting cranky so I gave her a sucker I had bought for myself so she could just chew on the plastic and entertain herself.

Oh, how I underestimate her! She got through the sealed plastic and to the sucker! I figured-you were the genius that got it open, you deserve it. I paid the price later with the sticky fingers and face though. Oh well!

This is Amani and her cousin, Maggie. Maggie is Kari's (Dave's sister) daughter who is 3 1/2 months younger than Amani. Obviously, Amani is way bigger than Maggie. They are so cute together.

Maggie was getting sick of us trying to get her to smile so she decided to eat Amani's arm. Amani is trying to sit up and get away. She didn't want her to eat her arm.

Amani was able to meet for the first time and get some bonding time with her Uncle Paul who is on his 2-week leave from the military. He is currently serving a 15-month tour to Iraq. It was great for her to be able to meet him and spend some time with him. We miss him and will be excited to have him home soon.

This is Daddy and Amani on Sunday. They looked so cute in their red, white, and blue!

This is just a random picture I have from last week that I had to post. I was getting ready last Saturday and I looked out of the bathroom and this is what I saw. I just had to get a picture. Dave and Amani were watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on PlayHouse Disney. That is Amani's favorite show. Anyway, this picture was crazy but cute so I had to post it. But that is pretty much all that is going on with us. Sorry for the long post and all the pics. I just need to do this more often!

Almost 5 months!

Alright, I am a totally horrible blogger lately! I always think that I need to do it but then I always find something else to do. So tonight I decided to make Dave take care of Amani so I could do this. This is some of what has been going on for the past weeks. Just a warning now-there are lots of pictures.

Amani and Daddy watching tv together. She loves to watch cartoons with Daddy. Her favorites are 'My Friends Tigger and Pooh,' 'Higglytown Heroes,' and 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.' She will watch them forever. It is great!

She is getting much better at smiling for the camera. She laughs. giggles, and talks all the time. She is getting such a fun personality.

She was taking a nap with Grandpa. It was so cute!

We were giving her some belly time on the Boppy pillow. She doesn't like to be on her tummy so she was blaming it on Mr. Bear. He is her favorite stuffed animal and she talks to him all the time. I think she was telling him it was his fault for her being on her tummy.

She was lying on my lap and so was just snapping pictures to see what she was doing. She does funny facial expressions.

Bathtime!!! She looked so serious!

At cousin Eli's flag football game. This is her new smile-closed lips. It is so cute!

We went to Grandma & Grandpa Empey's house this weekend. Grandma gave us egyptian cotton sheets and Amani loved them. She was all tangled up in them and looked so cute. We were also able to see her newest cousin Maggie and a bunch of the family. It was great to see everyone!

And here we have the Queen of Sheeba. She looks like she owns the place!

These are my sisters, Sydney and Ami. They had their gymnastics performance this last week. It is my favorite part of the whole year. They are so awesome. Ami is getting her back handspring down and Sydney is getting really good at roundoff-back handspring-back tuck tumbling pass. She also can do a back layout. She is sweet!

Not much else has been going on lately. We had some fun at the end of April with some more seizure activity but once we got her levels of phenobarbital back up she was ok. We only spent 1 night in the hospital for IV therapy and haven't had any major seizures since. We just have to check her levels more often which requires frequently getting her blood drawn. She is such a trooper. Other than that, it is just work for me and school for Dave. We hope all is well with everyone! I promise I will try really hard to be better at this!

Amani's Belly Laugh

Amani has started to giggle. The person she loves to laugh at the most is my dad. He can always get her to giggle at him. This is a video of the first time she did it. It was hilarious!

3 Months Old!

Man, I have really sucked at this whole blogging thing lately. Don't worry, Heather, it isn't just you. I figured it was time to add some more pics. Amani is growing so fast! I can't believe she is actually a baby now and not a newborn anymore. She is getting stronger. She hates to be lying down, she loves to be sitting up in her bouncer or even propped up in the corner of the couch. My mom bought her a Bumbo seat. She loves to be sitting up and looking around. She just isn't quite strong enough to stay there long. But she gets frustrated when you take her out so it is a lose-lose situation. She is so silly.

As for the rest of us, I am just working as usual. Nothing ever too exciting with that. Dave just finished winter semester a couple days ago and is on his spring break between semesters. He is excited to have a couple days off to just relax and hang out with Amani.

One thing we are really excited about is we are planning on buying a house. We found one that we like and have talked to the bank so now we are just watching interest rates and waiting to lock in. As soon as we figure everything out, I will put a picture on here of it. It is awesome. We are so excited to be hopefully getting out of an apartment and into a house. I am most excited about having a garage so I don't have to scrape my windows at 4:30 in the morning when I am going to work! :) Yay!!! As soon as we know what is going to happen we will let everyone know!

I loved this outfit. The hat was my favorite.

She was in a really good mood so it was picture time!

I love baby overalls!

She was looking for me. She makes the funniest faces.

She loves hanging out with her Aunt Sydney.

Our cutest little Yankees fan!

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!