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!

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!