I have a good explanation...I promise!

My computer is finally giving up. It has been trying to break for months now and is finally giving up the ghost. So this weekend I was able to get the rest of my pictures off of it and get them onto my external hard drive so I could post them with Dave's computer. So, I am going to do a little back blogging. We haven't really been up to anything exciting. I tell ya, we really are boring! I did buy Amani a really cute Easter dress though and I have been excited to post pictures of it.

She was having fun playing in it.

It is the cutest dress! I love having a girl.

She does the funniest poses.

This is Amani with her newest cousin, Lily. Dave's sister, Kristin, was watching Amani for us and said Amani couldn't stay away from Lily. She didn't know what to think of this tiny person. I can't blame her though. Lily is super cute!

The end of April, we had a really nice Saturday, so we went for a walk by the greenbelt in Idaho Falls. It was nice to get out in the sunshine and get some fresh air after being inside all winter! I can't wait for summer!

I love this spot! It is the best place for cute pictures. Amani was ready to go home though. She was getting kinda grumpy.

Here is my little climber. She has hit that stage of her life. I definitely don't appreciate it. She climbs all over everything. Her favorite is this though-my coffee table. She spends most of her day up there. She lays on it to watch tv and stomps on it when she wants attention. Crazy child!

Here is Amani's new bed! We decided it was time for a big girl bed. She loves it. She uses her little stool to climb in and out. It's so cute!

It's so big that she gets lost in it. But she sleeps so good in it! That is all that matters!

1st Birthday

Ok, yeah I know, it was over 2 months ago. But like I said with the holiday posts, better late than never, right?! :) Amani turned 1 on January 10, 2009. I can't believe that she is already so big! We had a party at my parent's house and lots of the people she loved were able to come over and celebrate with her. I know if she could say thanks, she would. She had a blast!

We started out the day interestingly enough. We were running her bath water and went to find her to get her out of her pajamas and this is where we found her. I guess we didn't get her pj's off fast enough for her. She was ready for her bath right now! It was pretty funny.

Here's our birthday girl at Grandma & Papa's house-ready for her party!

Playing with her new presents. She did open a few more this time around. She didn't know what to do with all the presents. She loved them all and continues to play with all of them. Her room is her favorite place.

So clean before her own special chocolate cake. I must have been crazy!

I have decided she looks like she has a beard. She started out so dainty. It was hilarious. She just started picking off the top and didn't want to dig into it.

Eventually, she did dig in! This is when she was pretty much done. Like I said, I must have been crazy!!!

Bath time! The water was disgusting!
She had a wonderful birthday, surrounded by wonderful and loving people. Thanks to all of those who came and thanks to all those who sent their love. I am slowly catching up-2 more months to go.....

Thanksgiving, Christmas & everything in between!

Yeah, I know. It was forever ago. But, I figure, I should at least post some pics from our celebrations.

Here is Amani on Thanksgiving. She definitely enjoyed it more than anyone.

Amani and her cousin, Jake. Jake is such a good sharer! They are really good friends and are so cute together too!

Amani got croup midway through December. That was definetly something I only want to do once in my life. Needless to say, it was a long week. But she was tough and pulled through well.

Amani's favorite food is linguine alfredo. She is a good sharer too. Although, she gets really messy!

My new Christmas Eve pajamas!

Dave and his new Christmas Eve pajamas. He is so silly!

Amani on Christmas morning

Amani would not open up her presents. She would only watch me open her presents and then play with them afterwards. This is the only present she actually opened.

So cute!

We went bowling just after Christmas with my family. It was tons of fun!

This was pretty much a run-down of our holidays. Sorry it was so late!

10 month pictures

A couple weeks ago, I got Amani's 10 month professional pics taken. She wasn't in a very good mood that day. And right when we got there, she puked all over her shirt. So I had to run to the infant/toddler department (we were at jcpenneys-luckily) and find a new shirt to go with her pants. So I missed the first pics in her blue dress so I didn't get her bow in her hair. It was quite a day. But they didnt turn out too bad. We got a couple good ones, so here are a few.







We had to give her Mickey towards the end to keep her happy. She usually isn't happy if she doesn't have Mickey close by.

This is her personality shot. She is always rocking her wrists.

Halloween

Yeah, I am a loser and am not posting Halloween til Thanksgiving Day! I know! We got to do some serious Halloween celebrating this year. On Oct. 25, we got to go to a Halloween party with some of our friends. It was awesome! We had so much fun.

The family getting ready to go to the party. Amani would not look at the camera. She was so confused at what we were doing. She probably thought we were crazy!

At the party!

We did lots of fun things-like bobbing for apples. Everyone did awesome-except for me. I can't do it and never have been able to. I got soaked and never got my apple! I finally just grabbed it with my hand and said, "That's it! I quit!" The party was way fun. We played games and just hung out. And there was great food! Thanks for inviting us, Lundyn, Jeni, and Jen!

October 28th we had the annual Empey family Halloween party. Mama Empey always comes up with fun games for the kids to play. They wrapped up like mummies and then broke out. It was fun to watch. I don't even know which kid is which in this picture. I can only pick out a few. We didn't do Amani. She might not have liked this game too much.

This is my little girl trying to be big. She always has thought she was older than she is.

I worked on Halloween so we got to dress up. This is me and my friend, Teresa. She dressed up as a inmate on a work release program and a former meth addict-hence the funny teeth. It was hilarious! Although, she took out the teeth when patients were around. :)

On Halloween night, Dave had to work until 8 so Amani and I went trick or treating with my little brother and sister. She wouldn't smile hardly at all. She was stone faced all night! At least she wasn't crying though!

Here is my little ladybug and her only smile I caught on camera!

Our trick or treating party. Justin, Ami, me and Amani!

This year, Halloween was a blast. It is awesome to have a kid so you can really get into celebrating it again! I love holidays!!!!

Another tag

Yeah, I know. Another one. I never do these. They are kinda fun. This one is from my cousin, Kira.

Random Facts About Me! (Kira did 7, we will see what I can come up with)
#1 - I think I only want 2 kids. Before Amani was born, I thought I wanted 4 kids or so. The older she gets, the less I want another child. Usually girls start getting baby hungry again, but I am the exact opposite! I was baby hungry when she was like 4 months but the older she gets, it is getting less and less. The only reason I am thinking 2 kids is because I don't want her to be a snot! She is spoiled as it is!
#2 - I have very little sense of taste or smell. I lost it in a 4-wheeler accident just after high school. It has come back just a little but I can only taste and smell some things. It is weird, I am weird, and I have accepted that. It isn't as bad as it sounds. I can't smell bad smells. All good smells smell the same. I can taste sweet, sour, and bitter. Pretty good to me after having nothing for so long!
#3 - I can speak sign language and I actually get to use it sometimes. I got to translate for a patient at work a couple months ago. It was amazing! I taught myself over the years and it is a fun language.
#4 - I got to go the temple for the first time when I was 10 years old to get sealed to my little sister, Sydney. We adopted her from Chicago. She is half black, half white and gorgeous! It was an amazing experience for me. I was then able to get married to Dave in the same sealing room. It was awesome!
#5 - I am a little obsessive-compulsive. I have to have things in alphabetical order and organized. I love baskets! I have everything in baskets. But, the one thing I can't have out of place is my movie collection. I have lots of movies (no, this isn't a pic of mine) and they are in alphabetical order (of course.) It drives me crazy if one if out of place or if they are messed up! Yeah, I know, I need mental help!

Tagged!

I got tagged by my sister, Brooke. So since I had never responded to a tag before I figured I would respond to it. For this tag, you go to your 5th folder in your pictures, and then pick the 5th picture and then blog about it.

This the picture, I came up with. It is my nephew, Jakey. He is so hilarious. Jakey and I were eating celery (I think) with easy cheese. Yum! So, then Jakey took the lid to the easy cheese and put it on his head like a hat. It was so funny. He just looked at me like I was crazy for laughing at him. He is so adorable, Kari! I love his guts! I tag whoever wants to do this. It is actually kind of fun to see what you come up with.

We Are Back!

I finally have the internet back, so I can finally update. I guess I have a lot to catch up on. We moved to a different apartment on August 1st. It is actually just down the street from our previous apartment but the management is better and it had more to offer so we couldn't pass it up. I haven't taken any pictures so here is the link to my complex and it will show some pictures of what it looks like. http://www.eagleslandingapartmentcommunity.com/ Anyway, since the last time I posted was the 4th of July, I have 3 months to catch up on. Um....where to start.....at the end of July, we were able to take a trip to Utah with my family. We went to Lagoon on Monday. It was fun, even though 2 of my favorite rides were closed that day.

Amani was so good all day. We are so lucky sometimes!

She was even happy most of the day!

We got to stay with Dave's brother, Mike, while we were in Utah. It was good to see him and his family and to be able to spend some time with them. Tuesday, we went to Hogle Zoo, and Wednesday, we went to Temple Square. I love that place! There are so many beautiful paintings and sculptures to look at, and the peaceful feeling there makes you never want to leave!

I love this wall mural up on the roof! Really makes ya think, huh?

This is definitely my favorite sculpture in the world! I love this room. It is so peaceful. I could sit here for hours. The ceiling is so beautiful too!

Our Utah trip was definitely the highlight of our summer! We had a blast. It definitely wasn't fun coming back and trying to move in 2 days. :( As for August we didn't do much of anything exciting. Dave got a new job mid-September at the Behavioral Health Center. It is the psychiatric branch of the hospital I work at. He is working as a psych tech. He goes with the patients to their therapy sessions, keeps track of where they are at all times, and makes sure they don't do anything stupid. He is really liking it. As far as Amani goes, she is growing so fast. She has 4 teeth now and is really wanting to walk. She has had the few occasions of standing up on her own in the middle of the room, which of course makes me just cringe because I am not ready for this yet. Here are a few pictures from the last couple months. Most of the them are from our camera phones so they aren't the best quality, but you get what you can, right?

This is Amani's favorite show-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. If it is on, this is where we find her. She could watch it for hours and just keeps laughing. It is so funny!

She is so gosh darn cute sometimes!

And so crazy other times. She makes the weirdest, funniest faces. They are so hilarious!

Here is my little poser. She did the most perfect little pose for the camera. I couldn't believe it!

I have no words to describe this one. She is just crazy, hilarious, and cute!

Dave sent me this at work one morning with the text-Good morning, mom!-attached. It was so cute. I wish I could wake up lookin that good.

I was tryin to get her dressed and she didn't want to so she pulled the onesie on top of her head. I decided it was the newest fashion so I had better get a picture.

That is pretty much the update of the last 3 months of my slacking. I have the internet now so I have no excuse (dangit!) so I will try and keep my blog updated a little better. :) (I know, I say that every time)