To truly be "Thankful"

Surprisingly it is a hard thing to really grasp. I mean thankful. Not just a "thanks" which now a days has become somewhat desensitized. Automatic, if you will. When you are truly thankful or grateful, you feel it in every depth of your being and soul. 

I did not know the true form until she graced my life.

I actually use to hate Thanksgiving. Even when I was young. You may think that's strange, but at the same time, I'm sure you see it as, "if she has to hate a holiday, that one is ok".  From the time I can remember, it was always stressful, unmeaningful, stuffed to popping, can't wait for it to be over kind of day, that I never took anything away from. Sad that it took me until now to really see it's meaning. And it's all thanks to one special little lady ;)

Here's all that I am thankful for today:

-Em has acquired a handful of new skills around Thanksgiving. One you already know which was standing. But she has enlarged her vocabulary by quite a bit as well. I'm going to list the words and phrases she is now frequently using, starting with the most recent, which includes 4 new words in just 2 short weeks.

1. Look- points at things and says "Look!" or says "Look!" when she wants you to watch her

2. Duck- this one was completely out of the blue (well, almost), but it's not like we taught it to her or tried to get her to say it by any means. She just was sitting in the bath Thanksgiving morning and pointed to her toy duck and said clear as day, "duck". Steve was walking in at the time, so I asked, "did you hear that?" But no matter, because she did it again and even louder and more sure of herself!

3. Go- This comes from "1-2-3 GO!" Which is something I say frequently, so she says the "Go" when she wants something now (go figure) or before she puts the balls in the chute of her toy.

4. Hug- Obvious where she gets this one, and she has become quite the little hugging expert, I mean her hugs are like a great drug! :) But, she now says it when she holds her arms out to let you know she wants one.

So that ends the new ones, but I'm going to attempt to let you know the rest that she does know, and say frequently in the right context.

5. Dog- I do believe this was my first word and one that Em should have come quite accustomed to ;)

6. Uh-uh- Used for "no" but also says "no" too

7. Yeah- Of course for "yes"
8. I know- Used most often when you tell her she's cute ;)
9. Wus that- Meaning "what's that"

10. I love dada- Self explanatory

11. I love ya- Again, self explanatory, but my favorite thing she says

12. That- When she points to things she wants you to look at or what she wants. But now more often she says "Look" or "go"

13. More- Used more frequently with sign, but does say it occasionally as well.
14. Bye- More often uses the hand wave for both of these now
15. Hi- also hello

16. Dadda- For dad, but also says "Dad" as well.
17. Ow- Kinda funny because she never says it when someone normally would (ie: getting her shot, or blood drawn), she says it when getting her teeth brushed, her hair done, or any other routine thing she hates.

18. Mama- Sadly this word became extinct for awhile, but it is coming back :)

19. Uh-Oh- First word she ever uttered at 4 months old (see video at bottom), still cutest thing ever to hear her say it!

-So roughly it's a good 20+ words, and I'm sure there's more that I'm leaving out. So lots to be thankful for in the realm of a special needs 3 year old who we were told might not ever talk or walk, or blah, blah, blah BLAH!! Not to mention this little girl will be starting school soon!! In fact, she has her initial placement testing this Friday, which is nice for me because it's PTC and I'll be there for 12+ hours, so it will be nice to have her there with me for an hour or so.

-I am so thankful for my great husband, and the fact that he is back in my life. I love him so much! As well as the rest of our wonderful family and those friends close enough that we consider them family too.

And along the lines of friends, I am especially grateful to all those that love our little girl (even those that haven't met her!), which encompasses and mostly includes our Chromosome 18 family. I also did a guest post this week on the DIG blog again with this same theme. Which you can see by clicking the picture below, which is also now conveniently to the right of the blog so that you may link there from here anytime!

(Click here to see the post "The importance of a friend")

-We also helped with a very special project this week. Click here to see the Howe's blog post on their project. And here to see the article that was in the newspaper about it.

And by popular demand, here is Emarie saying "Uh-Oh" at 4 months old. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should and it is only about 30 seconds long :)

And just a few more pictures from our Thanksgiving. Funny thing is, the only human I got pictures of was Emarie. Go figure ;) But here she is playing with my cousin's great dane, Jasper

FYI they were hilarious together! This dog that could have swallowed my once terrified of dogs little girl!

You know you're a preschool teacher when.......

I have to say that a little comment from Steve inspired this post. Although I must admit that the thought has occurred to me in some obscure form just about every day.

So here they are, my life really, and the reason I can act like a four year old :)

You do the "potty dance" when you're really immersed in something great, but you really have to go!

On the flipside of the above, you call it "potty"

You find yourself stammering and stuttering excitedly when you're trying to explain something amazing

You think up silly little rhymes for everything, sometimes without even realizing it!

When your favorite song comes on, you sing loud and dance, and you just don't care what anyone thinks!

You get excited when a new Disney movie comes out, and you say you'll see it so that you can have something to talk about with the kids... but who are you kidding?! You love it!!

You love that it's socially acceptable for you to dress up at Halloween (but is it really?!) and you don't care what anyone thinks of that either!

You have silly names for holidays like "Turkey Day"

You still really want to believe and convince yourself that there really is a Santa

But you really do see all the magic in Christmas and feel like a kid in this time of year

The people who talk to you most are only 3 1/2 feet tall, but you love every second of it!

You can think of something funny, crazy and terrible that happened in a 6 hour period......

..... and yet, you want to go back and do it all again tomorrow!

well....

most of the time ;)

Last of all, you do things like this just because you know it will put a smile on all 38 of your kids faces :)

 Little Red Ridinghood (I was the mother)

Goldilocks and the Three Bears (I'm Goldie sleeping and trying not to laugh might I add!)

But even better, I'll be getting to bring my baby with me starting in January, and can't wait to take little sneak peeks at her throughout the day!

Best Birthday Gift EVER!!

Yes, she still needs help getting to this standing position, and she has to hold on to something. But, I am just so elated, because I don't have to tell most of you that this is MILES ahead of where we were just a few months ago! Even a couple weeks ago. Even a couple days ago, because she just spontaneously went into a standing position after sitting on my lap one day, and then this. This is the girl that use to hate to even try to stand! We can now have a realistic goal of walking! I don't know how long, but I know she'll get there one day!

Birthday Bash Part 3 *the shopping* :D

What girl doesn't appreciate shopping? Well I think I may have had the biggest shopping spree this month than I have ever had! Which, some of it was for Em as I mentioned in this post. But, a lot, and I'm talking 

a lot was for me!! And geek that I am, I'm going to share my loot and brag *insert smug smile here*

First, my mom got me these cute numbers

Some super cute brown flats that I already wear a lot

And remember me mentioning those sweet cards from 

my darling grandmothers?

Grandma Andrews *please don't hate me for this picture grandma*

Grandma Wilde

Along with those cards was a little shopping money, and here's a few things I used it for

This cute headband! please disregard the
weird look on my face (I didn't know I
would be in the picture!)

One of my favorite Disney movies

Surprise, surprise! more shoes! what can I say, I am a girl!

And this cute headband!

And yeah, I got all this stuff for amazing prices, so I'm still able to be looking for a good deal on Nike running shoes, so if you hear of any, let me know!

Also got to go shopping with this guy

Mitchell

And here's all I got

Two new pairs of skinny jeans, a cute sweater (70% off mind you!) and the shoes he insisted on, but what kind of a girl would I be to refuse?!

So yes, can we say spoiled! And it's still not over yet! I love being me! Now how many girls can say that?!

Birthday Bash Part 2 (the trip!!)

As I mentioned in the last post, the first thing I saw on my birthday was this sweet card from Steve, stating that his present to me was a little weekend trip to Steamboat Springs Colorado

This place holds a very special place in my heart. It's where my family use to go camping when I was growing up. Back when we were all together with my sister, and it just reminds me of happier times.

So, on Friday morning afternoon, we left on our excursion. It wasn't until the afternoon because of a little bump in the road called Emarie being terribly sick and parents needing wanting permission from her doctor before leaving. Not to mention the long wait for her antibiotic to actually be ready from a pharmacy we hate using, but since we were going there anyway, we figured it was the best choice. But maybe not!

So we left at about one (6 or 7 am was our original choice), which got us there at about 6:30, just in time for dinner :) Em did great the whole drive there, and most of the night until about 3 am. So we called the doctor's office the next morning, and they called in some Zofran to a nearby pharmacy. Once we got that in her system, she started keeping down her antibiotic and everything else for that matter, but we still kept her mostly on Pedialyte until we made it back to Utah.

But yes, once we got all the sickness out of the way, we had an excellent trip! One that consisted of GREAT food:

Mmm, bacon cheeseburgers the first night!

Pancakes and sausage for breakfast (Steve is a wonderful cook in case you didn't know!)

And this is one of the peanuts at the Smokehouse we went to for dinner one night. I made it into a ghost for Em :) It was almost Halloween after all!

Great Fires

Yeah, Steve is a regular old Boy Scout!

Or maybe just a pyro ;)

And of course, best of all, the company of my two favorite people, while we just relaxed and had a great time!

Here's what our cabin looked like

Quaint, isn't it?

And the view we had from the front

And we weren't really sure what to do about this ??

Do we check out at 10 or 11? 10 or 11? 10 or 11?? Aahhh!! We went with 11, didn't think they could reprimand us if we were wrong ;)

So after 3 days it was time to go home. Em did ok most of the way home, just was a little grumpy, but I thought this hat said "her" so well

That about sums it up! :)

Birthday Bash Part 1

So I gotta say, it's not so bad to always have your birthday span across an entire week, sometimes even a month! It's the price of having so many wonderful people in my life that want to celebrate with me, just not all at the same time ;)

The morning of my birthday, I woke up to this sign on the bathroom mirror

click on it if you can't read it

But obviously, that I would have to wait for until the weekend. But that evening we got together with some of my family for dinner at Pizza Factory

 She just loves her daddy! And look how grown up she's looking!

 The rest of the group at the table. L to R Grandpa Andrews, Grandma Andrews, Bryan, Johnny, Lexi and my mom

My grandpa took this one of the three of us (not bad eh?!), this was right before Em threw a class "A" temper tantrum (it was passed bed time)

And did you know Pizza Factory does this?

yeah that's a pizza in the shape of my age, crazy huh? Thanks Bryan for asking them to do this ;)

Also got some beautiful and sweetly written cards from my grandma's that brought me to tears. As well as some birthday money which will lead to the Birthday Bash 3 post.

And of course, I look forward to this every year!!

My Grandma Wilde's famous "Candy Bar Cake" one of the only kind of cakes I actually like! And it is to die for!! She makes a personal one for our birthdays :)

Up to come: Birthday Bashes 2 through 4! 2 and 3 will be soon, but 4 will be dinner with my dad which hasn't happened yet. But 2 is our trip, and 3 is all my birthday shopping :)

Mmmm Scrumptious, creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe

Just in time for the holidays!

I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie. I'm sure I'm one of the few that aren't. But a few years ago, I found an alternative that even I can get on board with! 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

And lucky you, I'm sharing my recipe here! I had the opportunity to make four of these babies a couple weeks ago for my cousin's welcome home from his mission to Guatemala! Missionaries in the Mormon church are gone for 18 months (if they're girls) to 2 years (if they're boys). So Chase has been gone for awhile, and it wouldn't be his mom if she didn't give him one huge shindig of a welcome home party!

Now for the recipe :)

You will need one of these, it is a Springform pan

Ingredients for crust:

25 ginger snap cookies finely crushed (crushed with a can works best, like your can of pumpkin) will come to about 1 1/2 cups

1/4 cup or 1/2 a stick of butter, melted

Combine ingredients for crust in a 9 or 10 inch springform pan (I've used anything from an 8 1/2 inch all the way up to a 10 inch, you just may have to adjust the cooking time depending on the size. More for smaller since it's thicker).

All crushed and I used the canned pumpkin to do it

I use the bottom of a glass to press

Ingredients for filling


4 pkgs (8 oz each) Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup of sugar divided (3/4 cup and 1/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Dash of ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and vanilla with a mixer until well blended (I used my Kitchen Aid this time, but this is the first time I used it since we only got it for Christmas. So a hand mixer has always worked fine for me in the past). Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until barely blended in (do not mix too much here or you will not have the right consistency!).

Seriously, I'm in love with this mixer!!

Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter you just made, place in small bowl and set aside for later. Stir remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. 

Here's the separated batter

And then once the pumpkin and spices are mixed in

Spoon a guesstimated half of the pumpkin batter onto your crust, top with spoonfuls of half of the reserved plain batter. Repeat layers until all batter is used.

When all finished with your layers, use a butter knife to cut through batter in cross actions to create swirl effect.

This is how it should look before you place it in the oven

Bake 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely at room temperature (about 2 hours). Refrigerate at least 4 hours, but overnight is best. Serves around 16, keep leftovers in the fridge. 

This one turned out PERFECT! This was while it was cooling, before refrigeration

Hope you enjoy, and let me know how it goes if you make it!!