The Birkeland Family Blog

So, you ask where have I been? Just on a little blog sabatical. For some reason I have taken zero, zip, nada pictures lately, and I just don't feel like anything is in me to share about my groundhog days. I look at the camera and I just leave it right there in its case to collect dust. Life has just been nothing but day to day stuff. Nothing spectacular, no vacations, and no accomplishments. Just that Emmi is alive and we are surviving the cold. Barely! Don't worry I will be back into the blogging business in no time. Sit back and just wait till I am back. It will be a good show. Talk to you all soon soon soon! And I just want to thank all of you bloggers out there. I love taking the time to see what is going on in everyones life. I try not to think my life sucks and everyone elses life is just hunky dory. But, all of you are great!!!! Angie

Family pictures were scheduled 2 days after Emmi completely biffed it on the cement driveway. OUIE!! Of course pictures have been cancelled until her face heals. These pictures actually don't show how bad it really looked.

Halloween always seems like a magical night in some ways. Little children running the streets dressed up in all kinds of costumes carrying trick-or-treat bags with just pure giddiness in the air. I love it. Emmi was a chick this year. Wow...let me tell you she was the cutest chick I had ever seen. The costume was a big hit. She even managed to keep her hat on most of the time. Early in the Evening we went up to see Grandma Jill, Papa Ric, Uncle Jonny, and Jeff, and of course Kitty. We had our traditional Halloween spaghetti dinner. Yummy!! We love it so much we all wonder why we only do it on Halloween. We did some trick-or-treating and Emmi was eating her candy as she went from house to house. Every 5 seconds she was asking for "chocolate". Later in the evening Emmi went Trick-or-Treating with Ella up and down part of Keller Lane. Melanie, Emmi's cousin even joined in which was super exciting for Emmi. The three of them couldn't have been cuter. At one...

On Friday morning at the butt crack of dawn we took Emmi to Primary Children's Hospital for TUBES!!! 3 weeks ago she got her 10th ear infection and we all called it quits and opted for surgery. The evening before the surgery I took her in for a pre-op class to get her familiar with the hospital. She could have cared less besides getting her "buddy" which was her hospital doll, and playing with all the toys. She did put the stethoscope on to listen to her buddy's heart. I was pretty proud. The next morning she did find all of her surroundings familar which was nice. I could chalk this up to one of Emmi's funnest mornings ever. Same Day Surgery has a plethora of toys that any kid could dream of. She had no idea what she was in for. And for that matter she still doesn't know what happened. We opted to give Emmi versed which helps them not have too much anxiety for when we had to leave her with the anesthesiologist. UH...it worked like a charm. She could h...

My little Poltergeist. Don't look at my disgusting cast iron tub, but look at the naughty girl who got into the tub after getting on clean pajamas. Just taking a load off on the kitchen table....no probs!! Putting on "Mommy's shoes" is a highlight. But my highlight was that I can now officially put Emmi's hair into two little piggy tails. She looks like she is 3 years old. Somehow Emmi helped herself to the bowl of cantelope and thoroughly enjoyed it, until it all came back up. Fun for me!!

This year the fair was especially fun. Emmi was at an age where she loved seeing the animals. She could tell you all the sounds the animals make. In fact she poked a goat in the eye and somehow the goat didn't retaliate and bite. She didn't seem scared at all. Emmi even got to ride a pony with Grandma Jill. LUCKY!!! My favorite was THE BIG YELLOW SLIDE!!!! We got a picture at the top of the stairs that overlooked the city. Look right behind me....."I think I could have been murdered just then" quote by Conan....The dude looks like a convicted felon. The highlight of the night was.... LITTLE HANDS ON THE FARM Emmi loved pretending she was a little farmer. She got to feed a cow and even pretend milk it. She picked apples, planted and picked vegetables. She did so much work she got money to spend at the country store. She got an apple and worked on it for the remainder of the evening. Hooray....for our Future Farmers!!! We will for sure make the fair a yearl...

So looky here everyone. I turned 31. Woo Woo!! Turning 31 was no big woop. Last year I can say that turning 30 was kinda a big deal, but from now on a birthday is just another candle in the cake. And if you are in my family you get as many candles that you can scrounge up around the house. This year was 3. Anyway, all the numbers in the 30's sound the same. I hear that the 30's are suppose to be the best. I can already feel these next few years are going to be some of my favorite memories had. I started motherhood in the 30's. What can be better than being a mom. NOTHING!!! Emmi has made our life complete. I thank God everyday for loving and trusting us enough to send us the most amazing and healthy daughter to us. I can't wait to enjoy a lifetime with her and others that will hopefully come. Cross our fingers. Brian and I got Grandma Jill to babysit while we went to the Gateway for me to do some Birthday shopping. No worries that Brian got off the hook this year from g...

Wow...I can't even tell you how much fun we have all had this summer. We have played and played. Last summer was fun, but this summer rocked! Emmi is getting so much fun I can't even stand it. I can't believe that those hot summer nights have come to an end. I am so sad to see it slowly slip away. Everyone keeps talking about how they love these cooler days, but to be honest I don't like them one bit. I just know that it means that winter is around the corner. But, for now I am not going to even think about the cold. I am going to enjoy the last of the warm days and then the nice crisp fall days. We will continue to be outside until it gets too cold. And watch out Ella.....we will be at your house enjoying your nice playroom.

So you may all ask, "why would you get a trampoline when you just have a 1 year old?" Believe me my 1 year old jumps. In fact Emmi sits at the back door yelling, "I jump", and if you ignore her she proceeds to ask the next person until someone takes her out there. We find ourselves out there at least 3 times a day getting our exercise. Mainly her. Wow does she live for jumping. Maybe we should give her up so she can be a world class olympian doing the trampoline routine. Just kidding Emmi we could never give you up. Thank you Aunt Shanni for our favorite toy....The Tramp!!

Ok so I have been trying to change my blasted blog template cause I was getting quite bored of the one I had. I hear from everybody that it is a piece of cake. So, I finally find one that I like and I try to download it. First I keep getting all these error messages. I then download firefox and voilla it works and I get my new template. But, being the kind of person I am I wasn't fully satisfied with the template so I thought, "lets try another one". I did and my whole crapping sidebar disappeared with all of my blog links. I even thought oh no big deal I saved them all, but oh no I happened to have saved it wrong so I am pretty much screwed and now I have to go back and set up all my blog links again. PLEASE HELP.....if any of you know how to make this any easier I would love your advice.

This year we opted out of the Days of 47' Parade AGAIN! I don't think we will ever find ourselves there because Brian thinks parades are lame, and I really don't enjoy baking in the sun for hours hearing Brian complain about how much wasted time and money it is to make these elaborate floats. The cool thing about this 24th was that Uncle Brett, Brian's youngest brother, was scheduled to come home from his mission in Montreal Canada late on the 23rd. We had this huge WELOME HOME family BBQ planned for the 24th. Tons of activities, and water toys were set up for all of us to enjoy. But, his flight got cancelled to the next night due to weather issues. So, here we all were having this party in honor of the missionary who wasn't there. This is the best part of the story. At about 7:00 pm we are all sitting down enjoying our nice BBQ'd hamburger and we get a phone call. Not kidding it is Brett saying, "HELLOOOOO....... I am at the airport. Come and get me"....

Our yearly trip up to Jeremy Ranch this year was actually really fun. Usually we are cracking the jokes about going up the canyon 15 minutes to "watch TV". We think it is so lame, and usually don't call it a vacation. But I have to admit this year was great. The sleeping conditions were rough, but other than that we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. In the evenings it would cool off so we enjoyed evening walks and nightly hot tub trips. ahhhh!!! Emmi loved swimming, feeding the fish, saying "hi" to the moose, being with kitty 24/7, waking up to Grandma and Grandpa, and eating like a queen. Ella, Emmi's best friend even came up for the day to go swimming. Wow, was that a treat!!! Here are a few pics of the week.

I signed up for an online card sending service. It is the coolest thing I've seen in quite a while. I have always sent thank you cards, baby congrats, birthday cards, etc., but it is so expensive to buy the card and then take the time to write and get it into the mail. Now I can do it for all occasions easier, faster and for less money. There are thousands of cards to pick from or you can even design your own card with your own pictures. SWEET! If you want to try the system you can click on this link and you can send a couple of cards on me. It is really easy and just plain fun. Send out a spontaneous card to someone you are thinking of right now. You will be surprised how good you feel keeping up with family, friends and coworkers. Let me know what you think. I am so excited to keep in better contact with other people and I hope to inspire others to do the same. http://www.sendoutcards.com/inspiresomeone

EMMI and ELLA Two peas in a pod Ella lives up the street and Emmi says they are best friends. We ask Emmi who her best friend is and she says, "Ella". (Grandma Jill taught her that one) Wow have these two had a blast this summer together. They share everything, and play almost everyday. Ella is six months older than Emmi, but I can say that Emmi sure tries to keep up with Ella. Things they love to do together: swim wagon rides park adventures share sippy cups eat snacks play with each others toys talk jibberish and say each others names over and over

To make Emmi happy all you need to do is give her an avocado. Don't try to take it away or you will see some serious attitude. We are just grateful that avocado is available all year round. What would we do without AVOCADO! SHE IS IN LOVE!

Now I don't feel like a total failure as a mom. I finally got some pictures taken of Emmi. My cousin took them with her new professional camera. Thanks Heather. I have been having fun in photoshop with them. Granted Emmi was sick in these pictures, but hey I would never have pictures if I found a time she was well. Is summer ever going to come?????????????