One Year

I can't believe it's been a whole year since my beautiful baby girl was born.  I can't even put into words the profound change that she has had on my life.  I can honestly say parenthood is the hardest, all encompassing, most rewarding thing I've ever done.  I hope some day she will know how much her father and I love her.


 I put together some of my favorite memories of her first year.  (Turn on your sound) Enjoy!

Happy Easter

This year was Ryder's first Easter and we were very excited about it! (I tried really hard to make last year her first Easter, but she wasn't having it.)  We dyed eggs the night before.  Ryder is still a little too young to appreciate the delicate condition of the egg, but I appreciate her trying to help.


Notice she can't even keep her hands off the eggs long enough for me to get a picture.


The next morning we got up and presented her with her first Easter basket.


Naturally the first thing she went for was the snacks.  But who can blame her?!  Those dissolvable baby treats are just tasty delicious!


Here she notices that there are indeed other things in her basket, but she doesn't dare put down the treats.  Perfectly acceptable behavior in our house.  I can't tell you how many times I've had some delightful morsel ready to eat and I turn around and either Mike or one of the dogs have eaten it...

Along, with her treats she also got sidewalk chalk, sand pail and shovel, big bouncy ball, and my personal favorite, bubbles!  None of which she cared even remotely about.

But guess who did? (Besides me)




Roxy and I are easly amused.  We don't get out much.

So after that we got dressed in our Easter finest (sort-of), and went over to my parents home.


And now if you'd like to take notes I will walk you through the 3 stages of the Easter egg hunt.

1. Alarm with a touch of disgust.


2. Wary curiosity.


3. Begrudging acceptance.


It was a day of good times, good food, and good fun.  It doesn't get any better than that! 

Xoxo,

Emily

Spring!!

Last Sunday Mike and I had the opportunity to take Ryder out to Liberty Park with some friends.  It was a fabulous sunny day and there was fun to be had by all!  Did you know that they have a ferris wheel, carousel, dangerous death trap looking swings and a childrens airplane ride?!  Me either.  It was a delightful discovery.



Ryder was born with a "need for speed" if you will, so she was pretty excited about all the rides.  Mike says she demonstrated really good form on this horse and will probably grow up to be a great horseback or bull rider.  (Mike has this bizzare, only going to happen over my dead body fantasy, of Ryder growing up to be the first female professional bull rider.  Take a minute to get your laughter under control before you continue.)



Ry was too small to ride the planes, but her future husband Carter seemed to enjoy them!



She settled for this old fashion manual push swing.  Some day she hopes to live in a world where no one has to push you on the swings because they magically do it for you.  We can all dream a little can't we?



Here she is loving the slide.  She said it would've been better if Mike would let her go by herself so she could go faster, but you know how dad's can be...



All in all it was a great day and we can't wait to do it again! 


Xoxo,

Emily

Happy Valentines Day

I made Ryder this tutu a while ago and I've been waiting for an occasion to dress her up in it.  Finally Valentines Day rolled around and I felt like I could justify dressing her up like she was a doll!



So I set up a little photo shoot and had these great thoughts of all the spectacular home-made Valentine's I was going to make.  Everyone was going to ooh and ahh and it was going to be fantastic.  Going to be.  However as is often the case in my life I had good intentions that just never came to fruition.  Please  imagine you just received these darling pictures on an ornately designed hand made card...







As you can see the cards would have been down right precious had I actually taken the time to make them.  Don't worry next year I will definitely think about following through!




Xoxo,

Emily

And They Call The Thing A Rodeo

2 weeks ago Mike had a date with destiny.  He rode a bull.  A real live, giant, monstrous, fire-breathing bull.  (oh wait maybe I'm thinking of a dragon...) 

On Monday we headed out to the Spanish Fork fair grounds (or something like that) and met Seth. (Mike's friend and co-worker who gave him the brilliant idea to get on the beast.)  After a good 5 minute lesson they decide that he a 30 year old man was ready to do something that most in this industry start doing at a young age and spend years perfecting and training for.  It all seemed very logical at the time. 
Here is doin' some learnin'

After Mike took the time to educate himself on the art of the bull ride he had the privelage of watching about 15 people before him get thrown and almost trampled to death.  Yay for building confidence!

Finally the big moment arrived and he saddled up El Diablo (that's what the bulls name is in my mind) and held on for dear life.

(sorry it was freezing there and I was shivering, and he was moving really fast, and my lens didn't have an image stabilizer on it.  I think you still get the main idea)

El Diablo shot out of the gate like a bat out of hell and Mike held on for a good solid 2 seconds...more or less.  Which is 2 seconds more than I would ever like to spend on El Diablo!

On the second buck Mike was tossed to the ground like a rag doll.  Luckily he's pretty quick on his feet and he had the good sense to get up and run.

And that is what my friend Garth Brooks likes to call a rodeo.

Here is what it looks like when you spend 2 seconds on El Diablo.  Damn you El Diablo, damn you to hell! 

The moral of this story is riding bulls hurts and you should not try this unless you are a trained professional.  Or you have 5 minutes of "training" from someone who used to be a professional.  The End.

Xoxo,

Emily

P.S.

Yes there is a video of this momentous occassion, but currently my video camera is being a worthless piece of crap and it will not load on the computer.  I will be sure and post it as soon as I get it figured out.

Christmas

Well another magical Christmas has come and gone.  As much as I love the holidays I must admit that I am a bit relieved that the chaos has passed and things are starting to get back to "normal".  Let's take a jog down memory lane and review shall we?

Let's start on Christmas Eve at the annual Ottley Christmas Extravaganza!  This year we were at Kolette and Kenny's house and a good time was had by all.  See the Christmas cheer on everyone's face?

Now Grammy does not take Christmas carols lightly and every year she holds several practices before the big day.  There are all sorts of musical instruments, sheet music and harmonies to be attended to so that we can all sound damn darn comparable to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Please enjoy the following images of the family singing.

"you go girl!"

fa la la la la la la la la

"let's sing the next song in a round!"

Even the infants and children are required to know their parts so they don't bring the rest of us down.

Now please enjoy more images of people "singing".

And now for a section I like to call "Precious moments at the Ottley Family Christmas Eve Extravaganza 2009".  Rolls right off your tongue doesn't it?

And now for a brief intermission before the next part of our program which will include Christmas Eve at home with the Mendenhall's.  Please be sure to turn off all cell phones and be in your seat before the curtain rises.

{Please hum an elevator version of Jingle Bells now}

.... jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way...

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Ok and we're back!  I would like to set this up by reminding you that all these pictures are Christmas Eve after the Ottley Family Extravaganza.  You're probably wondering why we're opening presents on Christmas Eve and not on Christmas morning. Well that's because my darling husband Mike has never been able to contain his excitement and wait until the morning so we always end up opening them the night before.  I even have to go so far as to hide his presents at my parents home because he can't be trusted and will open anything he finds immediately.  But I digress and this is a subject we shall approach another time. So on with the show!

Sugar and Roxy politely taking their presents.

Sugar about 45 seconds later after she has literally opened her presents.

As you can see Ryder made out quite nicely and I think she really enjoyed the variety or beautiful wrapping paper I chose.

I'm sorry did you think this was the end?  Yeah... it's not.  Now let's mozy on to Christmas morning!

We started off bright and early at the Chavez household.  And I do mean early!  Notice that it is still pitch black outside.

Crap I just realized I left out one of the best parts that happened between the Ottley Extravaganza and Mendenhall presents madness...  Do you think I should start all over from scratch or just insert that part here?  Huh, you say you don't care.  Fine.

Ok, ok wait one second.  Rewind in your mind and pretend that you're still reading about Christmas Eve.   I must say that this year my dad proved that the old saying is true and with age comes wisdom.  This year he thought of a fantastic gift for my mom...all...by...himself.  Seriously.

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Meet Daisy.

Ok where were we?  Oh yes Christmas morning.

Good thing my mom is pretty good at picking out gifts as well.

Remember the thrill of opening socks?  Me too.

Now let's fast forward (because this post is getting freaking long and I want to go to bed) a ways and go over to Mike's family.

I think this look on Chloe's face pretty accurately describes how I was feeling too.

Ok now we're going back to the Chavez home to finish off the day.

Alrighty then.  So to round off the day Josh and Nate had a "jam session" with the bongos and guitar, there was some Beatles Rock Band played, and lots of family bonding.

We laughed, we cried, we were getting ready to call it a day when something really special happened.  Are you ready for this?  Gather your family around close and try to vividly picture this in your mind.

 I'll set the scene for you.  Ryder and I are sitting on the couch and the whole family is in close quarters playing on the Wii.  My 8 year old brother Jake is close by and couldn't be happier.  What a perfect day, surely nothing could put a damper on our Christmas Spirit.  Then it happened.

Ryder straight up puked all over the place.  Like Linda Blair from The Exorcist projectile vomit.  I was covered, Ryder was covered, my mom's hair was covered and just a splash got on Jake.

You know that scene in the movie Stand By Me where they're at the fair and one kid pukes and it starts a chain reaction?  Yeah that totally happened.  Jake took off running down the hall dry heaving but he didn't quite make it to the bathroom.

Fortunately Jake and Ryder are the only ones that lost their Christmas dinner that night, I fear it could have been much worse.  What a fond Christmas memory that is.  I still smile whenever I think of it.  I'm sure Jake does too.

If you made it this far I'd like to congratulate you on a job well done and say you deserve some sort of prize.  I don't have one to give you, but I think you deserve one.  So until next year, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Xoxo,

Emily