Random Sampler

Today I feel like posting but I'm not sure what to post. So here is an assortment of recent thoughts and news items:
1. I wish I was an eloquent writer. My excuses for being a boring writer (I haven't taken a writing class since 2003! and I graduated from college two years ago! and I taught middle school for the last two years of my life, where the writing is anything but inspiring!) are moot, since many of the people whose writing I admire could make the same excuses. But I want to get better, and I'm excited for a forum to improve: Mommy Salon. Thanks to Alicia and Kristy for inviting me.
2. I cut my hair. It's really not much shorter or more layered than my last haircut, but this time I got bangs. Help! I haven't figured out how to style them yet. Mind you, these are "side bangs," the kind that are supposed to stay effortlessly swept to the side of your face. Any tips?
3. Cassie hit what I think was a growth spurt this weekend. I fed her every hour on Friday and nearly as much on Saturday. Crazy kid! I like her a lot.
4. Trevor and I got married around Christmas time, and as part of a gift basket for our wedding, someone gave us red and green Christmas-tree shaped pasta. I didn't make it after we got married, because, well, it wasn't Christmas season anymore. Then I forgot that it was sitting in our pantry. Months ago, Trevor pointed to it and accused me of being the kind of person that would only make Christmas pasta in December. Well, I WAS the kind of person that would only make Christmas pasta in December...until now! Trevor came home from a meeting on Saturday to find said pasta boiling on the stove. Eat that! (pun intended)

Milestones

Everyone says time flies when you have a new baby, but I would have readily disagreed with that about two months ago at 3 am. Now that Cassie sleeps regularly at night, time is definitely flying. It's crazy to think about how many milestones Cassie has reached in one month! Here are a few.

The bi-annual Cropper family reunion was held at a cabin outside Grace, Idaho a few weeks ago. It was a BIG cabin, but my mom's family is BIGGER. I have 36 cousins, 28 of us are married, and most of us have kids...suffice it to say there were plenty of little ones running around, and lots of people were outside in tents. And now for Cassie's first milestone: sleeping in a cabin full of noisy people just as well as she sleeps at home, (drumroll, please) even with no doors between rooms. She's a champion.

Here she is bundled up for the Cropper family talent show- her first night in the mountains!
She also survived an evening around the campfire, a horse-drawn carriage ride, and a chuckwagon dinner up the canyon.

Another milestone: Cassidy Taja Hawkes is now officially on the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And she looked stunning in her Aunt Taja's blessing dress, I must say.




















We're thinking about dumping the name "tummy time" for a more appropriate description: "fist-sucking time." Let's be honest with ourselves, that's what it really is these days. Here is one of the more impressive displays of fist-sucking: (doesn't it sound like an Olympic sport?)


Cassie has also started talking this month and is quite the conversationalist. She knows how to keep your interest and she isn't afraid to let you know how she really feels. If you're okay with hearing my cheesy baby talk, check out this sample: (she gets a tad grumpy near the end)



Cassie has discovered a new "friend" in the mirror! She gets excited when she sees herself and usually grins...and when her friend grins back, it triggers another grin, etc. We captured it on video:



Can you tell how long and thin she is? She's in the 95th percentile for height and 43rd for weight. Don't ask us how she got to be that shape, it simply baffles us. :) Maybe she'll be a model someday. Check out her latest fashion statement: bunny slippers!
And while we're mentioning milestones, let's just throw out one of Trevor's: current record holder for number of water balloons caught at the traditional Cropper family water balloon launching activity. Seriously, he was amazing.

Happy July!

July was an eventful month for us! We headed to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July, which also happens to be our niece Aubrey's birthday. We spent the day with Trevor's family and saw some great fireworks (IF puts on a good show! Check it out sometime.)
In the middle of the month, we bid farewell to our dear friends the Farnsworths. They left for Texas so Jake could begin grad school, but only after some appropriate partyin'. We all met at the Crockett's for pizza, then the girls watched So You Think You Can Dance while the boys played Star Wars: Epic Duels. Classic. We already miss them.
Then we headed off to Oakley (Trevor's hometown in Idaho) for their Pioneer Day Celebration. (For all you non-Utahns, it's a state holiday on the 24th of July...and Oakley celebrates it, too.) Trevor and two of his brothers played in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and basically whomped on all the other teams they played (except 2). They were exhausted after 8 games, but really they were awesome. We also enjoyed a family reunion and a cousin's wedding reception, where we got to see lots of other babies. :)

Update on Cassie: She is smiling a lot more (for real!) now and she's doing a pretty good job of sleeping through the night. We discovered that she sleeps a lot better when she's close to us, so we moved her Pack 'n Play next to our bed. It's working out well so far. She sleeps really well when it's noisy: so far she's slept through two fireworks shows and one parade. She's alert more often and is finally big enough to fit into most of her 0-3 month clothes. Yay!

Tagged

What was I doing 10 years ago:
Lots of fun summer activities: Girl's Camp and CJH Madrigals boating trips stand out

What is on my to-do list for today?
Go to Macey's
Make chicken salad and fill croissants
Baby shower for a friend :)
Clean part of the computer desk (what a mess!)

What are 3 quirky habits of mine?
1. I always get out everything I need before I make any food...or ask Trevor to make any food. If I ask him to make juice, he'll go searching for the can and the pitcher, and I'll forget to tell him I already got them out.
2. I have to hug a pillow when I go to bed. The habit began in pregnancy and just stuck.
3. I quote "The Office" all the time.

3 Things You might not know about me:
1. I play the piano, the violin, and I sing- I took private lessons for 12 years, 8 years, and 7 years respectively.
2. I love to travel. I've been to most of the states in the U.S. (at least 32) and 8 foreign countries.
3. My nerdy passion is Broadway musicals. I love going to see them (in New York...or a local production if I can't make it to NYC), I have lots of Broadway music books, and I love to be in them, even though I'm not a very good actor.

Four Movies/TV shows I love:
1. The Office
2. So You Think You Can Dance
3. American Idol
4. That Thing You Do

Four Books I Love:
1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
2. The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan
3. The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
4. Children of the Dustbowl by Jerry Stanley

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Dick's Market Deli
2. Accompanist and musical director, Youth Theatre at the U (U of U)
3. Peer Mentor, Freshman Academy (BYU)
4. Choir Teacher, Dixon Middle School

Five Places I've Lived:
1. Houston, Texas
2. Centerville, Utah
3. Provo, Utah- 7 different apartments...does that count?

Five of My Favorite Foods:
1. Pasta- especially Carrabba's
2. Yogurt
3. Shrimp Tacos- Bajio
4. Chicken Green Chile Stuffed Quesadilla- Bajio
5. My mother-in-law's raspberry shakes...mmm!

Five Bloggers I'm Tagging:
Hmm...anyone who hasn't been tagged yet and really wants to do this, you are officially tagged!

All Smiles!

Cassie smiles a lot while she's falling asleep, and we've caught it on camera a few times! She's even started doing a little laugh in her sleep. She smiled at my mom last week while she was awake, but we're not sure it counts as a "real" smile, since she didn't seem to know what she was doing. Anyway, usually babies don't smile for real until about 6 weeks. We'll take the "fake" smiles until then. :)
She had just come out of a big smile on this one...And here's a yawn. :)One more- eyes open.Looks like we need to take pictures of Cassie with us- all of our photos in the last few weeks have been of just her.

Sweet, sweet baby

I'm sitting here with an adorable two-week-old baby asleep on my lap and thinking about how blessed I am. Really, I had so many worries and fears about having a new baby (everyone tells you their horror stories) and so many of them have disappeared. Some things I am thankful for:

• Cassie has brought so much love into our home! I love Trevor, he loves me, we love Cassie...yesiree. :) We definitely are a happy family.
• People are so NICE. So many people have been incredibly kind and thoughtful by offering to help, visiting, bringing meals, calling, etc. You know who you are- thank you!
• I feel grrrr-eat! (think Tony the Tiger) Honestly, I was afraid healing would be long and painful...but it's been quick and pretty painless!
• Cassie is really cute. Has anyone else ever feared having an ugly baby? Anyway, I'm really glad she's so stinkin' adorable- it makes all the hard things a little easier.
• Cassie is in a pattern of sleeping for two 4-hour blocks of time at night. I haven't done anything to deserve this blessing, but I sure am grateful for it.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks:

Here she is in her bouncy seat. The sleeper is a little too big...thanks to Jessica for bringing over a few more newborn-sized clothes!




Hmm...she already has some crazy sleeping positions! It's a little too hot to swaddle her, so sometimes we find her sleeping with her arms in strange places...













And here's what happens when I leave Trevor alone with her:Thanks, Kristy, for visiting with your adorable Kimball! It was great to have some company today.

She's Here!!

Okay, first of all, this is Trevor, not Emily. Although I thought I'd never say this, I have to admit that blogging has its place in certain situations, like when babies are born. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the videos. You probably won't see much more of my work on here, but I thought I'd save Emily some time since she's rather busy feeding the baby and trying to get some rest. I'll have her update you with her feminine touch as soon as she has a little more time. Enjoy!

This is the last pregnant picture we have of Emily.We decided to get a few self-taken pics just before leaving for the hospital late Wednesday night.

Here's Em, anxiously waiting for the medicine to kick in and do its job. She was started on Pitocin (sp?) at about 12:30 am on June 5th. She was given the epidural (sp?...obviously I haven't read up on these big words) at about 5:30. She was thinking she'd wait and have them give it to her when she couldn't stand the pain anymore. I told her it sounded courageous, but kind of pointless. She listened and was very glad. Progress was pretty slow. The doctors were thinking she'd probably have to have a C-section, but after she hit about 4 cm, things accelerated. By 3:30, it was time to start pushing. Em pushed a total of 24 times (8 contractions over about 15 minutes) before the baby was all the way out. I couldn't hardly believe she had actually been in there or that she would fit through.

This picture was taken just moments after she popped out. Here are the stats:

Weight: 9 lbs 3 oz
Length: 21 in (on her way to the WNBA, I hope)
Name: Cassidy Taja Hawkes
Background on the name:
Cassidy: we just liked the sound of it. We had narrowed it down to either Cassidy or Jenna several months ago, but Em thought that seeing her would make the decision easier. When I saw her, the name I had in mind was "Raisinette" or maybe "Lumpkin." She's looking more like Cassidy now. We actually plan to call her "Cassie," but Em thought it would be nice to have a bigger name for more formal occasions, or if she ever becomes a cowgirl.
Taja: that's my little sister's name. Emily and I have all brothers except Taja, and we really liked the name (and my sister).

Here's Cassie getting cleaned up. She started to look normal after they wiped all the stuff off of her.
This is actually the second time they weighed her. The first time, it read 9 lbs 2.5 oz, so they rounded up to 9 lbs 3 oz. This is similar to the way I get A's in school (when I get A's in school).
The new dad!

This is my favorite. Em was soooo excited to see her new baby, as you can see.
Emily was crying because she was happy, not because she was in pain or anything. She keeps insisting that she really didn't feel much pain at all the whole time and is just grateful to have had such a positive experience. We have lots more pictures and a couple of videos, but I'll just put a few random ones on here that hopefully show you what she looks like.

This is the first time I really got to see her opening her eyes much. We can't tell what color they'll be yet.
We had several visitors come and see us from both of our families. Here is Emily describing the size of Cassie's head. (She's not that far off.)
Awww, a new little family. On Friday, Emily observed, "Hey, I just realized she's already sealed to us." That was neat to think about.
No, I wasn't faking it. Labor and delivery is rough on moms and dads.
And finally, here's Cassie in her car seat, getting calmed down for the ride home. We'll keep you posted with more pics soon.