Special Occasions

There has been plenty of fun events going on this weekend to keep the Dangerfield family quite busy. First of all, on Friday morning Emma and I attended an Easter playgroup activity - Emma couldn't have had a better time! She just loved running around the lawn collecting Easter eggs full of candy! At first she kept stopping with each egg as she found them to open it and eat some of the candy. I told her to collect eggs first and then eat the candy, or she wouldn't get very far before they were all gone. Silly girl. ;) Well, she followed my advice and when she was finished collecting her eggs she plopped down on her own in the shade of a tree and started devouring her findings. She's cute. I'm always amazed at the number of children that show up to these activities. So many kids! And so many pregnant mommies! We used to tease at BYU about the on campus married housing being called "rabbit hill" as so many children were springing up out of nowhere! :) Well, I think this is definitely rabbit hill as well, wouldn't you say?


Friday was also Ben and my 5th year wedding anniversary. How exciting! Ben surprised me with some lovely flowers being delivered to our door. I felt so loved and appreciated. They are currently adorning our dining room table. Also, he gave me the loveliest of gifts - a pearl necklace and earrings. I feel so pretty in them. And I am so spoiled. Oh yes... and before I get to our date, I was able to drop Emma off with Ben's parents, who kept Emma overnight. So nice! Emily also helped out tremendously and watched Emma for a large portion of the evening while the grandparents were out at a dinner event. It's so nice to have family close by! So, for our romantic evening, Ben had made reservations at a great Italian restaurant located in the Hyatt Regency Resort. The food was really amazing! They even brought us a complimentary desert with "Happy Anniversary" written in chocolate along the top of the plate. :) How special. After dinner we had a gondola ride on the lake at the back of the resort. Our gondolier sang so beautifully... we were quite impressed. Anyway, the evening was really romantic; I couldn't have asked for more for our anniversary. Since Emma was at grandma's house, we were even able to sleep in this morning! What a treat! It was so weird and quiet. Emma wasn't brought back to us until about 11 this morning, so we really tried to relish in the peaceful moments. I don't think I realized how loud Emma is!

Also, to add to all of these events, my baby shower was today! I'm so lucky to have such nice friends. So many cute girls were able to come! Ben's mom and sister were also able to join us and I felt so cared for. :) We had the shower at Mimi's Cafe, where we were able to eat lunch and visit with each other. Everyone chipped in generous amounts of money to help me pay for the sit-and-stand stroller we're really wanting. Wow! What great friends! Emily and Carol also gave me some darling little Rebecca clothes. It reminded me of the big task I have ahead of me of going through Emma's old clothes and organizing them for the new arrival. I think I'll be quite busy the next few weeks.

Potty Training: Triumphs and Woes

Hello there! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything new. Sometimes I just run out of things to say, if you can believe that. :) I have been doing some things of note, however. The big news is that I've begun the dreaded potty training. Ugh! I must admit, I have NO IDEA what I'm doing! I started this past Thursday. Emma and I stayed home all day Thursday and Friday (we were driving each other crazy!). Not a whole lot of success those first two days, but on Saturday she really seemed to figure it out! I've discovered that Emma pees like every 30 minutes in the morning! I never really noticed before when she was in diapers, but now she just seems to constantly be needing to go to the potty. What a tiresome chore! Anyway, on Saturday she had one accident in the morning and then made it to the potty (on her own accord) the rest of the morning. She was getting lots of potty treats... she had quite a chocolate face. It is so rewarding to have her come tell me "potty, pee pee" and we go the bathroom, she pulls her underwear down all by herself, climbs up onto the big potty, and then wipes and flushes after doing her business with little assistance. She's quite good at washing her hands as well. What a joy to discover some independence in such a small little body. ;) In the picture to the right is Emma fashioning some classy big girl underwear. Well, Sunday we were out of the house much of the day between church and visiting Ben's parents house. I had her in a pull up during all of that and she rarely made it to the potty in time while we were out. In church, she kept saying she needed to go, but would never actually do anything once we got onto the potty... stage fright, maybe, from not being at home. The moral of the story is that this morning has been a challenge again, now that we're at home. It's hit and miss. I'm not sure if I just need to stay home for like a week until this really sinks in... will I have to 'start over' in a sense every time we get back home after being out for a while? I don't know. I'll just keep at it... we'll see where it goes. I suspect that once I have the baby, she'll regress anyway... but at least we'll have a foundation set.

Last week we went to the Zoo with lots of friends. Emma really loves the zoo. Her favorite has always been visiting the goats, an activity that I've mentioned before in a previous post. In the picture below are a couple of my many pregnant friends, Jodi and Jess. Anyway, we finally renewed our zoo pass, which had expired at the end of December. It will be nice to have this as an outing to take as much as possible. It's fun to visit the zoo in the summer time with the splash pad, so I look forward to the summer morning zoo adventures we'll be sure to take while toting around little baby Rebecca.

Tantrums and Toes

Nothing too exciting going on the past few days. We have gone swimming a couple of times this week at the apartment pool however. It's been much more comfortable than the last time we went since the weather has warmed up so much. Today when I went to Costco around 4, my car said the temperature was 101! Holy cow! Arizona is crazy... it's only March! Anyway, we got Emma a new swimsuit that fits her much better. She's so cute. So, on Monday the plan was to put Emma down for a nap and then Ben and I would take her swimming afterwards. We made the mistake of telling her about swimming beforehand... well, she was so distraught about having to nap, knowing that she could be at the pool. She freaked out about having to go to sleep! She kicked the the door and screamed for about 10 minutes. Then it just got quiet. I went to check on her and I found what you see in the picture above. She had fallen asleep on the floor while throwing a tantrum. What a goof. This whole thing really made me giggle, thus I got down on the floor and took a picture of the little Emma toes sticking out from under the door. She really keeps us entertained... even when she is being naughty.

Dressing down and dressing up...

Hello family and friends! We've had a lovely weekend! I love blogging when I actually have something fun to write about. :) On Friday night, Ben, Emma, and I went camping at Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was so much fun! The weather was awesome. Like I mentioned in the last post, it's really been warming up, so sleeping outdoors was quite comfortable. We put Emma to sleep in the tent (in her new pink sleeping bag) at about 8:00. Ben and I then spent the next couple of hours relaxing and chatting by the fire and playing several rounds of Rummy (Ben won... big surprise). It was a very pleasant overnight trip. We did run into somewhat of a predicament however. I woke up at midnight and had this horrible feeling that I had left our crockpot turned on back home. I really felt that I needed to go home and turn it off (it had been on for 15 hours!). Anyway, I woke up Ben and told him that I need to go home and take care of this little mishap. Luckily, our campground was only about 20 minutes away from our apartment. So, I drove home at 12 and got back at 1. It was a really good thing I went home too... the food in the crockpot was smoking a little and all the liquid was cooked out and all black. Goodness sakes! So, it was truly a blessing to have woken up and remembered it was left turned on. But, like I said already, our camping excursion really was great (other than my midnight drive home!). The next morning we cooked breakfast (scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, bagels, fruit, and juice... yum!) and then packed up and headed home. We got back at about 10.

That evening we went to the Spring Fling, a dance hosted by the school. It was held at the Arrowhead Country Club. We (Craig, Aubree, Matt, Jess, and Ben and I) went out for a quick dinner at Pei Wei and then headed over to the dance. It was so fun to socialize with our friends and get all dressed up. Heather Peck was hired as the professional photographer at the event, so we got lots of pictures taken (much better than the amateur photo I took below). She'll be posting them soon on her website for Little Things Photography. You'll also find that my maternity photos are located here as well. Oh, and for my family's sake, in the picture below from left to right are: Jess, Aubree, Heather, and Taya. Such good looking friends I have!

Finding fun amidst routine

So, back to old routines... Ben's Spring Break officially ended on Monday and he is back and forth to classes and getting back to studying (which isn't an easy thing to get started with again after having a week long break!). Not much has gone on this week, other than trying to get back into actually cleaning occasionally ;) I've been working quite a bit, however, on writing articles for my "job". It feels weird to think of it as much of a job, since it's all done at home, but it's so great to have a way to earn some extra cash! I recently started up working for a company called Alpha Placement. They help build websites for realty companies, in order to make them more 'search engine friendly'. Anyway, I was hired on as a freelance writer of sorts. They assign me cities in Arizona and provide me with a list of keywords to include. I then just write page long articles for each assignment that talk about the location, scenery, real estate options, and nearby attractions and schools. I get paid per article, so I'm working to get faster with each one, in order to get more money for my time. It's been fun and great writing practice! And I can do it all at home with no deadlines... I just work at my own pace. It's wonderful!


Ben, Emma, and I did try to go swimming on Tuesday afternoon. It's been warming up so much lately, we thought we'd go ahead and do something more active! Well, the apartment pool is usually heated, but it definitely wasn't when we went over; it was quite chilly. Emma kept attempting to get in the pool, but would get too cold. I just watched as Ben and Emma tried to get up the nerve to just jump in. It was funny. They ended up sitting in hot tub, with Emma up on the top step. It was an amusing attempt at an outing, even though it didn't really work out. Apparently it's going to really get hot this weekend! The high for Sunday is 92... woohoo! We may have to give the pool another chance. :) We also learned that Emma needs a new swimsuit. She was using the same one she wore all last summer... it's time to get a new one!

Spring Break!

Ben and I have been having a great week for his Spring Break. It's so fun to have him home to play! Yesterday was especially fun for we spent the day hiking and then out on a date in the evening. We hiked at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, which had many different trails... we opted to take the flat 3 mile loop trail since I tend to wobble around as it is and Emma is a crazy 2 year old. ;) We had a great time... it got a little hard with Emma since she wanted to really take her time picking up rocks and pointing out every single cactus along the way (saying "Owee!" every time she spotted one). But we completed the 3 mile hike and all got a lot of exercise!


Last night, Ben and I went on an awesome date! Our friends, Mike and Heather, so nicely watched Emma for us... hooray! For our evening together we quickly picked up some Panda for dinner and then went to see the amazing Bodyworlds exhibit. Ben's been wanting to see this for quite a while since it came to Phoenix, and it was great to finally get a chance to experience an awesome anatomy display. I learned a ton about the human body and was amazed at the intricate network of muscles and arteries and bones we are all made up of. There were also several displays of healthy vs. unhealthy organs, like a smokers vs. a non-smokers lungs. Anyway, overall this rather eye-opening exhibit made me appreciate my own body even more and how important it is to take care of it.

Oh, and just before going on our date, we stopped by the hospital to see Ryan and Taya and baby Ezra! Taya looked great (even after a 4 am delivery!) and their new little boy is just so cute and perfect looking. I am so excited for them! In the end, it just makes me even more excited to see baby Becca towards the end of April. I love little newborns!

Tomorrow we have plans to go the temple. A neighbor friend will be watching Emma for us. And on Saturday we will be having dinner with the Lee's and Emily has so graciously arranged a babysitter for that as well. Like I've mentioned many times before, I LOVE spending my days with my darling little Emma, but it is so fun to be able to get away for short amounts of time and spent it my cute Ben. :)