Utah: Week 2

So, we've continued to have a great time while here in Utah. Emma and Rebecca have especially been happy to get so much attention from grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Emma has been just talking up a storm and being so funny. Grandma Szymanski has been so nice to listen patiently to her chattering and play along as Emma paints her grandma's fingers and toes and attempts to do her hair with lots of detangler spray and ribbons.

We had a Chinese New Year celebration this week - it was especially fun to have Peter and Lacy come join us in the festivities. The evening consisted of Pei Wei (it doesn't get any more authentic than that!!), rice candy, fortune cookies, red paper lanterns (making them brought back memories of elementary school!), and money in red envelopes. Emma really enjoyed hunting for loads of coins - in fact, this evening she used some of it to buy ice cream at IKEA; she bought a cone for herself and one each for Ben and I... what a generous little girl she is! Eating rice candy was a first for me - it was actually really yummy! Each of the boxes came with a temporary tattoo, which we all proudly wore. Mine actually had Chinese characters, but everyone else's were pretty random. After putting Emma to bed, we played Curses - a game that Peter and Lacy brought up for us to play - it was a real riot. My face hurt afterwards from all the grinning and laughing.

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On Saturday we visited our friends, Eric and Kristi. It had been a long time since we had seen them. The last time we hung out with them, their little girl was only like 6 months old. Now she is 2 1/2 and they also have a little 7 month old boy, who is a real cutie (and, although 3 months younger, looks to be twice the size of tiny Becca!). We spent the afternoon eating lunch, chatting, playing with the kids, and rocking out with Guitar Hero. Ben and I totally are wanting to get it now! I thought it was even more fun than DDR, and I love that game too! Anyway, it was a great way to spend our Saturday and it was so fun to see their cute family. Come on Eric and Kristi - you know you want to move to Arizona!! ;)



Emma and Becca were really cute on Sunday wearing their matching Valentines dresses, which you can see in the picture at the top (both dresses were presents from their Grandma Dangerfield). And speaking of Valentines, we are anxiously anticipating this lovely holiday. I've deliberated in the past about why I enjoy Valentines Day - I think it's so fun. We've already spent a good amount of time making Valentines for family and friends. I love hearts and candy and cheesy I love you messages. Tomorrow we'll be having a Valentine exchange among our family, in an effort to make the holiday a little more fun for Emma, despite the fact that she doesn't have all her little Arizona friends to exchange Valentines with. It should be amusing - I'll be posting about that and other fun birthday celebrations at the end of the week. My sister, Sarah, turns 19 tomorrow and Emma (as well as her Uncle Peter) turns 3 on Saturday! And speaking of birthdays, Becca turned 10 months old today!! Can you believe it!! She's hardly any bigger than she was when she came out of me. Eeek! ;) And she still doesn't have any teeth! Where are the teeth?! Well, despite her toothless smallness, she continues to grow cuter and cuter everyday and we just LOVE her!