Photo Soot with Aunt Emily

Playing on Mimi and Papa's slide...
Rebecca loves to smell flowers. It's adorable when she sniffs them.
How big is Rebecca? SOOooooo big!!

Me and my sunshine...
Here she is with cousin Natalie. She is SUCH a cute baby. I love her! Here is Rebecca "petting" her...

Check out more photos on Emily's Photo Blog! I can't stop looking at my whole CD of pictures. I'm trying to choose which ones to frame. Almost impossible. She was so good at catching those shots of our VERY busy Rebecca. If all ya'll even knew half of the shenanigans Emily had to go through to get these shots, you would be even more impressed than you already are. She is amazing. We has so much fun :)

Happy 97th Grandma!!

Just look how cute she is! I love her so much, and even though she doesn't have the greatest short-term memory at this time in her life (asking many times, "Who are you again? and then, "Oh yah!") I still feel so good just being around her. She is one of the most self-less and sweet people I have ever known. I have such good memories of living close to her as a child and visiting for Sunday dinner or going over to swim at her neighborhood pool in the summer time. She loved, and still loves, to have her grandkids around. She made THE BEST sweetrolls. Yum! And always collected her change to give to us so we could buy a pop at the swimming pool. I love you, grandma! Happy Birthday!Four Generations (taken last summer):

Child Labor

When I was little, my parents gave me chores and responsibilities. On occasion, I worked with a bad attitude ;) On those days, I was convinced that my parents only had kids so they wouldn't have to do the all work. I couldn't wait to have kids of my own so they could do the work! Well, now we have little Rebecca. Here she is doing the yard work. Luckily, she has a great attitude. See how happy she is:She's very good with the equipment:

She also enjoys doing the laundry. She takes out the wash:
And don't you just love it when the clothes come out of the dryer and they're all warm? Rebecca does too:
Now it's time for sorting and folding! I told her that if she makes the folds neat, we will go for ice cream later.
What a great kid we've got! Now Jorg and I have plenty of time for those hobbies we had previously set aside. Like, playing Mario 3 on the Nintendo Wii. Thanks, Rebecca!

Little Wendover

We took a little road trip with our little family to a little place called Wendover! Doesn't that sound exciting?? It was very exciting. Yes, it really was. Don't believe me? Well, I'm sorry. You just had to be there! We took the scenic route through Eagle Mountain. It was cool to behold the flip-side of the mountains we see daily.
Here we are at our destination in Wendover. This picture didn't work out as we planned, but I think it's neat-o with our reflections on the hood.
We ate at the Peppermill buffet. It was pretty good (better than I thought it would be). Jorg "got lost going to the restroom" and I think he won a dollar. I told you it was exciting!

Here are the Salt Flats.

And near the end of our trip. Behold...the rainbow!!

Rebecca slept most of the way (thank goodness) because when she was awake, she was a little ornery. Except when she was showing off at the buffet. She is a very cute and friendly girl. She was the only baby in the casino. Can you imagine? People don't take their children to casinos! What a crazy world :)

We like it!!

P.S. We also saw "floating mountains" from our car window. Here is the explanation from Wikipedia. It was an amazing sight!
"Each rainfall erases tire marks and flattens the densely-packed salt pan that is inhospitable to plants. The area is extremely flat and aligned nearly perfectly with the shape of Earth, allowing visitors to see the curvature of the planet by producing an optical illusion that makes many of the mountains within the vicinity appear to be floating in the air since their bases are on the other side of the curve and thus out of sight."

Adelaide

She's here! My cousin, Marianne, had her baby on Sunday. Excellent birthing, Maroo! She is gorgeous. Congratulations Mar and Jesse!

Uncle Laner...

...has returned! You can see more photos on Em and Jon's blog! It's so good to have him back! I love you soooooooooo, Tumness Laner Sunshine! And I'm very proud of my brother :)

Meeting Uncle Laner: "Hey mom, he's even more handsome than that picture I kiss before bed every night!"

And this picture makes me really happy. We're all together again, horray!!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Tante Berit

Happy Birthday, Aunt Berit!

Rebecca moechte Tante Berit ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG WUENSCHEN. Sie freut sich sehr, dass Tante Berit immer an sie denkt und sie hat sich sehr ueber die Postkarte aus Mexiko gefreut, die 32 Tage unterwegs war!

Deutschland by: Jorg

I just got back from a business trip in Germany. It was so cute to see Emily and Rebecca at the Airport. I got lots of presents for them.

In the picture you see the future soccer star for Germany in the World Championships 2027!

Woof!

"Look, mom! Some dogs!" Here's our girl this past Monday at the local grocery store. She's my little buddy. We like it!

What's she doing?

That's what Jorg and I asked each other when we saw Rebecca doing this:We bought her the ball a week ago at the grocery store. We have been teaching her how to play "pass" and bouncing it around.
So, see that black exercise ball (in the picture below)? Jorg and I sit on the ball and roll over it (stretching, doing sit-ups, or just for fun) all the time. It seems our baby found herself an exercise ball just her size! When we realized what she was doing, we laughed so hard!
And then we got out the camera. Oh, how we love her!

Saturday Hike

We went up to Slate Canyon for a hike! We like it! It's my old stomping grounds. I lived just below the canyon as a single gal, in Mar and Jesse's condo (renting), with Kim and Abby! I loved living there. And it was fun to take the same path I took many times, with my two sweethearts. It's crazy where life takes you (me, in this case). Crazy! And, I might add...very, very pleasant.

Alphabet Soup

A to Z Tag

I got tagged by my cute and talented new cousin, Laura (the wife of Pete)!

Attached or Single: Attached to the sweet lovin' of Jorgi Smorgi
Best Friend: Starts with a 'J' ends with an 'orgi Smorgi'
Cake or Pie: Just make it chocolate and I'm there.
Day of Choice: Saturday. I love Saturday. I like the life of leisure. I rarely shower on Saturday and I don't get dressed until after noon, if I can help it!
Essential Item: diaper bag. Plenty of binkie's. (She was off the "bink-a-bink" except for sleeping. Until last week when she got sick. The bink is back.) and I also feel weird leaving the house without wearing some kind of jewelry. I do love my accessories!
Favorite Color: light blue (with pink accents - like polka dots or flowers or something)
Gummy Bears or Worms: both. But if it's gummy bears, make them cinnamon and covered in chocolate. I like the ones at the BYU bookstore.
Hometown: Orem, Utah
Indulgences: The 'suitcase of joy' containing Jorg's imported German deliciousness. I help myself on unrare occasions.
January or July: July. I love the Freedom Festival at Provo. And the Stadium of Fire. When I was a kid, the 4th of July was like Christmas. I would get so excited, I couldn't sleep the night before.
Kids: I love to squish their little cheeks! They're wise and fresh and funny. I love being a teacher (I have only one month left and signed my letter of resignation today. Crazy!) and I LOVE being a mom. Jorg and I hope to be blessed with 4-5 cuties. Though we are so happy with ours right now, it's hard to be motived to have more. But don't worry, we will!
Life is incomplete without: family and eternal perspective
Marriage Date: March 17, 2006
Number of Siblings: 2 sisters, 3 brothers, 2 new sisters, and 1 new brother (in-law).
Oranges or Apples: both
Phobias or Fears: not really
Quote: "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never get bent out of shape!" also, "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" -President Hinklay
Reason to Smile: REBECCA. Oh Rebecca, How I love your smiles and huggies and enthusiasm for life!
Something New: Our house
Tag: Mel, Janee, Melis, Heidi, Lori, anyone else who wants to do this. It's fun!
Unknown Fact About Me: I have a magnet collection and I try to pick one up whenever I go on a vacation.
Vegetarian or Oppressor Of Animal: I like meat, yes I do!
Worst Habit: Sometimes I talk too much when I'm excited
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I've had both. I broke my pinkie finger (well, my brother Lane broke it while we were wrestling).
Your Favorite Food: German chocolate, any ice cream, Cafe Rio salad
Zoo Animal: I once watched a cute Polar Bear at the San Diego Zoo, with my family, for close to an hour. Any of you remember that? He was under water and there was a window. He was playing with a ball. It was just the cutest thing!

I Can't Get Enough

Of our birthday girl! She has been sick the entire week. I feel so bad for her. And I also feel bad for the parents (that's us). How do you parents deal with sick kids?? We only have one. I can only imagine what it's like with more! It's like she's a newborn all over again. She wants to be held all of the time and wakes up tons in the night. She's on the mend (thankfully). She has been smiling more and whining less. We take that as a good sign.

Here are the rest of the pages from her birthday. Again, my camera isn't that great (it may be time for an upgrade?) so the pictures are kind of dark. I fixed them the best I could. I love that cake face :)

Her first Cell Phone Call

Maybe I am just biased, because I am her Dad: She was playing with the cell phone while I made a fake phone call. She looked at us and when Emily said: Hello, she took the cell phone to her mouth and started talking. WE just said: Wow, and I got the camera and she did it again. One day after her first birthday. What a baby!

Happy Birthday, Baby

Here's a shot of our birthday princess from this morning. Jorg and I had THE BEST time watching her excitement. She loved her presents and it was darling. (I made the tutu. Thanks Meghan!)
We went to the zoo! It was too fun to make these zoo pages. I'm totally tired, but I just really wanted to work on them tonight. Thanks to Jorg for making disk space for the pix! We like it!
More photos to come (including the classic cake face).

Is this for real?

This birthday ticker has been on our sidebar tracking Rebecca's age for a year now. Sometimes I checked it just to see how many days she was into a month. I will miss this ticker and I will miss our tiny baby even more! I can't complain though, because our toddler is just adorable :) We had a fun day! Unfortunately we are out of disk space for pictures. But fortunately my husband is Jorg. This problem won't last too long and soon we will have some pictures. I'm too excited.

Update: Apparently it keeps ticking! Now I don't have to delete it.

FAME

In the past week or so, our girl made it onto a few other blogs. Way to go Rebecca! I always knew she would do us proud. Check it out! Here she is playing with cute Sophie, hangin with the Sloan gals, and at Natalie's blessing. We love our friends and family!

Also, here are some cute pictures taken over Spring Break in Park City. My camera isn't the best, but oh well. We had a great time! And it was fun to see the babies together. And lastly, Happy (is it 49th?) Birthday to my mom! Mom, you are such a good example to me and I'm thankful for you and blessed to have you as my mommy and friend, every day! I love you!

I will add that we also made it to Brigham City last Saturday! We had yummy German food and a great time with Omi and Grandpa Jim. Here is Rebecca riding her trike there.

Mobility Update

She walks! Last month she learned to get up onto her knees and one leg (down on one knee) from the middle of the floor. And she could walk around with support. Then she learned to stand on her own - without holding onto anything. Just in the center of the room. And she started taking a few steps here and there. Now she can take up to 12 wobbly steps at a time! She pops up and down, goes from walking, to crawling, and back to walking, in one trip across the room. It is so cute to watch.

Here she is yesterday afternoon pushing around the baby stroller. She's pretty fast with that. You can see in one of the movies how she gets up and takes some steps on her own.

Sunshine is So Fine

I don't have time to write much because I have to hurry and shower before my cutie wakes up. We are headed to Park City with my family for Spring Break! Jorg will meet us on Friday. Here are some pages I just finished.

'Lil Cutie Wootie

Silly Part III

Rebecca loves giving "huggies"! She has also been making this funny face lately, scrunching up her nose and breathing really hard...


Here's our cutie real close-up just playing with the laundry :)

I Wanna Talk About Me !

I wanna talk about me, I wanna talk about i

Wanna talk about number 1 oh my, me, my,

What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see.

I like talkin about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally

I wanna talk about me! (me, me, me,) I wanna talk about me-e-e. (me, me, me)

That song started going through my head when Abster tagged me to write 10 random things about myself. So, just to be "silly" (as I often am) I'm going to breakdown my randomness, Toby Keith style!

What I Think
1. I remind myself of "Kelly". Jorg and I have been watching The Office a ton. We discovered it back in December and have now seen every episode (thanks to the fact that we don't have T.V. in our new place and we do have Netflix. I love Netflix - so does Kelly). Kelly is a TOTAL ditz. I can't believe how many times I've heard her say things that I say myself. Last night I heard her say, "I told Ryan (blah blah blah), but in my HEAD, I was like (blah blah blah)." I use the "in my head" phrase all the time. Or there's the episode about how some people in the office have a bet on how many times Kelly will say "awesome" in one conversation. Just the night before I watched that one, I was at the Relief Society Birthday dinner and realized I was saying "awesome" too much and made a mental note to add new adjectives to my vocabulary. And sadly, there are other examples that I won't list.

What I Like
2. One of my favorite things is going out to lunch (with friends or family). I really don't care what the food is. As long as I can sit down and talk, talk, talk with a good friend (I also like to talk...and listen) and I don't have to clean up after!
3. I like The Little House on the Prairie.I've read all of the books.
I watched the T.V. show when I was little - It was on right before "The Flinstones". Mary was so pretty and Laura had the most fun adventures.
I also enjoyed it in college - I woke up 20 minutes early so I could watch the reruns before class.
I realized I wanted to marry me someone with character, brains, and brawn like Charles Ingalls. And I did!
4. I like Jorg.

What I Know
5. This life is short. It's so easy for me to get distracted from the important things. It's time for me to "choose the better part", and refocus with this goal each day.
6. "A smart [woman] learns from [her] mistakes. A wise [woman] learns from the mistakes of others." This is true.

What I Want
7. A body with less curves (My Hips Don't Lie!). I wanna feel good in my skin. I know what I need to do to get there...
8. I want my house walls painted with pretty colors! That will be fun.
(But truly, I have everything I ever really wanted in Jorg, Rebecca, and our future children.)

What I See
9. I've been getting back into novel reading. I slowed down for a while because I couldn't read while pregnant (book images were too vivid and I had weird dreams. It drove me nuts.) Then after Rebecca came, I was usually too tired when any free time presented itself. But now that I get more sleep at night, it's reading time! I've been loving anything by Shannon Hale,
Also, The Icing on the Cake. It's a cheesy mormon novel with only a hint of cheese. The main character is hilarious. LOVED this book),
I just started, Life of Pi.
And I, of course, read the "vampire novels". Twilight and New Moon were good. I pretended Jorg was a vampire. It was great. But Eclipse was too maddening to be enjoyed! I will read the fourth when it comes out, hoping that Bella will present herself with more redeemable qualities!

10. I see people's blogs! I am obsessed with checking my Google Reader to see what's new. This is one of the time suckers I want to cut back on. I do, do, do love seeing/reading about what's going on in people's lives! Keep the updates coming :) I'll just limit my "checking" time to , say...three times per day. As opposed to every time I walk past my computer.

Speaking of updates, if you are reading this, you have a blog, and you haven't already been tagged,
I TAG YOU!
NO excuses. You know who you are and I had BETTER see this on your blog. Or I will haunt you. For real. And do it Toby Keith style. Just for me?!? Pretty please with a cherry on top (that's a "Kelly phrase").

P.S. This is a long and self-absorbed post...so...REally, thanks for reading!