My Smiley Boy

Emerson's new trick is smiling. He finally does it while he's awake instead of just in his sleep! I think he has the cutest smile in the whole world. (I guess I'm a little biased though.) He's getting really close to laughing, too. You can tell when you tickle him that it's just trapped inside and one of these days it'll just slip out. I can't wait. :)

Guess Who Slept Through the Night?

Mommy did. Oh yes, and Emerson...who is really the one who decides how much sleep Mommy gets to have. I'm just so proud of my little guy for sleeping through the night at 6 1/2 weeks! He's just getting so big!

Farewell Logan

Emerson and his good friend Sadie Humpherys. He will miss her!

Melinda and Emerson

Ben and Emerson

Our crappy but sort of lovable apartment

On May 5, 2008 we said farewell to good ole' Logan. We were so excited to get out of our apartment, but when it was empty we were honestly a little sad. We had some great times in Logan and it was a lot harder to leave than I expected. We already miss all of our good friends there. I'm sure we'll come back to visit, though.

New House

Melinda, Ben, and Dad at the closing

Well, we did it. We purchased our first home. Where are the pictures, you might ask? Well they don't exist yet therefore I am unable to post them. When we took our trip out to Ohio when I was 36 weeks pregnant we found a house and have been going through the whole process of buying it ever since. We finally closed on May 9th after many complications and headaches. But we love it and we're excited about it.

A mere half hour after we signed on the house, Ben grabbed his packed bag and flew out the door to drive our gigantic moving truck out to Ohio with all of our stuff. We decided that it wouldn't be very much fun to haul Emerson on a 25 hour drive, and I wouldn't be much help since I'm pretty much tethered to him all day. So Ben's dad and brother drove out with him and his mom flew out on her way to Virginia. (Our house had to be cleaned up and worked on a little bit because it was a foreclosure.) So while they were there gone for about 6 days working their tails off I got to play the part of single mom (with a precious, helpful family of course.) We were so glad to get the house taken care of before we move out there for good in July and we really appreciated the Christensen's help. Oh, and as for the pictures...I requested lots of pictures from Ben, but he forgot to take even one! He did take a video with our video camera though, so I guess I'll forgive him.

Happy Graduation!

Our Little Family (notice Emerson's Utah State apparel)

The distinguished graduate

Our little family with Elder and Sister Perry

Ok, let's backtrack. In my stress and hurry to get moved out of our apartment in Logan, get moved into my parent's house, and taking care of a new baby, I neglected to post anything about Ben's graduation! I feel like a terrible wife. So here are some pictures from the day. Way to go, Honey! I'm excited for you now, but I can only imagine how ecstatic I'll feel when you're graduating from medical school and you're done with residency!

Tagged

1. Who eats more?
Ben does. (Phew! I'm glad I got tagged after I had Emerson because I think I definitely ate more during pregnancy. :) It makes for a good excuse to eat pretty much anything you want. I miss that. )

2. Who said "I love you" first?
Ben did. It seemed like it took forever though--probably because I knew I was in love with him by our 3rd date.

3. Who sings better?
I think we're pretty equal. Neither one of us is spectacular, but I have to give Ben credit because he tries to sing the different parts in Sacrament Meeting and I just sing the melody.

4. Who dances better?
Me...but it's really rather hard to tell because neither one of us can bust a move and it's pretty darn equal when dancing (swaying) to a slow song. I win this one simply because I think I hate dancing less than Ben does.

5. Who's older?
Ben by 2 years and 10 months

6. Who's smarter?
To be honest, I think we both have specialty areas...Ben could kick my trash in anything science or math related, but I'm a little better at English and managing children. :)

7. Whose temper is worse?
Mine, hands down.

8. Who does the laundry?
Well we have this beautiful dazzling laundry fairy that comes to do our laundry and then she leaves all of it nicely folded on the bed! Then all Ben has to do is put his laundry away. Isn't that nice!?

9. Who does the dishes?
I do most of the time, but sometimes Ben gets a surge of energy and preciousness and orders me to sit and do nothing while he does our dishes. Hopefully that won't be such a big job when we have a dishwasher in our new house!

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Me.

11. Whose feet are bigger?
Ben's.

12. Whose hair is longer?
Mine. But when Ben's gets long he gets these cute little curls around his ears that he terms "Jewish curls". Little Emerson had Jewish curls when he was born. He was just missing a Yarmulke.

13. Who's better with the computer?
I think we're pretty equal at that.

14. Do you have pets?
No way.

15. Who pays the bills?
Ben works to pay them and I write the check.

16. Who cooks?
Me. Sometimes though Ben whips us up something Italian (which means it has spaghetti sauce in some form or another.)

17. Who drives when you are together?
Ben.

18. Who pays when you go out to dinner?
Ben...but sometimes I treat. It's sort of silly though really when it all comes from the same bank account. I guess it's just the idea that he's paying that makes me feel special.

19. Who's the most stubborn?
Oh dear...we both have to choose our battles.

20. Who is the first one to admit when they're wrong?
That depends. I think both of us feel like we're always the first to admit we're wrong so I guess it's probably 50/50...or 60/40 (me)...or 70/30 (me)...sigh...probably 50/50

21. Whose parents do you see more?
50/50

22. Who named your pet?
No pets.

23. Who kissed who first?
Ben kissed me because I was too tantalizing. At least I could exercise some self-control in our relationship.

24. Who asked who out?
Ben asked me out first, but I have to admit I had an agenda and helped things along to fit my own purpose. You see, we had creative arts class together with my brother Scott and I just casually mentioned that I didn't have anyone to go to the evening's event with because Scott had found a date. So Ben took the subtle hint and asked for my number and said that I could go with "them". Of course, being the girl that I was, I went home and consulted the roommates on who "them" was (were?). It turned out to be Ben, his best friend Ryan, his sister Brooke, and like 12 of her closest friends. I was relieved I didn't just turn out to be the 3rd wheel though. Ryan was a little dense and didn't move out of the passenger's seat when they picked me up at my apartment, so I was stuck in the back with the rest of the girls. I admit I was a bit miffed at this fact, but the seating arrangement did work out at the actual event due to the efforts of both Ben and me. We got to sit together and the other 40 girls were separated from Ben by Ryan and me. :) The rest is history.

26. Who's more sensitive?
Me.

27. Who's taller?
Ben at 5'10". I'm a mere 5'5".

28. Who has more friends?
Neither of us have any friends. Sigh... Just kidding we're equal cause all of our friends are married couples pretty much.

29. Who has more siblings?
Ben has 14 siblings and I have 4.

30. Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Ben does. But only because I LET him wear them.