Yet ANOTHER Krebs Family Lawyer!!

My family has a very serious DISEASE. It is called "wanna-be-a-lawyer-itis". It appears to be extremely genetic, but can also be highly contagious to spouses of original Krebs children. There are FIVE married couples in our family (including adopted brother Sean). Out of the FIVE married couples, there are now FIVE lawyers. An illness? I'd say so.

This past week we went up to commiserate, uhhh... I mean celebrate, yet another lawyer joining the family. Jeff graduated from BYU's law school!!! YEA!!

Could someone PLEASE help my sister marry a doctor or dentist? I mean, seriously, how much legal advice could you REALLY possibly need in your life from one family?

Here is Emma with cousin Ben at the graduation... look very hard and long at this picture, because it's the only one where she is pleasant.

Name that apostle. Fuzzy shot... yet pretty obvious. His grand-daughter graduated in Jeff's class. Always fun to have a celebrity around. :)

Here is Jeff with his graduating class. I focused in on him, and made the rest of his class blurry with one of my fancy schmancy tools on Picasa. We had a wonderful time with Jeff and Ashlee and their boys. We also loved having most of Ashlee's family with us. You just can not have more fun than a Newell/Krebs COMBO!!

And here is the family shot. My parents came out from Kentucky to celebrate. Poor Emma was sick the ENTIRE time. I took her to Urgent Care our first day, where the IDIOT doctor promptly diagnosed her fever and severe congestion as a "bladder infection". If you are saying, HUH?!? right now... you are not alone. I thought the same thing and took her into a pediatrician the next day where she was diagnosed with an ear infection and lung issues (again) due to allergens.

It was a pretty rough trip for her. And a pretty rough trip for me. I now rank traveling with a sick child right up with #1 - Child Birth #2 - Root Canal #3 - Public Flogging. Yep. It was that fun.

Here is Tyler giving Emma hugs. The boys were SO SWEET to her, despite her grouchy disposition and whiny attitude. She is lucky to have such great cousins!

Fell asleep in her stroller - something she has NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER done before. I knew she must be pretty bad to pull this stunt.

Due to my camera malfunction (see previous post entitled "water and electronic gadgets don't mix"). I missed out on photo opportunities with many other people. I had a very short reunion with some of my BYU gals and Courtney was kind enough to let Emma and I crash at her home for 2 nights. Melanie made some luscious breakfast rolls to send us on our way Saturday morning and we had a GREAT picnic with extended family in Provo.

To those I didn't get to see... I AM SO SORRY... with a sick child and a crammed weekend of graduation activities, it was difficult to schedule in everything. I'm sure we'll be up again soon. Utah seems to beckon me back every year or so.

I'll leave you with a WINTER image. Not just any winter image. This was the winter image we saw outside of our window on Saturday when we drove home. WHAT THE?? I thought it was almost May?? Glad to return to my sunny AZ.

Electrical Gadgets and Water DO NOT MIX

Word of advice: Electrical gadgets and water DO NOT MIX!

EXAMPLE #1 - Had my camera in the bottom of my purse this weekend. Emma's sippy cup of water was on top. You bright ones out there can figure out the error. The cup leaked, our BRAND NEW (as of Christmas) digital camera is now toast.

EXAMPLE #2 - Had a work meeting with a co-worker at my home. Let Emma wander around while I was meeting. Emma grabbed Greg's IPOD and went to her favorite spot in the house... the toilet. You guessed it. In it went. No more ITUNES for us. Saddest thing, is that I washed Greg's IPOD in the washer last year, so this one was new.

ONE WEEK

TWO GADGETS - $450.00

Brings Emma's net worth DEFICIT to $20,450.00

Smile that Frown Away!

• Sometimes this world can bring about discouragement and frustration, but recently I've had a few things that have quickly turned my frowns upside down! Pictures to come...
• Finally got a new stair rail for my home! Now Emma won't tumble down the stairs onto hard tile! YIPPY!!
• Still going NUTS in the couponing world. Got 8 large containers of Purex laundry detergent, 7 deodorants, 12 rolls of toilet paper, 2 mouthwashes, 4 dental floss, 2 shaving creams and 2 boxes of aspirin for FREE this week. Really. You can't beat free.
• Greg's brother Jeff got engaged to the most wonderfully fantastic girl, Michelle Layton! The date is June 13th and we are ECSTATIC!!
• My Mom has been visiting Arizona this past week and we have had a marvelous time with her. Emma loves all the extra attention.
• Our dear friends, Sarah and Trent Porter had their first baby boy last Monday! They named him Rowan and he is such a sweet and handsome little guy! We are so excited for them and thrilled that Emma has another suitor!
• I promise pictures will accompany these wonderful things soon...

Our Easter Angel is WALKING!

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday, the weather here in Arizona could not have been prettier. It was GORGEOUS!! The Easter Bunny brought Emma a breathing treatment. :) She had a slight lung infection caused by allergies and the doctor prescribed a lovely breathing treatment four times a day. Lucky for us, she sits through them like a CHAMP. But doesn't she look so pathetic with it on?

Here she is ready for church. I got the dress at "Kid to Kid" for $5.00 - you can't beat that!
Ummmm. No. Alright? We didn't get her an Easter basket. But this was the Easter basket I used as decoration for our entertainment center. And we used it for picture purposes. She is still too young to understand the whole basket thing, so I saved a couple bucks and left it out. I know, I know... I'll be shunned from all Mother Extraordinaire Clubs FOREVER.

We enjoyed an AMAZING Easter dinner with my Aunt Sharron, her children, my sister and JJ. We also enjoyed a second YUMMY Easter dinner with Greg's family. The kids got to search for Easter eggs and had a blast. In typical Emma style, she wandered around the yard saying, "ball, ball, ball, ball, ball...."

And yes, out little Easter angel is FINALLY walking. She turned 15 months on Saturday. She took her first steps in New Mexico when we were there for Greg's Grandma's funeral... since then, she has been slowly gaining confidence and momentum. Last Wednesday she really started to take off and has been fairly consistent ever since. And her poor forehead has showed the battle wounds of her first independent walking stunts. Her first major crash was onto the corner of a brick curb at my Aunt's home. She still has the goose egg from that one.

Greg and I generally get each other "token" Easter basket gifts. Small, but fun to have a little extra something. This year, I asked him if we could combine our gifts into one picture of the Savior for our wall. We found this one at Seagull Book and I am very pleased with it. It is of the Savior calming the waters and is entitled "Peace, Be Still". I really like that it is of Him performing a miracle and I love the artwork. So.... Happy Easter to us!

Here is a video of Emma walking. Slow and Steady wins the race! :)

Ode to Little Glen

For 8 wonderful days, we enjoyed the company of my youngest brother (by 18 years), Glen. Affectionately called "Little Glen", by those of us that are "Bigger". It was his Spring Break and he chose to entertain himself in Arizona with his sisters. I think he chose wisely.

If you've ever seen a parasite in action, you can visualize Emma with Glen. She stuck to him like glue and preferred him over Mom, Dad and BELOVED Aunt Laura. Who wouldn't want a handsome 13-year-old uncle to be your entertaining monkey for a week?

We did so many fun things together. I kept telling Glen that I felt like I was on Spring Break as well, because I got to play all week. Here Emma is swinging with Glen at our ward play group. We went swimming twice in a heated pool, so that Glen could come home with a enviable tan.

We went to an Easter activity at Fry's... that was smaller and less exciting than planned...but fun to mock anyway. Here Emma and Glen are posing for Prom. A crazed Fry's employee who had an eerie affection for little girls chased us into the parking lot when our activities were completed to tell us that our picture would be printed in 30 seconds. She insisted that we just HAD to come back in to get it. OK. Alright already. Just leave me and my baby alone.

We enjoyed a gorgeous day at the Phoenix Zoo with JJ and Alexander.

We rode the lightrail downtown, ate at Hard Rock Cafe (Glen's favorite) and tried (unsuccessfully) to attend the LOONY STATION they call FREE first Friday's at the Children's Museum.

We saw "Monsters vs. Aliens" at the drive-in movie theater in Scottsdale. For those of you that have forgotten about these lovely establishments it is PERFECT drive-in weather these days. And not too bad to get TWO movies for $6.25.

We celebrated Glen's 13th birthday at JJ's house, see this AMAZING cake she made him? Mine would have been courtesy of Costco, so he is lucky that JJ volunteered her talents. We enjoyed the weekend packed with General Conference and lots of yummy food.

We colored Easter Eggs... and Emma with her current obsession with balls, spent the whole time saying and signing "ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball...." until we finally broke down and gave her some of our decorated eggs. This obsession was also a problem when we went mini golfing at Golfland and she screamed every time we took a golf ball away from her to hit. Why can't they just spare ONE EXTRA golf ball for my daughter? Really? Are they that expensive?

After our failed attempt at the Free Children's Museum Evening, we decided to brave the $9 admission fee. It's nice, but probably not the ideal spot for a 15-month-old and a 13-year-old. We had fun nonetheless.

Mini-Golf $7.00
Movies $6.25
Food $70.00
Children's Museum $9.00

A Thank You Note Left on the Guest Room bed - PRICELESS

THANK YOU UNCLE GLEN FOR A MARVELOUS WEEK!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!