Rear Facing Car Seats Until Age TWO?!?

Just some information I thought I'd pass along to all you Mothers out there. We had a class at church taught by a car seat safety professional from Phoenix Children's Hospital. She made us aware of the following information given by the American Academy of Pediatrics as of April 2009. As you can read in the "update" at the bottom of the article, it is not yet an official "recommendation". I'd rather Emma be cranky and frustrated than paralyzed or worse. Food for thought.

AAP Changing Rear-Facing Car Seat Recommendations?
Thursday April 2, 2009
Although the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and most other car seat safety advocates already recommend keeping baby rear-facing until he or she reaches the limits of the car seat, AAP may soon upgrade their minimum "1 year and 20 pounds" recommendation to two full years of rear-facing if possible. A recent AAP News release preps parents for the potential change, which is based on new research that shows toddlers are more than five times safer if they remain rear-facing until age two.

With rear-facing weight limits on convertible car seats up to 35 pounds, most toddlers should be able to stay rear-facing until at least age two. If the toddler is larger, the best option is to keep your little one rear-facing to the limits of the car seat. Rear-facing car seats are outgrown by the weight limit, or when there is less than an inch of shell above baby's head. A toddler's legs hanging over the car seat edge do not play into outgrowing the car seat at all.

Update: It appears that, though the new information about improved safety with extended rear-facing was made available in an AAP publication, and the information was directed at parents, the group is not updating their official recommendation right now. In an email to child passenger safety advocates, an AAP representative said, "A Parent Plus box in the April 2009 issue of AAP News appears to contain a revised AAP recommendation on how long babies and young children should ride rear-facing. However, Parent Plus boxes and AAP News articles do not constitute AAP policy." The email also says "AAP's recommendation has not changed at this time."

You can find the offical AAP press release here: http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

70 pounds of food LATER...

40 pounds of apples + 30 pounds of chicken =
22 pints of diced and cooked chicken breast
7 quarts of sliced apples ready for desserts
12 pints of applesauce
2 VERY sore feet from standing in the kitchen

No, I am not sponsored by "Kid to Kid" (children's consignment store)... but can I just tell you how much I LOVE THIS STORE?

Emma desperately needed some new summer clothes as the billion degree Arizona summer has hit us in FULL FORCE. Went to K2K and found all of these darling outfits and pajamas for $50. That includes the darling Fisher Price Farm pictured in the corner, which is now her VERY favorite toy of all time. I love ME a good deal, especially when they make my darling daughter look even darling-er. :)

Who needs toys for toddlers when your child prefers the INFANT stuff? Seriously child.

My daughter has become obsessed with shoes.

I mean truly obsessed.

She insists on putting them on FIRST thing in the morning, and when she sees another pair of her shoes lying around, she insists that I take off the current pair and replace them with her new find.

When she sees them on other people, she incessantly shouts, "shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe, etc..." until you show her that she too is wearing shoes.

I am a VERY practical shoe woman, with various GENERAL styles to match most outfits and I have been known to super glue my shoes together to help them last yet another season. Where did my daughter come up with this obsession?

In this picture she has tried her feet in Daddy's shoes.

Pretty big shoes to fill Emma. In more ways than one.

Welcome Home Elder Chucky!

On Tuesday, in the span of approximately 12 hours, my sister, my daughter and myself flew to LA and back to Phoenix. Why, you ask? My brother, Chuck, returned from his 2 year LDS church mission in Fiji and had a layover in LA. How could we possibly miss an opportunity to see him before the rest of the family? :)

We told him that Laura was coming, so that he knew to expect someone at the airport, but we kept Emma and I a surprise! Obviously, from the picture below Emma was just BUSTING with excitement and energy. :) This was actually the only sleep she got all day, and it was for a whopping 30 minutes. Poor little thing.
Chuck was such an excellent missionary in Fiji! We are so proud of him and his hard work. But...it is sure nice to have him home now!!

He got all of the married couples these really cool masks with our name scratched into the bottom. Maybe it can be Emma's Halloween costume this year? She seems to like it!

It took Emma a bit to warm up to Uncle Chucky, but within 10 minutes she was crawling and climbing all over him while screaming, "Kuck, Kuck, Kuck". She sure is lucky to have so many fun uncles to play with her!

We are not able to go to Kentucky for his homecoming, but seeing him in LA, even for a few short hours was SO GREAT!! We now look forward to seeing him again at our family reunion in June! YIPPY!! For those few family members out there... here is the video of Chuck coming off the plane.

Got Piano?

Arizona pals -

Want this hot mama/talented/great with kids sister of mine to teach your children piano?

Act NOW and your dream could come true!

My darling sister, Laura, will be teaching ARIZONA piano lessons for young children starting in the Fall. She has a minor in Music from BYU and has been playing herself for many, many years. In addition, she is a teacher of special ed children and is really great with kids.
Check out her piano lesson blog for more information: http://www.laurakrebspiano.blogspot.com/

She is seriously so great and is a wonderful teacher. If you want your children (or children you know) to participate, better schedule quick because she is sure to fill up FAST.

We're EXPECTING!!

We're expecting... a tighter budget now that Greg's salary has been cut by 8%. His law firm cut the salaries of ALL attorneys so that they could avoid additional lay offs. Greg and I are very grateful that we still have 92% of his salary and feel blessed that we have listened to wise counsel and live well within our means so this doesn't hurt too horribly.

We're expecting... that Mr. Scorpion here will not be sleeping in our bed again. He took FOUR bites out of Greg two nights ago, but I smashed and smeared him to pieces to show him who was really boss.

We're expecting... many more years of wedded bliss. We celebrated our 6th anniversary last weekend by taking a getaway trip to my grandparents cabin. Here is my handsome hubby showing you just how HAPPY he is. (Really a fun little camera trick... try it some time... shake your head furiously back and forth and have someone snap a pic of you. Hysterical results.)

We're expecting... that little Miss THANG will just keep getting cuter. Although, she is at quite an adorable stage right now. Here she is belly laughing about something silly, I'm sure.

We're expecting... to complete a TRIATHLON on Thanksgiving Day this year. Thanks to the amazing ladies pictured here (thanks Alyson, Dixie and Jenny!)... we have become inspired to train for a sprint triathlon in November in Goodyear, AZ (400m swim, 2 mile run, 12 mile bike). We have 6 months, so PLENTY of time to get ourselves in shape. My sister Laura is joining our group prep and ANY of you out there are welcome to join the fun! If you have any tips for us and our training, PLEASE pass them along. We need all the help we can get.

We're expecting... that you all had WONDERFUL Mother's Day, as we did. Here is Emma pictured with my Mom, who I am eternally indebted to. We are also so grateful for Greg's Mom and the love she shows us. Greg bought me a NEW camera for Mother's Day, as you will remember our latest was a casualty to Emma's sippy cup. It is AMAZING! And so is my husband!

We're expecting... that Emma will need to fall off the swing before she realizes that she can not let go and reach for us, mid-stride. No more baby swings for this one, she wants the BIG swings only. YIKES.

We're expecting... that our garden is going to turn into a JUNGLE soon. I think I may have gotten over zealous with my planting and we may run out of room very shortly. Squash anyone?

We're expecting... to get an apology note (and insurance information) ANY DAY now from the JERK who ran into my car at Costco yesterday and just drove away with no note or information. Seriously, who are these people and how can they sleep at night? We should send our scorpion friend over to their bed. :)

We're expecting... a wonderfully happy day in June where we can see Jeff (Greg's bro) and Michelle sealed for time and all eternity in the Mesa Arizona Temple. We just LOVE Michelle to pieces and feel so lucky to have her in our family!

WHAT?!? Why are you looking at me like that? What did YOU think we were expecting?

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!!