So proud!

I am pretty much married to a genius. Seriously, I sometimes find myself asking how the heck I married such a smart guy. Not that I think I am dumb or something, I certainly don't think that, but Brent is out of my intelligence league. I remember a time when we were dating when his friend tried to tell me how high his GMAT score was. I was like, "that's nice, is that good?" I had no idea what was good or not. Shows you how much I know!

So, last week Brent received word from the Academy of Management that his paper had been reviewed and accepted for him to present at the annual conference this year in Montreal, Canada. Okay, so you are thinking, "Oh, that is really cool." But let me further explain how hard it is to get a paper accepted. Most papers submitted and accepted usually have more than one author on them. Brent is the sole author on his paper. The acceptance rate is around 30% and most of those people submitting papers are not grad students, they are professors who have been doing this type of researching and writing for a while. Brent wrote this paper the first semester of his first year in the PhD program. Pretty sweet, huh?

I know, I know you are probably getting tired of reading about me brag about my husband, so I will stop. For once I wanted to post something that was a big deal for Brent and not just about Owen. Anyway, Brent will hate that I posted this, but someones got to brag about his success. He isn't going to do it, so I guess I will have to. Congrats Brenton, I am very proud of you.

Side note: Last post I said that Owen hadn't rolled over since we took that little video. Well, the day I took him to get his pictures taken and they wanted to take a picture with him on his stomach. I put him on his stomach and he rolled right over. In fact he almost rolled off the table. He wouldn't stop rolling, every time I put him on his stomach he rolled over. Crazy kid. And I thought he was a little young to only do something when I didn't want him to do it. Boy was I wrong. (I couldn't really do a post without writing something about Owen). :)

A week of firsts

This week has been a few of firsts for Owen. He decided on Friday that he had had enough time on his stomach and rolled over. Yippee! Too bad he hasn't done it since. He is actually more interested in trying to crawl and scoot than roll over. The good news is that I got him rolling over on video. The second first was that we went on a walk without the car seat. He loved it. It was really warm for a couple of days so I took him for a walk around our neighborhood. He was really tired, so I really was just trying to get him to sleep, but he didn't fall asleep until the very end of the walk. He was fascinated by everything around him. This is first time he has been outside where he was facing forward and could look at what was going on. I am getting excited for the summer when we will have warmer weather and can spent more time outside.

I also had a few firsts this week as well. On Saturday I finally went to a pump class at the gym Kelie (sister-in-law) teaches at. I was kind of nervous since I am kind of a weakling and it is a weight training class. It was actually quite fun and I really enjoyed myself. I am still really sore from it! The funny thing about me is that I get sore from doing simple things, let alone a weight training class. Brent still makes fun of me, because one time my arm was sore the next day from doing the fight song too many times at a BYU basketball game. If that doesn't prove I am a weakling, I don't know what will!

Anyway, another first for me was realizing that I can now fit into all of my jeans and pants again! I use the word "fit" loosely (Pun intended, ha ha). I should really say that I can now get all my jeans and pants on and at least button and zip them up. It only took me 4.5 months of working out 6 days a week to do, but hey at least I did it. The only thing now is getting myself to want to wear them. I have been walking around in pajama pants so long that it hard to want to make the transition. Pajama pants are just so darn comfy. Wouldn't you agree?

Go Cougars!

After our walk

Playing

Here is the video of Owen rolling over. The video is kind of long. Just ignore our ridiculous commentary.

Untitled from Melissa Clark on Vimeo.

Pinewood Derby

The Elders Quorum in our ward decided to do a pinewood derby as one of their activities this year. Just sounded like an excuse to become kids again to me, but whatever. It was actually pretty fun. Brent and Matt (my brother) did their cars together. They spend many hours fiddling with them to get them the exact weight, color, design, etc. On the morning of the derby Brent got up and put his wheels on. I thought there was a fire in the kitchen when he starting complaining about how the wheels were spinning so slow. I believe my response was something like, "Too bad you spent so much time on the dang thing and now it won't even work." It turned out it was actually pretty fast. He made it to the top 8 cars (out of 23), before he met his fate. To be fair, I must say it was pretty fun to go and see all these men play like boys. Brent was in charge of it so I helped out with a few things, which always makes it more fun and enjoyable. Owen was so good during the entire thing. He slept until about 15 minutes before I decided it was time to go home. I guess he will have his chance in a couple of years to experience the derby.

The tournament pool

The crowd

Brent giving awards

Brent's car in all its glory
Front view

Brent and Matt's car together. I loved Matt's design. He named his the Cougar Board. In case you can't tell it looks like a skateboard. He got the award entitled, "Car most true to the faith."

Where does the time fly?

Owen is four month old now. I can't believe he is that old! Why is it that when you have a baby, everyone and their dog suddenly thinks they have something to talk to you about. Not that it is a bad thing, but I guess I am just not used to it because when you are childless everyone pretty much ignores you! Just kidding, but here is an example. The other day I took Owen to the store and he woke up near the end of the shopping trip. The girl at the cash register proceeded to tell me what she thought Owen was experiencing while he was sitting in the cart. "He is thinking, 'Look at all those big lights and all the crazy stuff going by.' I bet he just loves looking around at everything." Okay, I suppose he could be thinking that. I prefer to think that he is probably just wondering about when he can get out of his car seat and when he is going to get to eat next. But whatever. Anyway, this is how the rest of the conversation went.

Her: "How old is he?"

Me: "Four months."

Her: "Does he talk much?"
Me: "He babbles a lot and makes a lot of sound."

Her: "Does he eat Cheerios yet?"

Me: "No... not yet." (At this point I am beginning to wonder how much they know about babies.)

Her: "Oh, so you still just have him on baby food?"

Me: "Umm...no.."

Old guy bagging the groceries: "He's still on the original."
Me: Yeah, he still just has milk.

Her: "I guess I am a little ahead of myself."

Me (thinking): Okay, I don't think she knows very much about babies. When she asked me if he talked, did she actually mean words?

Good times. Anyway, here are a few things about Owen at the ripe old age of four months.

• He is a happy little guy-most of the time!
• He is getting better at holding his head up when he is on his stomach.
• He is also getting pretty good at sitting up, not quite by himself yet. He loves to sit up and see everything going on around him.
• He likes to squeal with he is really happy. Lately, Brent has had to leave Sunday school since he has been "talking" too loud.
  He likes when you talk to him in a very high pitch voice. If you just talk normal, he just stares at you.
• He LOVES watching t.v. It is a good thing for right now, because I can put Baby Einstein on and he will watch it for 30 minutes. It is a bad thing because he constantly wants to be entertained. He won't just sit and look at toys above his head, everything has to be moving for him. There have been many times when I am feeding him a bottle and he cranks his head around just so he can see the t.v. and drink his bottle. Funny little kid!
• He is very ticklish on his stomach and under his chin and armpits. He must have gotten that from Brent, since I am not ticklish at all. Brent likes to tickle him whenever he changes him, he thinks it is funny. However, Brent HATES to be tickled and I tell Owen that one of these days he will be able to get his Dad back.
  

Here are a few pictures of him at around four months.

Tried the jumper, even though he isn't quite old enough yet, but he did like turning around in it.

This is Owen on his stomach. Yes, even though he is starting to cry and getting really mad, he is still trying to see the t.v.

Right before we tried rice cereal.


Here it goes.

The result: I don't think he likes it!

Tummy time

Sitting up

Untitled from Melissa Clark on Vimeo.

Valentine's

I love Valentine's Day. Well, I guess I love both the things that are associated with Valentine's Day and the actual day. I love Valentine candy, especially cherry juju hearts. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find them the last two Valentine's days. I decided I wanted to decorate cookies this year, so I invited my four year old and 2 year old nieces over to have some fun. I actually forgot to take pictures of the actual decorating. I guess I was a little preoccupied with keeping Jenna from eating the cookie dough, Brookie from eating all the frosting, and Owen from screaming the entire time. It was a little dicey for about a half an hour or so, but it got much better when Owen finally went to sleep and I could focus my attentions on the girls. That being said, it was really fun to have them over. Here are a few pictures of the cookies I decorated for the ladies I visit teach. I had so much fun doing them.

Our actual Valentine's day was the best I think I have ever had. I am not sure why I loved it so much, but it just was a very relaxing, good day. One of those days where I remembered why I fell in love with Brent and a day where I remembered how blessed I really am to have him. Brent brought me breakfast in bed and also brought me tulips, which I loved. After church I cooked Brent dinner. I made chicken cord on bleu and mashed potatoes. A little risky considering I had never made the chicken and the last time I made mashed potatoes I mixed them too much and they were really sticky. They both turned out really good, though, if I do say so myself. I also made ice cream cake roll for dessert. Yummy!

And since I am so into coupons lately, I decided to make my own coupons for Brent this year. I think he really liked them, which is always a plus. Overall, it was a very good day.

Do you see what I see?

Am I missing something here or is this just a regular plain old vent? Well, as far as I can tell this is just the air vent above our bed, but I think Owen would beg to differ. Every time he looks at this thing he cracks the biggest smile. I keep asking him what is up there that I can't see. I will often ask him if that is where the angels come in and out of our house. I am convinced he thinks it looks like something or someone, just don't know what it is. At least he smiles at it instead of cries!

This is me looking at it from his perspective to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

Owen's new cousin

Since there isn't anything very interesting going on in our lives, I thought I would post something very exciting that happened to Brent's sister and her husband. They have been trying to adopt a baby for a couple of years now and about 3 weeks ago they finally got a little girl. They named her Emma. Isn't she so adorable? Congratulations, Matt and Andrea. We are so very excited for you. We are also very glad that Owen will have a cousin very close to his age.

On a related note, my brother Jon and his wife, Vanessa are still looking for a baby to adopt. If anyone knows of anyone considering adoption let me know or you can refer them to their website at http://adoptjonathanandvanessa.blogspot.com/. Thanks!

Emma and her Mama