Thursday, July 28, 2011

St. George

A few weeks ago Emme and I went to St. George with my parents, and Brent & Melissa and their kids for a little getaway. Chris stayed home to work and finish projects around the house. (Can I just say that I'm loving being unemployed so far? Vacations on a whim -- yes, please!)

We picked up Stu along the way at the Chevron in Beaver. He was on his way back from Mexico with some cousins and we crossed paths. Emme was soooo excited to see her uncle Stu...even though she doesn't look it in this photo.

One day we decided to drive down to Vegas and go shopping at Caesar's Palace. We shopped at H&M (they have fabulous maternity clothes and kids clothes) and ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory. Emme and the other kiddos LOVED the aquarium.


On the way home from Vegas, I kept Brent awake while he drove (just like a loyal co-pilot should) and everyone else crashed in the back seat. The perks of being pregnant and green all the time are that you get shotgun more often!

My mom woke up for this one, but at one point all six of them back there were out cold.

We hit up the nearby splashpad multiple times while we were there. The kiddos loved it! I'm seriously going to start a petition to get Cottonwood Heights to put one in somewhere. They are so much fun.

Emme was a little nervous at first, because the water shoots with a lot of force.


But after Grandpa showed her what it felt like, she was good to go.


Her most favorite part was laying down in the water canyons to cool off.


Look at these cute kiddos! They had so much fun together.

We also went swimming at the Snow Canyon pool, but our adventure was cut short when they had a "code brown" alert, and had to kick us all out of the water while they fished it out with a net. Yuck.

One morning I woke up to uncle Stu and Emme watching an episode of Recess (a cartoon) on his ipod that he had jimmy-rigged to sit on the bunk above his head. She loved it.

We had such a good time in St. George! Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us down there. Emme still asks me almost every day where Brent is. She fell in love with him one day when he sang her the entire intro to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, complete with the mickey voice and all. It was hilarious, and clearly she hasn't forgotten him. :)

When Emme and I came home, we discovered that Chris had cleaned the ENTIRE house top to bottom. I kid you not, the man cleaned both showers, scrubbed baseboards and toilets, swept and mopped, vacuumed, etc. I have the best hubby in the world, who picks up the slack when I'm sick and can't stay on top of it. We love you, Chris! I think Emme and I should go on vacation more often!!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Emme at 19-ish Months

I meant to do an 18 month update for Emme since we have stats from her doctor's appointment, but somehow it slipped away. So we'll do a 19-ish month update...with 18 month stats. :)

{Sad girl! Holding still for the camera is hard work. I had to document her sad face because we don't see it all that often.}

{There's the real Emme!}


Height - 60%
Weight - 25% (yipee! 22+ lbs!)
Head - 95% (what else is new.)

The nurse was seriously excited when she weighed Emme and figured out her weight percentile. We finally surpassed the 20 lb mark, and with flying colors! All because of that feeding breakthrough. Hooray!

I've been really enjoying my time with Emme at home, especially since I'm not working. I've even been getting a little sentimental with a new little one on the way, because I want to savor every moment we have just the two of us. Emme is the sunshine in my day! I can't imagine life without her, and I don't know how we ended up with such a sweet, sweet girl.


Here are a few of my favorite things Emme does lately:

  • Emme is talking up a storm! As in, she never stops. Sometimes I feel like my ears are buzzing when she finally goes down for a nap. Lots of it is still gibberish but lots of it is surprisingly intelligible. (And apparently I never shut up as a child, so what goes around comes around.)
  • Emme can't say the word "hungry" but she can say the word "eat." So sometimes she'll walk up to me, tug on my pants and say: "Mama?" "Yes, Emme?" "Eat!" And she says it with gusto. That's her way of telling me she's hungry.
  • She can also request "toast," "snacks," "baba" (milk), "eggs" (she loves them scrambled), and "nummies" (anything tasty that mom has).
  • Every morning when I get Emme out of her crib, the first thing she asks me is "where dada go?" If Chris gets her up in the morning, it's "where mama go?" It's like she somehow knows that we're a package deal and she's supposed to have both of us. I love it. On Saturday and Sunday mornings she's in heaven.
  • Emme is really into animals right now. She can point out all of the farm animals (plus some) when you ask her. Their names are too hard so she calls them by their sounds. Neigh = horse. Moo = cow. Baa = sheep. You get the idea.
  • Emme is enamored with her uncle Stu (my 17 year old brother). The other day I asked her if she wanted to go to Grandma's house and she started to cry and said, "No, Stu house!" She didn't want to go to Grandma's, she wanted to go to Stu's. (They are the same place.)
  • Emme's latest thing is climbing up on top of something and then shouting to me, "Mama, look at me!"
  • Emme really misses Debbie, the lady in our ward who used to watch her while I work. She talks about her all the time, and "draws" pictures of her on the sidewalk with chalk. She gets really excited when we see her at ward parties and at church on Sunday. I think we need to go visit during the day sometime so she can see her friends again.
  • Emme is obsessed with bubbles. She asks to blow bubbles on our balcony every. single. day. I finally went to Toys R Us and bought a battery-operated bubble blower, because my morning-sick self can only blow so many bubbles before I'm pooped. It was worth every penny!
  • Emme has crazy dreams. One day I walked into her room and heard her sleep talking about Elmo. On another occasion when she woke up from her nap, she kept asking me "where my eyes go?" Poor girl was so confused. She must be having sympathy-pregnant-dreams for me. (It's the only time I dream.)
  • Emme calls herself "Mimi," and refers to herself in the third person. When we're getting ready to go somewhere she'll ask me "Where Mimi shoes?" It's pretty cute. Now we occasionally catch ourselves calling her Mimi. Maybe it will catch on?
  • Emme LOVES nursery. We've had to take her home kicking and screaming a few times when nursery was over and she didn't want to leave. (Did I mention they do bubbles there?) And I LOVE the drawings she makes for me in nursery. I feel like I've waited my whole life to fill a refrigerator with my children's drawings.
  • Emme is the friendliest person I know. She has no shame, she'll say a loud "hi" to anyone we come within 20 feet of at the store. And they can't help but smile and say hi back.
  • Emme was never a really cuddly baby, but she's turned out to be a super cuddly toddler. She gives the sweetest hugs and kisses.
  • Emme has such a sunny, sweet disposition. We rarely have tantrums. I can get down on her level, talk to her gently while looking in the eyes and then say, "okay?" She'll reply back to me really sweetly, "kay." Sometimes it's amazing how much she understands.
  • Emme is a champion thanker. "Tay tou" is her favorite word these days, and I don't even have to prompt her. If you hand her something she'll look up and smile and say "Tay tou, Mama." It's so cute, and it catches people off guard.
  • Emme is obsessed with the potty and bodily functions these days. I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm 99% sure we'll have this girl potty trained before baby #2 gets here. Hallelujah.

We love you, Emme girl! Thank you for being in our family!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Glasses

Emme is no respecter of glasses. Doesn't matter if they belong to mama, dada, grandma, or Mr. Potato Head -- she is going to fit them on her face if it's the last thing she does.


{Further evidence that our child has a giant dome.}

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Happy 4th!

We had a busy day of celebrations on the 4th. We started with a family breakfast, then a family lunch BBQ with swimming, went home for naps, and ended with a fun dinner & fireworks with our friends.

In the afternoon, Emme got to ride her first four-wheeler around the block with Chris. She looks terrified in this picture, but she really had a good time. And Chris drove slowly and carefully.


We spent the evening with our friends the Schanz's, whose little 7 month old baby was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia a few months ago. He's in between rounds of chemo so he got to come home for the week, and was even able to watch some of the party from the garage before he went to bed. They have to keep their house extra, extra germ-free so we partied on the driveway with pizza and food and then lit fireworks in the street. We decided the 4th of July really is a redneck Holiday anyway. :)

Before it got dark, a couple of my young women came over and played with Sawyer and Emme, who couldn't part with that four-wheeler. These girls are my go-to babysitters because they're so great with kids!


Once it got dark, we got all decked out with glow bracelets and necklaces, which Emme absolutely loved. She was running around with three bracelets on each wrist, holding her arms (from the elbows up) up in the air so they wouldn't fall off. It was hilarious. All you could see of the kids were little glowing orbs running around the yard.

When the fireworks started, Emme had to have whatever Sawyer had -- so she insisted she sit on Sadie's lap too. Those two are like an old married couple, I tell ya!


Thank you Schanz's, for such a fun evening! When Chris and I got home that night we decided it felt like old times, when we used to be able to walk down and hang out with Sadie and Nathan any time we felt like it. It's harder these days because they are facing such a huge challenge right now with Graham's cancer. Sadie lives at the hospital with him full time and Nathan takes care of Sawyer and keeps the home running. When Sadie does get to be home, it's important for them to have good family time, which they see so little of these days.

So if you've got extra room in your prayers, please remember baby Graham. He's fighting so hard for his life. We pray for you every day, little Graham! We love you, Schanz's!