Christmas 2011

 Christmas Morning started early.  We got up with Emma, and discovered that Santa had visited and left lots of presents for Emma.  We explored our Stockings, and started in on the unwrapping.  Emma was loving her presents, but after about half were opened, she came over to cuddle Mommy and seemed a little glazed over.  After a few minutes, she got back up, walked to the middle of the room and got sick.  After a quick bath and clean up, she was a good as new. We finished opening our gifts, called family to let them know Emma was sick, and decided not to go to church as who knew if it would happen again!

Here is our annual Christmas Photo by our tree.  We usually take this when we decorate the tree, but it just had not worked out this year.  we could not get Emma to look at the camera, she was far too interested in her presents.  A lesson learned to make sure to do it before we have gifts to concentrate on!

 None of our family had issues coming over with Emma sick, as it was Christmas and they didn't want to miss seeing everyone.  I was very excited to host this year.  I wanted something special for my nephews Pirate Cousin and Army Man, so I made up a Treasure Hunt with bad Pirate poetry.  Here is Pirate Cousin reading the first clue.  He was not overly excited as there was reading, and he wanted his presents.

 Army Man was all excited for the treasure hunt.  Their mom Meredith helped read all the clues, and Army Man was fairly good at finding the hiding places.  Pirate Cousin followed along, and I think he had fun, but was a little shy about it.  After they found their "Booty" in the hope chest in the living room, they were more then ready to open their real gifts.

We had a wonderful afternoon with great food, and even better company.  Emma cuddled up to her Pirate Cousin and just enjoyed being with him.  Army Man was thrilled to play with his new Army Men her received.  I love watching how much my Emma loves her cousins and how much they care for her.

Christmas Eve 2011

 On Christmas Eve Morning, Glenn left early to pick his brother Jeff up from work down town.  They then came back to pick up Emma and I so that we could all go visit Grandma Sharen at her place.  We brought a basket full of presents for Jeff, Sharen and Emma (from Grandma Sharen). 

 We took Sharen back to a quiet visiting place, and had a nice Christmas celebration with her. Emma loved the gifts she opened from Grandma and Uncle Jeff, and had a great time playing with them.  I had brought a Cinnamon Coffee Cake along to brunch on, and after our snack we called Sharen's Sister Lori in Arizona.  We have sort of made this a tradition, putting her on speaker phone and having a good chat.

When it was time for Sharen to go to lunch, we packed up and headed over to our house.  We were going to try to catch a movie, but Jeff was exhausted after working all night, and fell asleep.  After we all took a nap, we decided to eat dinner out.  We had a nice meal at Hanan's downtown, then took Jeff back home. It was a good, relaxing day.

Emma's First Gingerbread House

 I picked up a Gingerbread House kit this year to do with Emma.  After dinner last night I pulled it out to make.  Much to my suprise, I discovered that you needed to let it sit for 12 hours after construction before decorating.  So, I built the house, and first thing this morning, Emma insisted that we decorate.

 Emma has newly discovered doing projects with Mommy, and loves it.  I did all the frosting, and Emma took her time decorating.  Of course, she had to sample some of the decorations along the way.

 I was very impressed with her focus and precision in decorating.  She did a great job for her first time.  Now to limit her eating of it so she doesn't get sick!

 This past weekend we traveled to Otis to visit with Emma's Birth Family.  We love their house in Otis and enjoy visiting there.  It was cold, but dry so Emma was able to play outside with Kristen and her Uncle KJ.  They had a great time bouncing, swinging and chasing the dogs.

 Emma received many gifts from her Grandma Kim, Grandpa Karl and Great Grandma Linda.  She loved the Hippo tent that they gave her, and crawled in it right away.  This is something she will use lots at home, when we let it out. Even the cat enjoyed the Hippo

2011 Christmas Tree

 One of my favorite things each year is to get our Christmas Tree and bring it home to decorate.  This year, we got our tree, but waited to decorate it.  It was just suppose to be the next day, but ended up being a few days that we had a bare Christmas Tree in our family room waiting for lights and decorations.

 Emma was so excited this year.  It was the first year that she could really help us decorate.  We got out all the stuff, and started putting lights on the tree.  I had purchased some new lights this year as our broke last year.  As I started putting them on, we realized that we did not have enough lights, so Glenn went hunting.  You would think you could find what you want in early December, but most of the colored lights seem to be sold out. Lucky for us, Glenn found our lights and bought several more boxes.

I also tried some ribbon on the tree this year along with our bead garland.  it was really wide, and metallic, so really had a good shimmer against the lights. I was really happy with the overall effect.

Emma loved exploring the Disney Ornaments Glenn and I have collected over the years.  I decorated the top half of the tree, while Emma did the bottom half.  We had purchased her ornament this year, the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Balloon with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald.  She was so excited to hang her ornament.

We thought our tree was beautiful, and plan to enjoy it throughout the season.  Merry Christmas!

 We attended Zoo Lights on Opening weekend  (Thanksgiving weekend) this year.  It was nice and dry, so we thought we should take advantage of the weather before it got wet.  It was cold, but we were prepared and had a great time.  We love zoo lights and try to attend each year.

Halloween 2011

 Halloween was very busy for Emma and I this year.  We started our day dressing Emma up as a very warm Lady Bug and met Kristen, Grandma Kim and Uncle KJ at the Zoo. It was a cool day, so I had put several layers on Emma.  She was very stylish with her blac velvet bolero and leopard print hat with pink flower.  She made a very sweet lady bug.

 Emma loves spending time with her Uncle KJ.  They had great fun at the statue garden, climbing and posing.  We saw lots of animals, and ended with lunch in the restaurant on top.

 Emma and I picked up Glenn at work in the late afternoon.  We had arranged to have dinner at my Brother Joe's house and let Emma go Trick or Treating with Pirate Cousin and Army Man. Emma had made a costume change and was now a princess.

 Uncle Joe and Glenn took the kids out to trick or treat.  It wasn't long before Emma was tired and cold, so they came back in.  After a few minutes Pirate Cousin and Army Man headed back out for more candy.

Emma had a great first Halloween, and loved spending it with her cousins!

Emma Progress Report

I am sitting here watching Emma play, and it is one of my favorite things. She is currently sitting on the floor playing with her music train and xylophone. She pushes a button to play a song, then plays her xylophone alone with the song. So cute.

Emma is growing like crazy lately, in all ways. She is now wearing a 3T, which seems so big. And her shoes are a size 7, but I think she is growing out of her church shoes again. She loves to wear hats and play dress-up with her tutu and princess dress. She is also talking up a storm. Some days I cannot get her to be quiet. It seems like she is adding new words every day, and loves to mimic the words we say. I am busy trying to teach her to ask using her words instead of her loud, panicked noise she makes. Really can't describe it.

Some of her favorite things lately include dancing to any and all music, coloring, play doh, swinging and playing with Lego's (believe me when I say Glenn is thrilled!). She loves Nursery on Sundays. They recently moved her up the the older nursery, so we are currently adjusting. Rigght now she is mostly standing back and watching all the older kids. There is now only one who is younger then her in there. She is uuse tto being tthe oldest, and having many friends just a few motths younger. This is a big change, and most of them are talking a lot better then she is. Hopefully she will learn some better language skills from these kids. She tends to watch and learn a lot from her play groups (things like crawling, climbing and walking).

The Simple Pleasures in Life

Some days just remind us that it is all worth it. It is usually just the simple things. We had one of these days recently. Glenn has been working from home a lot lately, and he was this past week. Each night last week, we did simple things together as a family.

One night after we ate dinner, we took Emma to the park to swing. She now calls swinging "Whee!" So cute. We then came home, put Emma in her PJ's and had cuddle time until bed.

After Glenn was done working the next night, we ran errands and ate dinner out. This was the best, most relaxing evening, even if we had to go to three pet stores to get what we needed. It was the first time we had been in a pet store since Emma started noticing her surroundings. She was so facinated. It was a joy to watch her run to the fish tanks, point and say "fishy!" And my heart melted a little when she put her arms up to me and said "Up! Up!" to look in the same tank I was (note that until this moment, she would say "I Stuck!" We traveled all three pet stores to look at all the birds, fish, cats, lizards, Frogs, Turtles, Ferrets, Mice, Rats... (you get the idea). I don't know that I have enjoyed a visit to a pet store quite this much.

Other moments this past week that have been wonderful were watching "A Bugs Life" and "Peter Pan" for the first time with Emma. Also, playing on the bed, playing Lego's, reading stories and just being together as a family.

To end our week, on Saturday we visited the important women in our lives to say Happy Mothers Day and We Love You! We started with Kristen, as it was Birth Mother's Day. Kristen cut Emma's hair, and gave her a super cute Tutu with head band. Emma started scared of being in the chair, but as soon as Kristen started combing her hair, she calmed (girl love to have her hair played with - Just like me :). Then it was on to Sharen's place. We had a good visit with her, and her care takers were good enough to hold her lunch for her so that we did not have to rush. As everyone else had already eaten by the time we left, Sharen got the royal treatment while being served. Then it was on to my parents house to visit. Emma had a blast playing with Grandma and Uncle Chris, and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Throughout all these experiences this past week, I have remembered how wonderful it is to just be "domestic" as Glenn would say. To just take joy in the simple things of life, and enjoy the moment. Too often I am busy doing everything that has to be done, and forget to stop and enjoy life. I am learning how important and special it is to just stop and enjoy my husband and daughters smiles and laughter. I really love being a Mom!

Things That Make My Heart Melt

A number of things caused my heart to melt a little today:

• Emma saying "Love You"
• Listening to Glenn and Emma through the Baby Monitor
  
• Emma sitting beside me and taking my hand to hold
• Emma standing up and hugging my arm
• Emma cuddling me when she was ready for Bed
• Emma jumping across me on my bed and saying "Boom!"

Such great moments that make everyday worth being! Hope you all have them as well!

Sunday Delima's

I have a love-hate relationship with Sundays! I love Sunday, as I love Church and spending it with my sweet family. I hate Sundays as it can be really busy and exhausting. Well, today was a really great one!

This morning, my sweet husband let me sleep in, or at least tried to let me. He was out in the Family Room and heard Emma awake. Without realizing that I was awake, he went in to get her up, and let me sleep. I have to admit that one of my favorite things is to listen to Glenn and Emma interact through the monitor when they don't realize that I am listening. I love how much Glenn loves Emma, and seeing how comfortable he is caring for her.

We have the 1-4 pm block of church this year, and it is not easy with a toddler who naps 12:30 - 2:30 most days. Today was the first day this year I was able to get Emma to take a nap before Church! Great...or so I thought. It ends up that waking a baby after a 30 minute nap to take her to sacrament meeting does not make for a happy baby during Sacrament meeting. After the Sacrament had been passed, when Emma started acting up, Glenn took her out to let her pace the halls and let me enjoy the talks. Nursery went great for miss Emma, and I am so happy she now loves to be there (it was touch and go for several months!).

After Church, we put Emma down for her nap, and went to lay down and read. At 6 pm I decided we had to wake Emma up so that we were not up too long. We had a good play on our bed before I went to make dinner. It is now after dinner, and past Emma's bedtime, but I am listening to Emma play. With such a late nap, she is not ready to sleep, but at the same time she is tired. So, this becomes the hate time of Sundays! Our schedule is so thrown off that it is sometimes hard to adjust. All is good right now, and I hope it will continue to be for the rest of the night.

Emma Update

Each day I love Emma more then I did the day before. It is an amazing part of being a Mom. One that I knew would happen, but did not truly understand until it actually happened. I am amazed to watch her learn and grow. How quickly she is turning into a little girl, and not just a baby. We have been told over and over that it would go to quick, and how right all those people are.

Emma has now officially entered the terrible two's (okay, she still has 5 weeks to go). She is a very determined little girl. My Mother has mentioned that she is very like me at that age. She is generally a happy child, but as soon as you speak sternly to her, or tell her no, it is all tears and drama. She has recently taken to bringing the back of both hands up to her eyes to cry. It is really very cute, but frustrating when it happens ten times an hour. Her determination leads to this event several times a day.

We have also entered the time of language. Emma mimic's us constantly. She has her own dialect, but she is doing so good. She loves to watch what we call "toddler TV" and when they ask the viewers to "Say ..." she does. It is interesting to hear what comes out. She is understanding a lot, and trying to say much, but many of the words come out "duck" - her current favorite. We have some language confusion, and the last few months she has said "I stuck" when she wants to be picked up, and "hug" when she wants something. I am trying to ask her if she "wants to be picked up" or "do you want this item" and then she says "das" or something similar meaning yes. She is also very polite, and often says "Tank Tu" whenever you hand her something. We did not work on this, so I guess Glenn and I must tell her "thank you" a lot. I am now trying to work on "please" and "your welcome" but she is not picking these up yet.

I have recently started a new bedtime routine with Emma, and it seems to be a hit. When I go in to get her ready for bed, once I set her down, she grabs a book / The Friend, her blanket and Snuggly, and then cuddles in my lap to be read to. We have been doing this over the past two months, and have read The Friend cover to cover, and several books. In fact, I believe I have most of "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" memorized (or at least I can give most pages a go, and get most the words done!) Glenn and I both love books, and we love to see that Emma is sharing this passion. We have been working a little with letters, and she seems to be picking some of it up. For Christmas she got a Leap Pad and a Leap Phone that both work on the phonics of letters. She loves to play with these, but I think she likes pushing the buttons more then hearing the words. Oh well! It is a start.

Glenn is thrilled that Emma loves toys, as he does. She really plays with them all, and it is hard for me to decide what needs to be put away. When Daddy comes home from work, Emma loves to pull out either her blocks or Lego's and take them to Daddy. It creates a huge mess each day, but she loves it. Her playing is often watching Daddy (or Mommy if she doesn't wait for Daddy) build something, and then she destroys it. We have nicknamed her Emmzilla in these instances. She is starting to stack things with the blocks, and try's to build with the Lego's, but that Terrible Two quick to frustration hits when it doesn't work right the first time!