New Words

I decided I'm going to start a New Words post every couple of weeks (or as often as needed if she's learning new words like crazy!) for Emmy for journaling purposes. Yeah, I found out a while ago that there are some companies that will print your blog in a hardcover book. And since I'm so bad at keeping a journal (haven't kept one since middle school or high school), this is the perfect way for me to do it!

Here are some of Emmy's new words (some not necessarily new but that I forgot to put in the last word update):

"uh-oh!"

"Thank you" - I've already posted that she says this, but now she says it on her own, like if we hand her something

"Yeah!" or "Yay!" - always after the prayer, it's so funny

"Baby" - accompanied with the sign

We would ask her what Santa says. Her answer: "Ho ho"

Santa Clause is coming to town . . .

Well I guess Santa already came to town! Emmy was on the nice list this year because Santa made a visit to our house! Santa only leaves a few presents for her, though, and the rest are from mom and dad. One thing she got that she loved was a spinbrush toothbrush. Santa left it in her stocking with some yummy toothpaste. Well, I guess Emmy doesn't think the bubble gum flavored kid toothpaste doesn't taste that great because she always has a funny look on her face when we use it. But she got some movies, including her favorite, The Incredibles. She got some clothes and toys and a ton of books. We didn't go overboard this year, we'll save that for when she's older and she knows whats going on! We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Lindsey's house, which was a lot of fun. We slept over and Emmy loved being with her cousins. We had a great Christmas and hope all of you did, too!

Emmy with her cute cousins

Emmy with Uncle Derek - she loved wearing these reindeer antlers!
I LOVE the look on her face here!
Christmas morning - Santa always leaves Emmy an apple or orange in her stocking - her Christmas pj's were being washed, so she's nakey!
Here she is with her beloved toothbrush. She walked around with it all morning! And the Christmas pj's are clean here, so no more nakey!

And here is our attempt at taking some pics of Emmy in her Christmas dress after church on Sunday. We have 9:00 church so she is READY for a nap when we get home. Didn't have too much success, eh?

This one is blurry, but the only good full body shot I got

By the time I took this pic (with Jake strategically hidden in the background :) ), Emmy was done!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Here are some pics from our Christmas card photo shoot. My dad is a great photographer and has an awesome camera, so he was our photographer this year (and probably for many years to come!). Enjoy!

Emmy has had enough picture taking, can you tell?

Once again, she's done with the picture taking! (She's been sick so she wasn't feeling too great. She actually did really good for how she was feeling! We're lucky we got any good ones!)

Vegas, Baby!

Jake and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this year in Vegas. We had so much fun, the only downside was that is was way too short! We stayed at a condo so we had a full kitchen and it was pretty nice.

We went to a movie (which we hardly ever do!) and did some Christmas shopping. We also went to the strip and went to the Bellagio. We saw the water show and went to the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden. It was all decorated for Christmas and was so pretty!


Inside the conservatory

This was made of all flowers and plants

Giant ornaments next to the giant tree!

Next to the botanical garden

At the water show

At the water show again! (Please keep in mind that my coat adds on at least 50 pounds! It's a puffy coat and I look chubby in this picture!)

Emmy stayed with my sister and had so much fun with her cousins! We missed her but had a great time sleeping in two days in a row!

Poor Binga!

I was feeding Emmy dinner the other night when she started breaking out in hives all over her face. It was so sad! She hadn't eaten anything new so I have no idea what caused them. I gave her some Benadryl and by bedtime they were pretty much gone, but I felt so bad for her. I hate feeling helpless as a parent when your kids don't feel good and there is nothing you can do! (Don't mind her fro hairdo! Poor girl has hair like her mama!)

Binga Update

Emmy is getting so smart, I love seeing how much she knows!

Here are the words she can say: "Hi" (this is her favorite one and says it to EVERYONE! When we are at the grocery store, she sits sideways so she can see everyone and says it to anyone she sees); "bye bye" (with a little wave. She closes doors and says it); "no, no, no" (she has renamed the toilet paper "no, no, no" because I always say it to her when she gets into it); "Pa Pa" (my dad); "ma ma" (me); "da da" (Jake); "ball" (which comes out more like "ba"); "thank you" (she doesn't say it on her own, she says it if we say it to her, and it sounds more like "dee dee"). That's all I can think of, but I think she's pretty smart!

She knows objects and if I ask her to get something, like her ball, her book or her "happy hippo" (a stuffed animal that giggles), she gladly goes around the house looking for it and then brings it to me.

She can touch her nose or mouth if I ask her to. We're working on ears right now, but she doesn't have that one down just yet. And she sort of knows the actions to "itsy bitsy spider". It's so cute!

The one word that she conveniently doesn't know the meaning to is "No". If I tell her no, instead of stopping she does it more and runs away from me. For instance, she just love the toilet paper. If she's in the bathroom with me while I'm getting ready and I take my eyes off her for a minute, she is definitely going to go straight to the tp roll and start yanking the tp sheets off! If I tell her "no", she holds on to it and runs out, creating a tp trail and making a bigger mess! So, I know she knows what "no" means, she just chooses to ignore it.

One thing that is funny that she does is poops on the toilet. If I get her out of bed in the morning and she hasn't pooped yet, I take her to the toilet and wait for her to go, and she does! One less poopy diaper to change and hopefully she won't ever be scared of the toilet when potty training time comes along!

And she has this new Dora chair that she got from Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Derek, Dylan and Ella for her birthday. I think she feels so grown up in it. It's so cute! We put it in front of the tv for her and she'll watch her shows while sitting in her big pink chair. How fun to see them grow up!

I heart Christmas!

It's no secret that I LOVE Christmas time. Right after Thanksgiving, on goes the Christmas music and up go the Christmas decorations (it would even be a little earlier if I could convince my husband).

Since Emmy is into everything these days, we decided not to put up a big tree but to decorate these smaller trees that we have and put them up high so she can't reach them. Our house still looks very Christmas-y and nice! I'm not brave (or patient) enough to deal with her eating and ripping down Christmas decorations.

Emmy and I wrapped some Christmas presents yesterday. I would roll out the paper to get ready to cut, and she would run over and plop herself down right in the middle of it! I guess she wanted to get wrapped, too . . . Needless to say, it took a little longer than usual to wrap presents.

Happy Anniversary!

Jake and I recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary! He surprised me with these beautiful flowers. He's such a great husband and dad, I couldn't ask for a better man!

We are going to Las Vegas this next weekend for a little get away. It will be my first time away from Emmy overnight. I know I will be sad to be away from her but I have to say I'm really excited to sleep in! We're staying for 2 nights and I'm planning on just relaxing with my husband. It will be great!

Simple Pleasures

I love Emmy!!! Tonight, after Jake went to the library to do homework, Emmy and I were just hanging out. I held out my closed hand to her, she opened it up and pretended to grab something out of it and put the imaginary "something" into her mouth. She did it over and over. It was so funny, I was totally laughing out loud to myself!!!! I wish I could've gotten it on tape, it was seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen her do!

Scary Santa?

I'm singing this weekend at the Dickens Festival in St. George. Today was my first day performing and they have a place where you can get pictures with Santa. We thought it would be fun to get Emmy's first official photos w/ Santa. Well, she didn't think it was so fun . . . she was totally scared of him!!!! It was so funny. He is a big burley man with a booming voice. He is the best looking Santa I've ever seen, exactly what I pictured Santa looking like. I tried distracting her even before I put her on his lap, but it was no use, the damage had already been done. She'd already seen and heard him. I hurried and put her on his lap and was jumping up and down, singing her favorite songs but nothing worked. So now we have a classic picture of Binga with Santa. What a great memory!

Leave it to dad

This is what happens when dad changes the diapers! He changed her diaper when we were out to dinner, so she had her pants like this until we noticed when we got home. In Jake's defense, there are no pockets on the bum of these pants so we really couldn't tell. It was just hillarious!

Four-wheelin' family

A couple of weeks ago, we took Emmy on her first ATV ride. She had a blast! I didn't know how she would react to the helmet (when we went boating this summer, she did NOT like the life jacket) but it didn't bother her at all! Her little face was so cute and squished in the helmet.

Emmy was in the very front, then Jake and then me on the back. My parents have this really cool BIG four-wheeler that has a 2nd seat so it was roomy enough for all of us. I just put my arms around Jake to hold onto Emmy. She was such a good sport, I think we'll have to do it more often!

Birthday Girl

The day Binga was born

Emmy's First Birthday is this month. I can't believe it has been a year already! My pregnancy seemed to drag on FOREVER, but once she was here it has just flown by.

I gave her a cupcake to dig into but I think most of it ended up on the floor
She wasn't shy about rubbing the frosting ALL OVER herself!
Especially in her hair


Her cousins, Maddy and Grey, gave her this unicorn. She absolutely loved it. She just started hugging it and carrying it around with her after she opened it. Thanks, Mads, for picking out the perfect present!

Happy Birthday, Emmy! We love you so much! You have made our lives so exciting. We never knew we could have so much joy! Who knew our lives could be such an adventure!

Fun in the sun!

Emmy and I went to St. George last week. They have a "River Walk" where kids can get into the water and play (the bottom of the "river" is cement and there are big rocks for the kids to play on). We went and Emmy had so much fun playing in the water! Can you believe it was warm enough for her to be in her swimsuit and splash around? It was in the 80's. Crazy! But it was a fun time to get out and just have some fun in the sun!

We also went to the park last week. Emmy loves the swings, can you tell?

Walking

Emmy started walking on her own last night! We were playing Wii and not even paying attention. All of the sudden Emmy stands up and starts walking! Once she started she didn't want to stop. She was walking all night. What a fun time! Being a mother is such a joy.

There's no place like home . . .

It's Dorothy in her Ruby Slippers!

Emmy loved walking through the leaves on the way home from Trunk or Treat


Eating a Halloween Tootsie Roll. She loved it!

Just Chillin!

Happy Halloween! This year was Emmy's first Halloween and it was so much fun dressing her up. We went to the church for our ward's Halloween party and Trunk or Treat. We didn't stick around for the Trunk or Treat part (Emmy was getting pretty tired and cranky) but we had fun.

This is Emmy's new face when she pouts. It is so funny!

And Happy Birthday, Lindsey (my beautiful sister)! What a fun day to have a birthday! We went to her house on Saturday and had a birthday party. It was a blast! I dressed up as a witch (although I looked like Professor McGonagall) and Jake dressed up as Dracula. There was a Murder Mystery game and I won! The prize was a $50 gift certificate to Macaroni Grill. Yum yum!!! Lindsey has the pics on her camera so when she emails them to me I will post them.


Lindsey and I a LONG time ago - how funny!

Happy Halloween!