Christmas 2008

We had a great Christmas at our house this year. On Christmas Eve, we went to my sister's house and had our annual Christmas Eve party! We ate yummy food, watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas (we watch it every year - it's the one with Jimmy Stewart), and Santa Clause came to visit! I'll have to post those pics later, they are on my dad's camera. For an added bonus, this year Jake's brother and his wife decided to join us for Christmas. It was so fun having them here! On Christmas day, we opened presents, ate yummy food, relaxed and played games. Here are some highlights from our day . . .

Emmy opening a "Max and Ruby" video - her favorite show! Can you see the smile on her face?

Emmy got a princess blanket - it is so cozy! Uncle Alex is helping her look at it.

Uncle Alex, Aunt Mary and Ellie got Emmy this bike! She loves it! Thanks, guys! They got Ellie one, too, so now they have twin bikes!

Emmy and Ellie riding their new Barbie bikes in Grammy and Papa's garage.

Emmy was having so much fun riding her new bike!

We are back from our sunny cruise to Mexico! While the snow was falling down back home, we were drinking Pina Colada's and sun bathing on the beach! But, before I post about our trip, we wanted to let everyone know . . .

we are expecting baby number two! We are so excited to share the news! I'm 12 weeks pregnant, which makes July 5th my due date. The old belly is already starting to thicken up! I don't look pregnant yet, just chubby :) Oh the joys of pregnancy! But it's all worth it in the end, right?

Christmas Card Photo

Well, since we are going on a cruise (we leave tonight!), I'm not going to have time to do Christmas cards this year. Which is ok with me! It gives me an excuse not to do them :) Plus it will save us a little cash, not sending them out. So, here is the photo that would have been on our Christmas card . . .

Four {blissfull} Years

Four years ago, Jake and I were married for time and all eternity. We were married at 1:30 in the afternoon. By the time we were done with the ceremony and were done taking pictures outside the temple, we were starving! So on our way to the reception, we went through the McDonalds drive-thru for a little cheeseburger goodness, Jake in his tux and me in my wedding dress! We then had a reception/dinner at the Grand America hotel. It was a beautiful day that I will never forget. (Our computer and scanner are having problems, so I had to take pics of our wedding album to post . . .)


I am so lucky I found this wonderful man! He is the best husband and the best father. He is so selfless, giving and kind. He would do absolutely anything for Emmy and I. We are so lucky to have him in our lives. I love you, Jake, and am so proud to be your wife.

We decided, last minute, to go on a cruise for our anniversary! We will be going on a seven-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We leave Friday night. I'll have lots of pics to post when I get back!

Santa Clause!

The Dicken's Festival was this weekend and we got to see Santa again! Remember THIS from last year? Well, Emmy was so good with Santa this year! Just look at this adorable picture:


Isn't that just adorable? And she told Santa "Thank you, Santa" after he gave her a candy cane :) I also got to sing again at the Dicken's Festival this year. It was a blast! We did a little Christmas shopping and got in the Christmas spirit.

Also, I wanted to share one of the cute things Emmy has been doing lately. She's been running up to me, holding one finger up and saying, "I'll be right back . . . " and then tells me what she's doing in one word. For instance, she'll say, "I'll be right back, dancing." Or "I'll be right back, dress," meaning she wants to put on one of her dress-up dresses. It is so cute! And her face is all serious when she says it.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving (a few days late . . .)!!! We had such a great week last week. The family fun started on Tuesday night when my brother and his family came down. On Wednesday, we went 4-wheeling and had a great time . . .

We told Emmy to put her hands in her pockets because it was so cold and we forgot her gloves. She was so cute!

My brother and his two adorable kids

This is on Thanksgiving day. My sister and her family came, as well. If you look close, you can see a cute little teeny dog that Emmy is holding. It is my sister's niece's dog. So little and cute! We all ate at my parent's house and had a DeLiCiOuS meal! This was the year my mom was going to teach my sister and I how to cook a turkey . . . we didn't wake up in time to learn :) Guess we'll have to learn next year!

On Saturday we headed up north and got to visit with Jake's dad for a little while. Emmy had a lot of fun playing with her grandpa!

After the visit with grandpa, we headed over to Jake's sister's house where we got to eat our second Thanksgiving meal! Does it get better than that? Jake's mom, sisters and brother and their families were there. I only took a couple of pics, and this is one of them, Emmy and Ellie jumping on the trampoline. Emmy had a lot of fun playing with her cousins all weekend!

We had such a great weekend! It was so great to see family and relax. Jake didn't have to work all weekend, so he just got to be home with us. Can't ask for a better holiday weekend than that!

Grandma!

Emmy absolutely adores my Grandma Hansen. Grandma came up to visit (we were at my parent's house). Emmy was just following her around and yelling, "Grandma! Grandma!" and she wanted Grandma to pick her up. My poor grandma is 85 years old (or around there) and couldn't pick her up unless she was sitting down. And as you can see, Emmy loved it!

And this pic of Emmy cracks me up. She is such a little cheeser! What a cute girl I have :)

Fun weekend!

We had such a fun weekend! On top of Emmy's party, Jake's brother, Alex, and his wife, Mary came to visit! We had so much fun hanging out with them. We saw the new James Bond movie (very good! And very action packed), ate out a lot and just hung out and had fun! Emmy and Ellie had so much fun playing together. They liked jumping on the air mattress, as you can see in the pics below. Thanks for coming, guys! We had a great weekend!

Ellie was such a good little "poser". She would smile everytime I asked her to so I could take pics :)

I think they are both trying to get a book here . . . they were giggling so hard!

Oh, and I forgot to put a link to my friend, Jessica's, blog, Sugar Baby Cakes. Gotta give credit to the adorable cake!

Princess Party!

We had Emmy's party on Saturday. We had a Princess Party since she loves Ariel, Cinderella and Belle! Emmy had so much fun with her friends!

Emmy's friends and cousins. From top left: Max (with his back to us), Mary (not a kid, Emmy's aunt :) ), Ellie, Emit, Emma, Ella, Dylan and Emmy. I didn't get a pic with all of the kids. We're missing Emmit in the pic. Yes, there were six kids whose names started with the letter "E" :)

To start off the party, all the kids decorated tiaras (I had car stickers for the boys so they could have a prince crown). Then they all got to sit on a blanket while I read them a princess story. Then we ate food, mingled and I put on Sleeping Beauty for the kids. After we all ate some good snacks, we opened presents and had cake. Jessica made this aDoRaBlE princess cake! All the kids absolutely loved it! When Jess brought it in, all the kids followed her to the table and Emmy kept trying to grab it. She just loved it! Thanks, Jess!

The beautiful princess birthday cake!

Emmy opening presents

Thanks to all of Emmy's friends and family for making her birthday so special!

This is Emmy on Friday after she opened her presents from mom and dad. She got a bunch of dress-up clothes that she never wants to take off!

Happy Birthday, Emmy!

Two years ago, our sweet little Emmy was born! She was 7 lbs, 4 oz of pure joy. Our lives haven't been the same since. She has filled our lives with such happiness and love. She makes us laugh everyday. Thank you, Emmy, for changing our lives for the better! When she was born, she definitely looked like her dad. She looked like she was straight from the Chilean mountains! She is such a beautiful, spunky, happy girl and we love her so much! Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Who doesn't look at this and smile? :)

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day! What a great day we have to celebrate the men and women who have helped keep this country free. I got to help celebrate the day by singing the National Anthem at the groundbreaking of a local WWII monument. It was great to see all of those WWII veterans and it made me think of my Grandpa Speechly, who fought in WWII. Thank you to all those who have fought for our freedom!!!

My cute 91-year-old Grandpa Speechly

Pictures

My dad and I went up the mountain again last week to take some pictures.  And, of course, I had to take pictures of my favorite subject . . . Emmy!  

Emmy found a stick that she loved playing with.  She was "playing drums" on all the trees and tree stumps with it :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! Emmy was Vampiress and looked aDoRaBlE! We had a great time at our ward's Trunk or Treat. Jake and I dressed up in our cop costumes and won the award for "Best Security Costume". We also stopped at a few houses for trick or treating. Emmy loved saying "Trick or Treat!" and putting candy in her pumpkin bucket.
Here are some pics of Emmy in her costume:

The cutest Vampiress I've ever seen :)

We were at Grammy & Papa's house. Papa kept reaching his hand through the opening in the rock wall and scaring Emmy. If you look close, you can see my dad's hand reaching out for Emmy . . .

My little pumpkin playing with the pumpkins

Emmy and her papa

THRILLER!

We went down to Tuacahn on Thursday night and got to see Thriller from the Odyssey Dance Theatre. It was so awesome!!! I will definitely be going again in the future. Matt Dorame from So You Think You Can Dance performs with them - it was fun to see him dance in person! We took Emmy along with us and she loved watching the dancers! She did so good and just sat on our laps and watched the whole time.

Emmy was a little scared of the zombies

Matt Dorame w/ Linds and me. Poor Emmy was squished between Matt and I. I guess I was trying to get really close to him ;)

Halloween Party Fun!

Jake and I went to my sister's house on Wednesday night for a Halloween party and a night of fun! Jake wanted to be Ponch from CHiPs so I decided to do a theme & go as a cop, too. We had a lot of fun! Thanks, Linds!

The group at the party - lots of fun costumes!

We had yummy food and we had some scary stuff to drink . . .

Allergies = no fun!

On Sunday, we were at my parent's house. Emmy was on my dad's lap and he was eating his nuts (I think they are his favorite food :) ). While we were eating dinner, I noticed she had hives on her arms and she was scratching everywhere. Her face even had hives and one of her eyes was swollen. The oil from the nuts got on Emmy and gave her hives! It was so sad! If you don't remember, I talked about Emmy's food allergies HERE. I guess we have to be more careful around Emmy!

Fishing with Papa

I am watching Lindsey's kids this weekend and Papa decided to take us all fishing in his fishing boat! We went to Minersville Lake and had a blast. We didn't catch anything (the water was really muddy and murky - yuck!) but we still had fun. Emmy had fun until she realized she was wearing a life jacket and couldn't take it off :) She spend the last 20 minutes (or more) screaming and crying. It's funny because we went water skiing this summer and the life jacket didn't bother her at all . . . I felt bad for her, but it was kind of funny! Here are some highlights of our fishing trip:

Ella didn't want to leave the lake. She wanted to keep fishing until she got a fish!

Emmy before she realized she didn't like the life jacket.

Emmy and mommy - if you look at Emmy's face, she's starting to notice the life jacket . . .

More fall pics

Last Sunday morning, we decided to go for another drive up the mountain and listen to conference on the way. To our surprise, it had snowed on top! So I got a couple nice pics before my camera died :)

A nice, snowy river

Leaves on a quaking aspen - my favorite trees!

I Heart Fall

Fall is my favorite time of the year!  The leaves change, the air becomes crisp, it smells so good outside and I find myself wanting to make soup everyday for dinner (it was cream of cauliflower with cheese the other night . . . yum!).  Seriously, what's not to love about fall?  My dad, Emmy and I decided to drive up Cedar Canyon yesterday to capture the beautiful changing leaves before it was too late.  Here are some highlights of what we saw: