Visiting Family & Friends

Last month Emma and I went to Utah to visit my family.  Going from seeing them practically every week to not seeing them at all for 6 months has been hard.  We miss them terribly.  We're not used to being away!  Emma missed playing with her cousins and I missed snuggling little babies.  So, we went for a visit.

Since we've been gone there has been a new addition to the family.  Meet Paul.  He is such a mellow little guy!  It was so great meeting him.

Us being there also allowed us to get all the grandkids in one picture.   With all of them being so squirmy and hyper, and having 2 babies in the mix, this was about as good a shot as we could get of them!

We went to the zoo with everyone, and it was fun to see the dinosaurs they've added since we were there last summer.  A couple of them even spray water on you.  Timothy and Emma were showing off being wet.

My brother and sister-in-law hosted a BBQ while we were there too.  The kids had so much fun playing again!  I was lucky and got to hold both little babies during the evening.  Can you tell I was not the intended subject of either picture?  =)

When we weren't out and about with everyone, Emma spent some time playing with some old toys from when I was little.  I love these playskool toys and am so glad my mom kept them in such great condition for so long so Emma can play with them now.  She loves them!

We went down to Temple Square with my sister and niece to enjoy the grounds and the museum.  I couldn't help but take a few pictures.

Eliza was just giggling at Emma here.

The flowers were just gorgeous as usual!

This picture makes me laugh.  It looks like a Mormon Ad that would have a caption like "Families can be together forever."  It just seems really cheesy!

 We also went up the canyon.  We have missed the mountains so much since moving.  There is just no substitute for them.  It looks like Emma will be like her dad and enjoy getting her feet wet in cold mountain streams.

On the 4th of July I had fun painting little flags on Emma's nails.  The lighting was really bad and this is the best shot I could get of them before Emma ran outside to play.  I did manage to get a picture of her with Paul later in the evening.

 And Emma loves fireworks.  She could hardly wait!  I think they were the highlight of the day for her.

Emma enjoyed going on sleepovers to both her cousins house and to my sisters house.  Here she is being silly with her uncle Brad.

We were fortunate to see my sister and niece Eliza almost every day we were there.  Eliza was fascinated with Emma.  She would just stare at her and smile and laugh.  And Emma loved trying to entertain Eliza.  They just hit it off.  Here is an ADORABLE video my sister shot of Eliza laughing at Jill and Emma.  They were throwing some angry birds and some little stuffed pigs while making the appropriate sound effects, and Eliza just couldn't get enough!  LOVE IT!

We also went swimming with Jill and Brad for Eliza's first time in the pool.  Eliza was a natural!  She's definitely going to be a swimmer!  Her little arms knew exactly what to do!

One big surprise was that Eric was able to come for the 4th of July weekend!!  He has stayed home to work because we were gone for so long.  And as a surprise didn't tell anyone he was coming to Salt Lake on business for a couple days.  He was then able to take a day off and extend his trip through the weekend.  It was so much fun having him there with us for the holiday, and for him to also be able to meet his new nephew and see everyone again.  We even had time for a ping-pong tournament.

 It's hard to believe how much we packed in while we were there.  I was able to get together with so many of my friends for lunches, picnics, play dates at parks, dinners - it was awesome seeing everyone!

We had so much fun visiting, even if we did get a little sick for part of it!  Thanks so much to my parents for putting us up while we were there.  It was so good to see everyone.  Emma was heartbroken to leave to come home.  I've never seen her cry like that before when saying goodbye.  It was definitely sad.  She bounced back though as soon as we got home, but I know she misses everyone.  I am so blessed with such wonderful friends and family.  Thank you all for being so great!!

Memorial Day

We wanted to go camping at some point over the holiday weekend, but the weather just wasn't cooperating with us for any overnight activities.  The day time temps were pretty nice (except Sunday - down poor!!).   Emma has made little paper tents for so many of her toys to sleep under.  She's very anxious to go camping.  She loves it as much as Eric and I do, and that definitely makes me happy.

We set up a little play house in Emma's room and let her sleep in there at night.  She's too big for it anyway, but then she piles so many stuffed animals in there she leaves herself room enough to remain in a tight little ball!  Whatever she wants though - it's her sleep.  =)

On Monday it was so nice and warm, it finally felt like Spring (Summer actually).  We decided to head to the beach.  It was not very crowded while we were there either, which was nice.  We knew the Lake would be too cold to go swimming, but we just hung out and played in the sand, enjoying the heat and the breeze, and watching all the boats sail by.

Emma just felt the water and decided it was way too cold!  She also didn't like some of the shells on the ground, so it was daddy to the rescue to get her back to the better sand.

She started doing some kind of happy dance while she walked back.

And sometimes if you're patient, while spending time in nature like this, you'll be lucky enough to get to witness some of the natives at play...

We decided to take a walk around the park area that was immediately behind the beach.  We wanted to get some pictures of Emma, and decided to take a couple "glamour" shots along with our regular ones.  They are really fun, and Emma was so funny posing for them.   It ended up being such a fun day!  I can't wait to do it again.

Glamour shot 1

glamour shot 2

There were some fun bench swings to sit on

A view of the harbor

The blossoms on the trees were lovely!

Emma's Desk Project

Emma has had her desk for quite a few years now.  I think we bought it before she was born on some super sale or something, so we've had it for awhile.  It's simply too little for her now.  The chair is too small, and she can't sit and fit her legs underneath anymore.  The last several times she used it she just knelt on the floor.

A couple months ago I went to our local Good Will to see how big it was and if it would be a good place to rummage for project material, and I found a desk and chair exactly in Emma's size for only $6!  I immediately bought it and brought it home.  It needed some love and fixing up.  We took it apart and cleaned it and sanded it as best we could.  The weekend weather finally cooperated with us this past weekend so we could get it finished.  We added some paint (in the colors Emma chose) and could finally put it back together for her to use now that the school year is practically over.  =)

Here are some before and after shots.

 

Random Emma-isms

I've been meaning to do a post about some of the funny things Emma has said.  A lot of these are simply mispronounced words (which I LOVE), but some are things she's said during prayers or other conversations.  Many of these things were mentioned on Facebook as my status update at one point or another, so if we're friends there you may have read some of them before.  But I don't consider Facebook to be a format for family memories.  I don't totally rely on this blog as a journal either, like some people do (I still write in another journal sometimes), but it does serve an incredible purpose as a part-time journal.  So believe it or not, I went back through my Facebook wall to pull those ones off to include here in this list.  Sorry for the repeat, but this post might just have to be more for me than you. I know, I'm selfish.  =)  This is a long overdue post (some of these things go back a couple years!), but I wanted to make sure I'll always remember these things. And they are in random order. I would love to put them in chronological order, but they're just in my head, so that kind of organization is not possible.  

- In her prayer one night Emma asked for our family to be blessed with a happily ever after. Sounds good to me!

- Once on our way home from Texas Roadhouse Emma was still raving about the peanuts. I asked her if she would rather have peanuts or chicken nuggets and she said "peanut nuggets." Hmm, wonder if they'd be any good?

- A couple months ago during the night while she was sick, Emma coughed so hard she threw up a little and we had to change her sheets and pajamas. A few hours later she started coughing again, and Eric ran in to help her do it in the bucket and not on her bed. He really didn't want to change her sheets again. He succeeded with the bucket, but she coughed so hard she peed. So we still had to change her sheets and her pajamas again. Not way funny, but I still laughed a little.

- One evening while Emma was "trying" to fall asleep I learned the following: Apparently Tinkerbell is making it impossible for Emma to sleep. She's talking too much.

- The night before Eric left on a business trip Emma prayed that he'd be safe and not fall off the plane.

- After seeing the light on in Emma's room from under the door (after she had supposedly gone to bed) I went in to tell her to go to sleep. She looked up from her pile of books at me in awe, and asked, "How did you know?" She'll soon realize that moms know everything. Plus it didn't hurt that she was singing in there.

- Emma cracks me up! She got a little mailbox 2 years ago. The night before her birthday she stuck it outside her door without telling us, after she had gone to bed. Clearly she wanted mail, so we put something in there. Tonight she did the same thing. Quietly stuck her mailbox in the hall without saying a word. Apparently it's time for her to get some more mail and goodies!

- The night before St. Patrick's Day last year Emma prayed that she would be able to catch a leprechaun.

- She always tells me she loves me "a million, billion, trillion."

Mispronounced Words (most of which she doesn’t mispronounce anymore - which makes me sad):

- Instead of breakfast Emma says breakfask.

- reguly instead of regular

- Em-um-ems for M&Ms

- omly instead of only

- radish for rash (ie: "I hope this isn't a radish" referring to a rash on her hands)

- while reading about the ten lepers she thought it was about the ten leopards

- instead of upside-down or inside-out she’ll say upslide-down or inslide-out


- For a long time she’d say newseum instead of museum.


- He's not R2D2, he's either RT-do or RT-do-T.


- I love hearing Emma pray for President Monson, President Earring, and President Ufdorf.  She started doing this right after conference last month, and has already started saying them right.  Drat!


- Emma came home from school one day saying this.  She must have heard someone say it, but clearly didn't exactly understand what they said.  It always makes me smile!  "Eenie miney meanie mo, catch a tiny tiny toe, you are it."  It comes in slight variations now, mostly just a little longer, but it's still not quite right. 


This list is far from complete, but that’s all I can think of right now.  I’m sure that as soon as I post this I’ll think of a dozen more.  Isn’t that always the way it is?