Dave, Jenn & Emma

2011–A New Year!

2011-01-09T13:48:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!! Dave, Emma and I have been in Seattle for the past 2 weeks, but we are now back in Idyllwild. I don’t have any pictures to post in this entry, but I have made it my New Years Resolution to do a better job of updating our blog. Dave’s parents blessed us with a new computer for Christmas and I have just finished downloading some programs that should help me keep everything more organized and make it easier to keep you all updated.

Since it has been so long since we’ve updated anything, it is my goal this week, to make one entry that will include the past 5 months, starting with Emma’s birthday back in August. It will be a summary of what’s been going on with us and not in great detail, but in order to try to stay on top of what’s going on in our lives, I can’t start of my resolution with a backlog.

Today we are doing a bit of recovering from our vacation, packing up Christmas and playing with all of our new Christmas presents. Well, Emma is at least. She got to use her new crayon maker today!! We are sad that this holiday season is finally at an end for us, but we are looking forward to what God has in store for us in 2011.

Blessings to all of you!!

4th of July

2010-09-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

This year for the 4th we got to be in Seattle with my family. We try to get up there once during the summer and this year we opted to go up before Emma turned 2 so we wouldn't have to pay for another plane ticket. :) Like so many of Seattle's 4th of July's, it was a fairly gloomy day so we ended up just spending most of the day inside at home. But Emma still looked cute in her 4th outfit!

When we finally did go over to the fireworks, we didn't have a long wait until they began, but Emma took off to explore the crowds.

Then she had to rest for a bit.

And finally the fireworks began - it was so exciting and Emma was mesmerized.

By the time we got home she was worn out and asleep so it was off to bed, but she had a good time celebrating her 2nd 4th of July!

Father's Day

2010-09-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Well, once again it's been forever since I've updated the blog. No excuses other than, we have had a crazy, wonderful, ridiculously busy summer!! For almost 3 months it seemed that Dave and I never spent 7 consecutive nights in our own bed. Haha!! Well, summer has come to an end for us and although the fall and winter promise to be eventful as well, I finally have a bit of a lull in my time and decided it's time to get this thing updated!! :) So, here we go all the way back to June:

For Father's Day I wanted to do something special for Dave since he is such an awesome Daddy!! Both Emma and I love him so much and thought he deserved something special. So we packed up and headed for San Diego. We went swimming in the hotel pool, took Emma to her first baseball game and had a fun visit to the zoo. It was a fun time for the 3 of us to hang out and we even got to see a few friends and family along the way.

Emma really loved watching baseball - NOT!! But she did really love the food. :) She suckered Dave into giving her some ice cream and she stole my fries. She had a great time running around and eating food once we moved out of the sunny bleachers and onto the shady hillside.

At the zoo, Emma got to see a baby gorilla, bears playing in the water, some lovey-dovey elephants and she got to hug some goats. However, one of her favorite things was playing in the water right outside of the elephant exhibit. :)

We had a great weekend celebrating Dave and are so grateful for his presence in our lives. He's an awesome guy!! We love you sweetie!! :)

Stagecoach Music Festival

2010-05-31T20:58:00.001-07:00

In April, we had the opportunity to go to Stagecoach for the afternoon. It was fun to get Emma out and listen to some music for awhile. She had a really good time there. She spent most of her time entertaining all of the people around us while we waited for bands to come on. She got so much free stuff from people too: ice, water, food. They all loved her - she was probably one of the youngest people there and they just thought she was cute.

Giving Daddy a kiss:

She took him off to get closer to the stage. She probably would have gone on the stage had she been allowed.

Looking cute on her hay bale:

It was a hot day and so we got her one of these water sprayers that they were selling. She LOVED squirting herself and everyone around her - nobody minded 'cause they were all hot too. She still plays with it all the time. We were in the desert on Sunday and when we got in the car to head home she was so hot so I let her have it. She soaked herself and then promptly fell asleep. :)

Grandma Turns 50!!

2010-04-26T11:17:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago we took a trip to Seattle to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday. We were up there for about 5 days and it was all a surprise to her. It was so funny to see her reaction when she walked in the room and all 3 of us were sitting there - she screamed and we all laughed. Even though we surprised my dad on his 50th birthday, my mom had no clue we were coming!

On one of the first days that we were up there, we took Emma to Kelsey Creek Park in Bellevue. I went to that park all the time growing up so it was fun to take her there. The main reason we went there though was because they have a little farm and we all know how much Emma LOVES animals right now!!

She looked at the big pig with Pa:

She also saw chickens and bunnies and we also had the opportunity to watch them bring the cows into the barn from the fields.

After we saw the animals, we went to the playground and played for a long time. Emma had so much fun!

Peeking at Pa through the big hole:

Riding on the teeter-totter with Pa & Grandma:

When I was younger, my siblings and I, used to slide down our stairs a lot. We designed a contraption with fold up mattresses and blankets to make us go really fast. We even used to take the cats down with us - they sure loved that! :) Well this time when we were up there, we decided Emma was old enough to be exposed to this and she really liked it. We went down over and over again and she even got Pa to go down with her. He's a sucker...

We had a surprise party for my mom on her actual birthday and once again she was very surprised!! To get her out of the house, Emma & I took her to get pedicures. This was Emma's first time getting an official pedicure and she had a really good time - it was very cute!

I probably won't be taking her again anytime soon b/c her's chipped off very quickly, but it was still a fun experience. She even got to have Starbucks with us before we got there!

After the party, Emma had a great time playing with the balloons. Here she is with all of them and her new sheep from Great Grandma Kelly:

It was definitely a busy few days, but we had a great time! My mom thanked us for coming up and for all the surprises and I told her we'd come back anytime she turned 50!! :)

Easter

2010-04-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Easter started off for us as a very busy morning. We decided to go to our church in the desert for Easter service, which meant we needed to be fed, dressed and out of the house by 8. It doesn't sound that early, I know, but when you have to get Emma ready it takes a little bit longer! :)

We woke her up about 7:15 and gave her her Easter basket. She was looking real beautiful in her half-zipped jammies and crazy hair. She liked her basket though and of course we had fun watching her dig through it! :)

Emma still doesn't do extremely well in the nursery at church, so we decided to try and let her sit with us through the service. She was pretty good...as long as she had food to eat to keep her mouth quiet. She was thrilled to get a donut! :)

Easter was beautiful in the desert this year and so after church we had trouble getting Emma back in the car. She kept running around in the grass and trying to get away from us. It was really cute!

Later in the afternoon, after we got back from church, Dave's parents came up to celebrate Easter with us. I think Emma's favorite part of the afternoon, we getting to find Easter eggs.

It didn't take her long to figure out that there was candy in the eggs (m&m's and jellybeans) so she spent a lot of time just eating the candy. :)

She was very happy with her treasures - we are still rationing them!

The day ended with a yummy dinner - Emma's favorite's were the ham and the rolls. It was fun to watch her enjoy everything and we had a great time celebrating Jesus and His love for us!!

Disneyland

2010-04-19T17:44:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm a bit behind again on posting Emma pictures, but here we go! At the end of March, we took Emma to Disneyland again. When my parents were here in November, they helped us buy season passes so we are able to go more often!!

Here's Emma getting ready to go into the park:

We went to see the return of Captain EO as soon as we got there. Emma actually really enjoyed the show and got to have some fun with her 3D glasses! :)

After that we got to go see Tigger and Eeyore. Although Tigger was Emma's first love, she is now VERY into all of the Pooh characters. She sleeps with all of them every night! Her first glimpse of Tigger:

And Eeyore got a kiss:

Posing with Daddy:

We ended the day by heading over to the petting zoo. After learning that Emma loves goats at the Date Fair, we couldn't resist! :) She got to pet the goats again and loved it!

After dinner with Grandpa & Grandma Anderson at El Torrito, we got Emma ready for bed before driving home and she passed out in the car almost immediately, balloon and all in hand. It was a good day.

Emma's 18 Month Checkup

2010-03-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Emma had her 18 month Dr.'s appointment, and I am happy to report that she is a growing and healthy little girl! She is weighing in at 24 pounds, 7 ounces and is 31.5 inches tall.

She had to have one shot but she was very brave and only cried a little. After the appointment we had to take her over to the lab to get her blood drawn. It was just for routine checks, nothing to worry about, but Mommy was DREADING that!!! But after all was said and done it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Emma was super brave again and only did a little bit of crying. As soon as it was over she got some stickers and it was only a matter of seconds before she had forgotten all about it. :) When we were done I took her to feed the ducks and she got ice cream from McDonalds after lunch. I am always a super softy on shot days!!

And just to keep you updated, we are still in the process of getting her tested for allergies. It is a very slow process, but eventually we hope to get that figured out. The allergist said they will do a blood test to test for food allergies and a scratch test for airborne allergies. Hopefully that will happen soon! However, her eczema seems to be a lot better since we moved so that is a blessing!

Emma will be 19 months old next week. We can't believe how fast she is growing. She is running all over the place and is learning new words every day. Last week Dave taught her all of the Pooh characters...her favorite show and friends!!! :) She's a cutie!!

The Date Festival

2010-02-22T16:52:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we finally had a free day to take a ride down the mountain and go to the Date Festival. This was the second year in a row that we have gone, but this year we thought Emma would probably enjoy it a lot more than last year and boy were we right!! :)

We met up with our friends Jeremy & Angella and their two kids again. It was nice to be able to spend time with them and watch the kids together.

One of the first things we did was go into the barn so that Emma could see the animals. She snorted at the pigs until one of the squealed very loudly and she got scared.

Then we saw the goats. Emma was a bit timid at first, but she got very friendly with them very quickly!! :) Goat kisses:

She was sad when we left the barn and every time we walked by it the rest of the day she tried to get us to go in. It was kinda funny. But she soon found something fun to do and it took her mind off of missing her favorite goats. She started feeding Hudson. The two of them thought that was just the best game ever!!!

Then after walking around a bit more and a treat of shaved ice we headed off to the pig races. Emma was being goofy while we waited for them to start:

Cheering for the piggies:

After that Jeremy & Angella had to leave, but we hung around for a little while longer. We went over to the games and Daddy won her a dog. She was starting to get tired so I couldn't get her to smile, but she loves her dog. She carried it around the rest of the night and kissed it and barked with it. :)

Before we headed out we took one last trip to the barn so Emma could see her goat buddies again and then we headed into the petting zoo. This made her day for sure!!

Petting a camel:

And feeding more goats:

After a pizza dinner we headed home with a very sleepy, very happy little girl. She is already counting down the days until next year when we can head back. :)

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Dave had a 4 day weekend & Valentine's Day happened to fall on one of his days off - yeah!!!

We spent Valentine's Day as a family and had a really good time spending time together and just relaxing. We had a nice big breakfast of heart shaped pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon & fruit. Emma even got to put M&M's on her pancakes - yummy!! Then for lunch she got heart shaped sandwiches. :)

Here is our adorable little Valentine:

Emma got several things from us on Valentine's Day, but her favorite was a new aquarium. She loves her "shies" as she calls them and she looks forward to feeding them every morning and evening. :)

Then after Emma went to bed, Mommy & Daddy got to have a nice grown-up dinner. It was really yummy, but the best part was that we just got to spend a few hours talking and really enjoying each other. We couldn't have had a better day! :)

The next day we drove over to the park. Emma had a REALLY fun time going down this slide. It was a double slide so we could help her down, but she could still sit on her own slide. She was really cute.

It was one great weekend and we look forward to spending many more Valentine's together. :)

Dave's Birthday & Feeding the Ducks

2010-02-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Friday was Dave's 29th Birthday! We went down to the desert with him for the day. Emma & I hung out and ran errands while he was at work, but when he was done working we had a fun evening of celebration!

Last week I discovered a duck/fish pond in La Quinta. So, after Dave got off work we took a trip over there to feed the ducks.

Emma throwing bread in the pond for the ducks - with Daddy's help of course:

She tried to kiss them:

And she tried to chase them:

Of course she had to take a bite for herself: :)

It was a gorgeous night and we had a lot of fun!!

After feeding the ducks, we headed over to Las Casuelas for dinner with our good friends Corey & Lindsey & their baby Andrew.

They sang to Dave:

And Emma ate almost all of his dessert:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVEY - WE LOVE YOU!! :)

Lots and lots of snow!!!!

2010-02-04T09:38:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a series of storms that dumped a whole bunch of snow on us. It kept us from doing some things that we had planned and Dave was unable to go to work for several days, but despite some inconveniences, we did have a lot of fun!!

Here are a couple of pictures near and around our house. The snow was definitely very pretty!!

Dave did his best to keep the driveway clear so that his car could get out if it needed to:

But he was really no match for the snow, as his car continued to be buried deeper and deeper:

When it finally quit snowing we were able to dig the car out. The snow was certainly piled high alongside our driveway! :)

And when the work was all done we got to have some fun too:

Facing Forward

2010-02-04T09:06:00.001-08:00

On Jan. 9, we finally turned Emma's car seat around in the car. She is now facing forward! We waited a bit longer to turn her around because new studies show that it is safer. But her legs finally just got too cramped to be facing backwards and so we flipped her around. She really likes being able to see us and out the front window while driving. The only negative is that the sun gets in her eyes and then she cries. We might have to move her to the side so that it doesn't bother her. :)

So anyway, here she is on her first day facing forward:

Dave's First Chainsaw!

2010-02-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

My darling husband has been wanting a chainsaw for many, many years. However, he has never really needed one so we've never made it a priority to get one. But now that we are in the mountains he has some use for one, so for Christmas he got gift cards to go buy one. He loves it and it was fun for him to use it to chop up our Christmas Tree.

I told him to pose, but he didn't think it was very manly:

His first cut with the new chainsaw - bye-bye Christmas Tree! :)

Snow & Icicles

2009-12-31T06:47:00.000-08:00

Right after we first moved into our new house (almost a month ago) we had a fairly big snow storm which left our neighborhood covered in about a foot of snow and icicles all over the house. It was a difficult time for us to have snow, as we were just moving and had wood we needed to get covered in the front yard, groceries to buy and just plain craziness, but it was very pretty!! Here are a few pictures:

An Emma Update!

2009-12-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated everyone on Emma's life, so here goes. My last update was after her 9 month appointment, and she has had a couple since then. Emma is doing very well!! At her 12 month appointment she weighed 19 pounds, 5 ounces and she was 28.5 inches & at her 15 month appointment she weighed 23 pounds and she was 30.5 inches. She is growing, growing, growing!! She is no longer underweight and she is right in the normal range for height and weight.

She had to get several shots at her 12 month appointment and for once Dave was there to witness it. It was very sad!! But she didn't have to get any at her 15 month appointment so that was nice for Mommy and Emma! :)

She is very healthy except for her eczema that we are still trying to deal with. We've been trying oatmeal baths and lotions but the poor thing can still get very itchy around her ankles. The Dr. gave us some new medicine at her 15 month checkup that seems to have cleared it up. Hopefully it will stay cleared up! We have also been referred to an allergist to find out what she may be allergic to. She seems to have outbreaks every once in awhile and we can't always figure out what it was that bothered her. Hopefully we will get that appointment in soon.

She took her first steps 2 weeks after her 1st birthday and after a couple of months of slowly getting better at it, she is now an expert walker. She has one pair of shoes that can sometimes fall off when we are outside and she gets very upset when that happens. She picks it up and brings it right over to Dave or I to put it back on.

She also finally got some teeth! Her first tooth appeared on September 3 just before she turned 13 months and she now has 3 teeth in with a couple more on the way. She has been enjoying discovering her new chompers and loving being able to eat a few new things.

Emma has been a very healthy child her whole life, but she did finally get her first cold a couple of weeks ago. It was very sad to see her sneeze and sneeze and have snot come shooting out her nose. And for such an active child, it was sad to see her just sitting around. It lasted for several days, but she is doing well now (after passing it onto Mommy & Daddy of course).

She is a wonderful, wonderful girl and we love watching her learn new things. She seems to be learning things at such a rapid pace now. She picks up new words every day and she is becoming quite the little copy cat - we have to watch ourselves a bit more now. ;) She has her next Dr.'s appointment at 18 months and hopefully it won't take me so long to update everyone on how she is doing.

Thanksgiving & Visit to Seattle

2009-12-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

This year we went to Seattle for Thanksgiving. We were up there for about a week and it was a very nice relaxing time. We had been so busy and stressed with getting ready for the move, that it was very good to have some forced resting time.

While we were up there Emma got to do a couple of fun fall outdoor things. She dug up potatoes with Grandpa, picked herbs with Grandma, played PIG, found some flowers and splashed in puddles. It was all very cute. She loved playing outside and we are happy to now live in a place where we can do that everyday! :)

On the actual Thanksgiving day she really enjoyed her breakfast of monkey bread and blueberries, but wasn't too fond of Thanksgiving dinner. It was actually very amusing looking back on it. My mom made all kinds of things that she normally likes but she wouldn't even try any of it. Well, she did eat cranberry sauce and candied apples. She also liked pumpkin pie the next day. I suppose she is getting a bit of a sweet tooth! :)

I also got to celebrate my birthday while we were up there. It was soooo fun to be able to spend my birthday with my family and go out to dinner at my favorite restaurant! I've been going there for my birthday ever since I can remember so it was very special.

It was a wonderful trip and we really had a great time!

Emma Meets Tigger!

2009-12-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

The second weekend in November my entire family came down for a quick visit. It was kind of a last minute thing, but it was really fun because it has been a LONG time since all 5 (Mom, Dad, Emily, Jake & I) of us, plus Dave & Emma have been able to do a vacation type thing. My parents treated us to the Husky/UCLA football game and then Disneyland the next day. Although Emma had been to Disneyland before, this trip was special because she got to meet Tigger for the first time. She wore her Tigger costume from Halloween and we waited in line. She was a bit hesitant, but she warmed up quickly and really enjoyed getting kisses and hugs from Tigger. He spent a lot of time with her which was very nice! So, here she is:

October

2009-11-22T13:28:00.000-08:00

We began October with a trip to the South. Dave had a good friend from Westmont that was marrying a girl from Mississippi so we headed down there for that. We flew into New Orleans and stayed there for a couple of days before we drove up to Mississippi for the wedding. As a lot of you know Dave & I had been to New Orleans a couple of years ago with our church to help with some rebuilding efforts. It was interesting to see how far the city had come since we were there. It definitely looked much better, but there is still work to be done. We still saw a lot of abandoned places with the "X"s on the front that rescuers had used after Katrina to mark what/who they had found in the house. And then there is a lot of improvement too, as the picture below shows. It is a part of the Lower Ninth where Habitat for Humanity is building places for musicians in the area.

(Dave is going to write about the rest of the trip - here he goes):

The wedding was a lot of fun and it was good to see a lot of good friends we hadn't seen in a couple years. Emma enjoyed playing outside at the mansion the wedding was at until we were advised not to let her play in the grass because of the chiggers. Just ask Jenn how fun getting bitten all over by those guys was! While in Mississippi we went to Vicksburg National Military Park and drove through the park. We also went to the Coca Cola Museum where the first bottle of Coke was bottled (A lot less interesting than we thought).

Pictures of the mansion where the wedding was (the cannon ball was shot into the house during a battle many years ago and there it remains):

Emma dancing with Daddy at the wedding:

Emma shooting the canon that was on a recovered sunken ship in the military museum:

Then we drove back to New Orleans in time for me to miss going to the Saints game and just hung out in the city. The flight back was pretty miserable since we didn't get back to Ontario until after midnight New Orleans time and Emma decided not to sleep at all on the flights. All in all though, it was a wonderful trip and Emma had a lot of fun too!

All of us at Cafe Du Monde for beignets & iced coffee:

And then we ended October with Halloween. Emma got to be Tigger this year ('cause she loves him so much)!! The day before Halloween she got dressed up and went trick-or-treating at Dave's office. She had so much fun and was sooooo cute. She walked around to all the offices with her bucket and collected all the candy she could get.

Our new house up in Idyllwild was ready for us a few days before Halloween, so we headed up there to participate in some festivities and spend our first night in our new house. The whole town shuts down and all the kids parade down the street and collect candy. Emma has fun, but it was a bit overwhelming with all the people. She was still really cute though. :)

It was a fun month and now we're onto November - yeah I'm almost caught up!! :)

September

2009-11-22T13:08:00.001-08:00

Well, I didn't get the blog updated like I had hoped to last month so I am going to do it now. We have been amazingly busy lately and there just hasn't been time for it. But we are in Seattle now for Thanksgiving and I have some extra time so I am going to get it caught up. I figure I'll just post one update for each month and be sure and give you guys all of the details of our life lately. :)

Labor Day: As I am sitting her trying to think what we did for Labor Day, nothing comes to mind. If I remember correctly, we just had a relaxing time around the house. We haven't had too many of those weekends the last several months, so I'm sure it was some much needed down time.

Sometime in the middle of September (I think) we decided that we were going to make a move up to the mountains. The lease on our house is up at the end of November, and with Dave's pay cuts we can't afford to live where we are currently. We also despise the desert for 5/6 months out of the year when it is miserably hot and we thought it might be fun to make the move to somewhere a bit cooler - where Emma can play outside! :) Here are a couple pictures of the new house:

We are very excited about our new house but it has made the last several months very busy! It's a lot of fun trying to pack a house with a little toddler running around. :) We moved all of our furniture up there a couple of weeks ago, but we are far from being our of our house in the desert. When we get back from Seattle we are expecting a couple of VERY busy days before we have to be out of the house on Dec. 1.

I think those are the main highlights for September so we will move onto Oct...

Emma's 2nd First Birthday Party!

2009-10-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well I know it's been awhile again, but I'm going to try to catch up!! :) We have lots of stuff coming up so I can't get too behind. :)

On August 22nd Emma had her 2nd First Birthday Party for all of our CA friends & Family. It was very similar to her Seattle party - we swam in the pool, ate some BBQ and of course had cake and presents. Emma loved every moment! Thank you everyone for making this time so special for both Emma and her parents.

Getting her first taste of her cake:

Everyone else got to have this cake. It has Tigger on it (Emma's favorite guy)! :)

And then she got to open some presents. She LOVED everything - she is a very blessed little girl! :)

Emma's First Birthday!

2009-08-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

The day before we left Seattle was Emma's 1st Birthday! Wow!! Dave & I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Our little baby is growing up so fast!! She has been such a wonderful addition to our family and has brought more joy to us than we ever could have imagined! :) God really has blessed us!!!!

We celebrated her birthday with a party! We invited over lots of family and friends to celebrate Emma's special day with us. We really enjoyed getting to share this with them and we want to thank you all so much for making Emma's 1st birthday so memorable!

Of course the two things that Emma loved most about her party were cake and presents! :)

She didn't realize at first that she was supposed to eat it, so she just squished it around in her hands for a little while.

She soon figured it out! :)

She LOVED it!!

Then it was time for presents. Emma with all of her loot:

She had so much fun opening her presents!

Her two favorites of the day (although she really loves them all) were her Fridge Farm and her Cheerios! :)

We look forward to celebrating Emma's birthday with all our California friends next week! :)

Seattle Trip - Taco Time

2009-08-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

So every time we go to Seattle, Dave I eat at one of our favorite fast food places - Taco Time. We usually end up eating it several times on each trip because it is sooooo good. Well this time Emma was old enough to have some Taco Time so here is a picture of her eating her first Taco Time meal. She really liked it. :)

Seattle Trip - Visit to Uncle Dick and Aunt Jan's

2009-08-16T10:11:00.001-07:00

On the 4th & 5th we headed down to Longview to visit my Aunt & Uncle. We had a really good time visiting with them and getting to do some more fun things. It was about a 2 hour ride in the car so we had to keep Emma entertained.

Emma really loved their dog Gipper! He loved to lick her and she loved to be licked (for some weird reason).

My Uncle Dick LOVES his boat so he was more than happy to take us out both days that we were there. It was Emma's very first time on a boat - how fun for her! :)

We stopped at a beach while we were out one of the afternoons. There was nobody else there so it was like our own private beach. Emma had a lot of fun playing in the sand. It was a very nice relaxing time! :)

Seattle Trip - Visit with Mommy's Friends

2009-08-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

On the 3rd, Emma spent some time swinging in the hammock with Daddy (one of her favorite all time things ever) before the two of us headed out to lunch with some of my very dearest old time friends from Seattle.

We met up at Red Robin with my friends Julie & Heidi. It was wonderful to see them and have some time to catch up. Julie just had a baby last month and Emma was very interested in little Elli. She kept wanting to touch her and wake her up. It was really cute. :)

Seattle Trip - The Zoo

2009-08-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

On the 2nd, we took a trip to the zoo! We were all excited to go watch Emma see all the animals after such a successful trip to the Aquarium the day before. She had fun, but definitely seemed to prefer the aquarium.

The first animals we saw were the penguins! They have a new exhibit which is pretty fun 'cause you can see them both above and below the water.

Next we got to see the bears. It was a pretty warm day so the bears hopped in the water to try and cool off. It was really cool to see them swimming!!

Emma's favorite animal at the zoo (as you can see 'cause she is smiling) was the Anoa. To the rest of us it was very boring but it got her excited. We're not really sure why except that maybe it was because she felt closer to it. Here is a link to facts about the Anoa if you are interested and of course a picture. http://www.zoo.org/factsheets/anoa/anoa_print.html

After we saw the Anoa we had to stop and take an ice cream break since it was so hot! This was Emma's first official taste of real ice cream - of course she LOVED it!! :)

Soon after this Emma fell asleep in her stroller and took a little snooze, but the rest of us walked around for awhile and saw several more animals. It was a wonderful day at the zoo! :)

Seattle Trip - Aquarium

2009-08-14T10:54:00.001-07:00

July 31 - Aug 9 we took another trip up to Seattle to visit my family. We did lots of fun things while we were up there and Emma did a number of things that she had never done before. One of the things we did was go to the Seattle Aquarium. Emma had a blast and it was probably one of the hi-lights of our trip. We thoroughly enjoyed watching her experience all of the fishies.

Here she is looking at a bunch of fish:

This fish came up to see her. He was very interested in her and he stayed for quite some time to stare at her. Emma enjoyed him for awhile, but when he kept staring at her she eventually got a little freaked out.

Her absolute very favorite part of the aquarium was watching the seals swim around and around. She watched them for a very long time and was so happy and focused. She clapped a lot for them! Very cute!!

Emma with Mommy and Daddy and us as a family:

On our way out we ran by the gift shop to find a souvenir for the little princess. Her favorite thing was this stuffed white seal. We tried to find other things for her that she might like, but this is what she wanted. So funny! :)

When we were all done we ran by Ivars on the waterfront for some lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny Seattle day and we all had a great time!

Day at the Beach

2009-08-14T09:56:00.001-07:00

On July 23rd, Emma & I met my friend Bri at the beach. Bri had some free time and Emma & I wanted to get away from the desert heat for the day. So we drove out there and just hung out at the beach for the afternoon. It was so fun to catch up with my dear friend and we got some cute pics of Emma too! :)

Smiley little beach babe:

Playing in the sand/putting sand on the blanket:

Taking over the beach chair:

Taking over the beach chair after a bit of an "explosion":

Just hanging out (we LOVE her):

Spaghetti Face

2009-08-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

On July 15th Emma did the thing that all babies must do at some point in their lives - she ate Spaghetti all by herself and made a big fat mess! :)

Here's our adorable Spaghetti Face just getting started:

And now she's really digging in:

Daddy gave her a bath while Mommy scrubbed and scrubbed her highchair:

Fun Times!! :)

Eleven Months Old!

2009-08-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

July 8th was Emma's 11 Month Birthday - only one month to go until her first birthday!

We took her out for frozen yogurt to celebrate - she LOVED it! :)

And then we had to get her all cleaned up before bed:

She had a very good day! :)

4th of July

2009-08-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

For the 4th this year we headed out to Grandpa & Grandma Anderson's house for the weekend. It was great to get away from the heat of the desert for a couple of days! We went out on Friday and on Saturday our friends, Jeremy, Angella & Hudson, joined us for the rest of the time!

On Saturday we got up and hung out around the house for a bit before we headed off to the beach for the rest of the day. Here is Emma in her pretty dress:

We played on the beach all day until it was time to watch the fireworks:

Emma was very tired by the time it was dark enough to start fireworks and getting a bit crabby. But, once she saw them starting she got very still and quiet to watch them. She was very fascinated. However, the show was a bit long this year and so she did get fussy before they were over. All in all though she really enjoyed them and her first 4th of July at the beach!

9 Month Followup Appointment

2009-06-30T15:58:00.002-07:00

Because Emma was underweight at her 9 Month Dr.'s appointment, the Dr. asked us to change up a few things in her diet and to return in a month to check her weight. So Friday was the day we went back and things are looking really good! Emma weighed 17 pounds, 1 ounce which means she gained almost 2 pounds in the last month!!! The Dr. was kind of amazed at how much weight she had gained - I guess all that cheese, yogurt, avocado and other fun new foods are working for her. I did cut back almost completely on the breastfeeding shortly after her last appointment and so now she is drinking formula for the most part. She is doing really well with it!! :) The Dr. didn't measure her length this time and so I did it myself this morning and she is now 27 1/4 inches. She really seems to be chunking up. I think it is almost time for a size 4 diaper. Haha! So although she is still on the low end of normal, she is doing great and her weight is right back up where it needs to be!

Emma & Tigger!

2009-06-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

About 3 weeks ago Emma decided that she really liked a stuffed Tigger that she has. It's been sitting in her room pretty much since she's been born, along with Eeyore, Pooh & Piglet but she's never really had much interest in them...until now. She picked up her Tigger right before she went down for a nap a few weeks ago & has been attached to him ever since. She sleeps with him & often takes him on some of her adventures around the house. So over the last couple of days I decided I needed to document this cuteness. Here are several pictures of Emma with Tigger. The last one I took today after she fell asleep.It was kind of dark in her room and since she is such a light sleeper I only took one picture to avoid waking her up. Anyway, it's a little blurry but it's so cute b/c she's all cuddled up with him. :)

Father's Day!

2009-06-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Father's Day & Emma & I did our best to make Dave feel very special because he is a wonderful Daddy!! We both love him so very much!!

I got up and made him breakfast before he had to head off to church for the morning. He was playing in the band at church so he was gone all morning long. I used the time to prepare a picnic lunch for us to take up to the tram. When I asked Dave what he wanted to do on Father's Day he said he thought going up to the tram would be fun. We had bought a summer season pass about a month ago so we can go up as many times as we want all summer long. It is really nice because it is significantly cooler up at the top. :) So we went up there when he was done at church and we found a picnic table in the shade and had a very pleasant lunch up there. We actually got a tiny bit chilly, but we are not complaining! Emma had bought Dave some "Dad's Rootbeer" for Father's Day so we had that while we were up there too. :)

Here is Emma with her Daddy out in nature:

We got home around 5 and Emma hadn't had much of an afternoon nap so we didn't have a whole lot of time before it was time for bed. Dave decided he was going to play his videogames and Emma decided to join him (she's discovered that she can use the controls to make the t.v. do things - it's really kind of cute):

After she went to bed, Dave & I made steak for dinner and sat outside on the patio for several hours, just talking & drinking a bottle of wine. It was a very pleasant evening and Dave said he had a great Father's Day!! :)

His favorite present was something that Emma gave him all on her own with no help from Mommy! We are fairly confident that she now has a first word!!! :) We have both heard her say it on several occasions and so although it is a little difficult to know for sure, we have decided to declare that she said her first word on Father's Day!! :) And of course I'm sure you are now wondering what it is and so I will tell you. Emma's first word is "kitty". :) We have both been holding her when one of our cats has crossed our path and heard her say what really sounds like kitty while she is looking at it. So that is our big news.

For all of your fathers out there, we would like to wish you a happy Father's Day too! We hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and that you felt honored and loved because you all deserve it! :)

Ten Months Old!

2009-06-11T12:54:00.001-07:00

Okay, I think this is my last post and then I am all caught up - for now at least! Monday was Emma's 10 month birthday - she is now in the double digits. Wow! She is such a little kid now and most of the time I don't even think of her as a baby anymore. I look at pictures of when she was a newborn and I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time.

She is a very proficient crawler now - she is all over the place and into EVERYTHING!! I have to keep a very close eye on her. She is also really good at pulling herself up onto things...couches, tables, baskets, people, etc. I am hoping that she will learn to balance herself soon and start to walk b/c she lets go of things and then just falls over. I hate seeing her bump her head on the floor (which is mostly all tile), but Dave says I should just get used to it because she's just going to start doing it more. He can say that because he never actually sees it happens or hears her cry when he's at work. Just wait until it happens when he's home - then he won't blow it off so easily. :)

She still has no teeth!!! I can't even see that there are any trying to come through. Who knows where they are? Although, people have been telling us that the longer it takes to get teeth the stronger and longer lasting the teeth will be. Does anyone know if this is true? Dave & I think it's just a stupid lie that some parent made up to make themselves feel better about the fact that their kid had no teeth. Somebody fill me in! :) Of course she doesn't care - it just means that she's eating a bunch of food now and we just have to cut it up really, really small. :)

So to celebrate her 10 month birthday after Dave got home from work on Monday we went and picked up KFC and took it to the park for a little picnic. I chose KFC because they have a lot of food that Emma can eat. She really enjoyed herself and so did Dave & I. It was really fun.

Here she is getting some mashed potatoes - yum, yum! She loved them and couldn't get enough:

She also had little pieces of chicken that we would pick off for her. She liked that too and kept trying to take our chicken away from us. But, her favorite part was finding the biscuits. She found the box that they were in and kept pulling pieces out and just gobbling them up. She made quite a mess but thoroughly enjoyed herself.

And she topped it all of with some water (we didn't let her drink our rootbeer):

She had a good time and so did we! I'm sure we'll have to do it again just for fun.

Another Trip to Seattle

2009-06-11T10:12:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago we decided to take a very last minute trip to Seattle. I had really been wanting to go up for a little while and of course my parents are always happy to have us! ;) I realized that my parents actually took most of the pictures of us while we were up there, but here are a couple of cute ones of Emma on the plane. She was such a good girl again and I really have very few reservations about traveling with her. She makes it so easy!!

We had a great time up there. We just got to relax and hang out with my family and enjoy the wonderful weather. It was a really great weather up there - 70's and 80's so it was warm but not too hot. We spent a lot of time outside (which we don't get to do too much of out in the desert). My parents' yard was in full bloom and everything was green and pretty. They also have a hammock and we spent a lot of time swinging out there. We would sit out there for hours - Emma LOVED it! She'd drink her afternoon smoothie and we'd just hang out. It was a really good weekend and I am looking forward to going back up in a couple months.

Here are a couple pictures of Emma sniffing flowers. So cute!! :)

9 Month Checkup

2009-06-11T10:01:00.001-07:00

On May 26th Emma had her 9 month Dr.'s appointment. She hadn't been since her 6 month checkup so we were very excited to see how she was doing. She didn't have to get any shots (YEAH) but she did have to have her finger pricked so that they could test her for anemia. They had the results for us before we left and Emma is getting plenty of iron so that is a blessing! :) She was very unhappy with the Dr. and nurses though - she didn't even want them listening to her heart - she was sooooo dramatic. It was kind of funny.

The only concern I had and which we talked to the Dr. about was her weight. She was 15 pounds, 2 ounces and 26 1/4 inches. This means that she had lost weight since her 6 month checkup and she was 3 months older!! So we talked to the Dr. a lot about her diet and what we can do to help her gain some weight. We have been cutting back on the nursing and introducing a lot more solids. She is eating new fun things like yogurt, cheese & avocado. She is having a fun time with it and enjoying getting to try new things! We go back to the Dr. on the 26th to check her weight and make sure that she is making progress. I will be sure and keep you updated.

Emma is Crawling!!

2009-06-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

May 7th Emma crawled for the first time! Whoo-hoo!! She had been so close for a month and a half or so but she finally figured it out. She started off a little slow and wobbly but now she is an expert. This is a video of her just a few days after she learned how to crawl.

And of course with crawling, comes Mommy having to chase after her and keep her out of all the things that she really wants to play with (or eat)! :) These pictures were taken on May 13th when she figured out that she likes to play with the cat food. I am always catching her trying to eat the cat food. I don't think she's eaten any yet, but I am not completely positive. She is kind of like a little vacuum cleaner and she is always picking things up off the floor that I didn't even know were there. I am always looking down at her and finding her chewing on something that she's found.

Nine Months Old!

2009-06-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been over a month, but on May 8, Emma turned 9 months old. We had a fairly ordinary day hanging out around the house, but later on in the afternoon I took her to get her first smoothie to celebrate. She LOVED it!! It believe it was a Strawberry/Mango smoothie and it has since become one of her favorite afternoon treats.

Here are some pictures of her later on in the afternoon. She started crawling the day before, but she had not become very proficient yet.

Emma's Beautiful Hair!

2009-06-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, once again I have been terrible about posting updates on our beautiful girl. I'll do my best to get caught up in the next couple of days!! :)

These were taken on May 3rd. Emma was playing with all of the hair things that her "Auntie" Bri gave to her and let's just say she has a lot of fun! :)

Disneyland - Take Two

2009-05-06T16:31:00.001-07:00

The tickets my parents bought for us when we went in April allowed us to come back to Disneyland within 30 days. So on Saturday we made a second visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. We repeated most of the rides that we went on the first time and were also able to add in a few more adult rides. It was another fun day and we were so glad that we got to go again!

Here is Emma on It's A Small World again:

It was a decently warm day so Emma made sure to stay hydrated:

Our friends Jeremy & Angella were able to come with us too. It was great to have some friends there with us. They have a 6 month old baby boy named Hudson and he and Emma are great friends! :)

There's a new Toy Story ride in California Adventure where you get to shoot targets and you compete to see how many points you can get. It is super fun and it's in 3D so you have to wear special glasses. So here is a beautiful family picture and Emma pulling the trigger trying to shoot things:

It was a fun day and also an eventful one that we will never forget. Jeremy hurt his back and then stepped in gum, Angella's flip-flop broke and she had to walk around without a shoe until we could find some replacements for her, and then Angella & I got stuck on the roller coaster in California Adventure. The ride broke while we were on it and they had to come get us down and walk us down the stairs. :) We will definitely head back someday though - despite the mishaps! :)

Emma in her Exersaucer

2009-05-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here is another funny video. I was sitting on the couch while Emma was in her saucer. I started filming after she was almost done entertaining, but this was so cute! She kept pressing this button on her saucer that makes different noises and then she'd look up at me like she was doing something impressive. And of course I'd praise her and let her know how proud I was of her and then I'd look away and she'd press the button again and we'd start all over!! :)

Emma Laughing!

2009-05-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Dave was hanging out with Emma and he discovered a new game that she loves! I started filming after she was almost laughed out, but this is so funny. She puts her feet up against the mirror and pushes off - it cracks her up! :)

Fun Day Outside

2009-04-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days that were in the 100's. It has since cooled down but it was a grim reminder that summer is quickly coming to the desert! :( Once it cooled down a bit, I decided that I really needed to take advantage of the nice weather and go outside before we are cooped up for the summer. So Emma & I had some fun playing outside last week.

We walked to the park on Thursday and before eating lunch she went for a little swing. It was kind of bright for her though so I couldn't really get her to smile.

When she was done swinging we went over and sat under a tree while she ate her lunch. She definitely enjoyed the picnic.

And the hot weather was good for one thing. It warmed our pool up enough (since it's too expensive for us to heat) so that we could go swimming!

It was a great day!

Emma's First Happy Meal

2009-04-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago I decided that it was time for Emma to have her very first Happy Meal. Although she still doesn't have teeth, there are some foods that she can have. So off we went and were so happy and suprised to have Daddy meet us there to experience this with us. I had asked him that morning if he would be jealous or sad if he missed it and he told me he didn't care, but as the morning went on I guess he changed his mind, so yeah for us!!

We ordered a chicken nugget Happy Meal with apple juice and apple dippers. I ordered an extra side of fries too 'cause I LOVE them! :) Emma couldn't eat the nuggets so I did, but she was able to have a little bit of everything else. She LOVED her juice and the apple dippers. I even let her suck a little bit of the carmel sauce off of them. She was only able to suck on the apples so I ate most of them, but she had a good time. And of course I had to let her have her very first french fry! It was a very fun lunch.

Drinking her apple juice:

Eating a french fry:

And playing with her toy from Monsters vs. Aliens:

Easter

2009-04-26T11:36:00.001-07:00

This year was Emma's first Easter and we think that she thought it was a pretty cool holiday. As soon as she woke up she got to open her Easter basket that the Easter Bunny left for her.

She was a very happy girl! She got to suck on her bottle shaped candy and try out her new sippy cup that has a straw on it!! :)

After Easter baskets it was time to get ready for church. Here she is in her Easter dress. Unfortunately she was being a bit cranky at the time so we only got one good picture.

After church and a nap we had to get ready for our Easter dinner. We were joined by our neighbor and two of our good friends. I had to change Emma out of her Easter dress so she wouldn't ruin it, but she got to pretend to be a little bunny! :)

She had a fun filled day and she is already looking forward to next Easter!! Haha!!

Eight Months Old!

2009-04-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know I have totally been slacking with my updates lately. I blame it partly to my new addiction to Farm Town. But, the wait is over and here are some new updates on our girl - you won't be disappointed!

So April 8, was Emma's 8 month birthday and to celebrate we took her to Disneyland! Okay, we did go to Disneyland but not for her birthday. My parents were in town and wanted to go and it just happened that we went on Emma's 8 month birthday. Dave & I would never have thought to take her at such a young age just for her, but since we were all going it was soooo fun to see Disneyland through her eyes! Of course she is too young to appreciate the true magic of Disneyland, but she had a really good time and so did we. Our tickets allow us to go back within 30 days and so we are really looking forward to our next trip

Here she is on It's A Small World which was probably her favorite ride. She absolutely loved it and even though Dave & I despise the ride we will definitely go back again just for her!

A cute picture with Daddy:

We were finally able to go on the new Finding Nemo ride which is really the old submarine ride with a few changes. She really liked that too! The pictures are a little bit fuzzy because of course we weren't allowed to use flash photography on the ride.

And of course we had to get her Micky Ears:

And here she settling in to sleep listening to her favorite CD with her new Disney Princess CD Player! She was really cute!

She was such a good girl the whole day long and although I'm sure she's forgotten all about it by now, she really seemed to have a good time and thorougly enjoyed herself!

She still hasn't been to the Dr. since her 6 month checkup - she goes in at 9 months so I weighed her and measured her at home again. She is still approximately 16 pounds according to our scale and she's now 26 1/4 inches. She is definitely getting bigger. She's not crawling yet, but we are expecting it any day now. She can lift her bottom into the air and rock back and forth. This morning she even crawled/scooted backwards - it was so funny!! :)

Well, she is up from her nap now which is much earlier than I anticipated so I don't have time to make another post right now. I will do my best to get caught up by the end of the day though so keep checking back in for more fun with Emma! :)

Pool Time & Visit With Uncle Jake

2009-03-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

So this past week my brother and 4 of his buddies from school came down to visit for their Spring Break. It was very fun to have such a full house and lots of people around all the time. Since they were here for the sun, they spent a lot of time outside and decided to do a lot of playing in our pool. Now, I personally think the pool is still a little bit too cold, but they had a great time in it. So Emma & I decided to give it a try. I went in for about 5 minutes and she decided it was too cold for her so she floated around in her little ducky. It was shortlived, but enjoyable.

Here we are together floating around. It's a little bit bright for her, but the sun hat helped a lot!

After we got out of the pool, we decided to just sit in the grass and dry out for a little while. Uncle Jake was a little bit scary for her, but she survived! :)

St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a couple of weeks behind, but here is our darling daughter on her very first St. Patrick's Day. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary to celebrate, but she looked very cute. We thought about taking her out for a green beer, but decided against that option! :) All the pictures I took of her are cute, so I'm going to post them all. Enjoy!

Playing With Toys - Part 2

2009-03-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

I missed a couple of pictures that I meant to post in the earlier post. I thought about just letting it go, but they are just too cute. Here she is playing with toys (or chewing on them) and reading the paper with Dave - one of her most favorite things to do!

Seven Months Old!

2009-03-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Emma's 7 month birthday! Wow, she is coming up on a year sooooooooo fast! We went to church in the morning and she had her second chance at trying out the nursery. It didn't go so well, but we are going to keep trying. She is okay for a little bit but then she just starts crying and no one can calm her down so they have to page me. As soon as I show up she is perfectly fine again - little stinker! Dave ended up having go to work for a few hours that afternoon so Emma and I just hung around the house like we do every day, but when Dave got home we took a walk to the park. Emma got to swing in the baby swing by herself for the very first time! She was amused but it didn't take long before she had had enough and was ready to get out. Then we went and sat on the grass for awhile - it was very pleasant.

I weighed her and measured her at home today. Since her 6 month checkup was a couple of weeks late there hasn't been a whole lot of change, but she is probably almost 16 pounds and maybe 25 1/3 inches long.

She has been feeling a little under the weather for the past couple of days. She has been sleeping a lot and not too interested in playing. She just wants to be held and held and held. She doesn't seem to have a fever or any cold symptoms so we're just keeping an eye on her. Maybe she is about to get her teeth - FINALLY. But pray for her that she starts to feel better! :)

Here are a couple of pictures from Sunday. She is sitting in the papazon chair - so cute!

Playing With Toys

2009-03-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

Since Emma learned to sit up about a month ago she has been having a lot more fun playing with toys. It's a lot easier for her to reach for things now and she really seems to be enjoying her new ability! :) I've been taking a lot of pictures and just thought I'd share.

Here she is pulling toys out of her basket:

Sitting in her exersaucer and loving posing for pictures:

Last week I took her to Toys R Us to buy her some foam mat puzzle pieces and foam blocks. It's softer for her to fall on than the tile in our house and she has a lot of fun knocking stacks of blocks over.

6 Month Dr. Appointment

2009-02-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

Since Emma's Dr. was sick a couple of weeks ago, her 6 month checkup was postponed until this morning. I am happy to report that she is a very healthy little girl! The Dr. says that she is doing all the things that typical 6 month old babies do and so that is great! She is 15 pounds, 6 ounces and is 25 1/4 inches. She had to get 6 vaccines today which was REALLY hard for me to watch. 1 was oral but the other 5 were shots and she screamed and screamed! Finally at the end I rushed in and gave her her binki and she calmed down pretty quickly, but I almost started to cry during the whole thing - poor baby! She missed her morning nap and that coupled with all of her shots means that she fell asleep in the car on the way home and is now taking a much deserved nap. She'll probably be extra sleepy the next couple of days but I'm sure she'll be back to her normal, happy self very quickly!

Trip to the Date Festival

2009-02-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

On Saturday Dave, Emma & I went to the Riverside County Fair/Date Festival with some good friends of ours who have a 4 month old baby boy - it was a great day. It was the first time Emma had ever been to a fair and she actually seemed to enjoy herself! She got to ride around in the stroller and take in all the activities and people around her!

We got to see pig races, ostriches & camels (we were bummed because we missed the ostrich races):

One of Emma's favorite things that she got to do was eating some of Mommy's shaved ice. It was a hot day so Dave & I were enjoying a cool treat and Emma decided she wanted some too. So she got to try some of the watermelon flavor - she LOVED it. Of course she would since there's sugar in it. Haha! She had a red lip for awhile after eating it - it was so cute! She also had fun playing in the grass while we were eating lunch.

We truly had a very fun, relaxing day. It was nice to be able to get out with some friends and do something that even the babies could enjoy. We ended the day by going out for Mexican food! Could it get any better than that? Here are a couple more pictures of our happy family:

Emma's First Valenetine's Day!

2009-02-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well Emma spent most of her first Valentine's Day sleeping in the car as we drove home from the Grand Canyon, but she seemed to be okay with that! When we got home though, we played with her and I read her a new book: Clifford's Valentine's Day. She liked that! Then she went to bed early because she was so tired out from traveling. So I really don't have much to post, other than some cute pictures! Yes, she is sitting up on her own in them! Yeah for Emma!! She's still a little wobbly, but about a week ago she was finally able to sit up by herself without help. What a big girl!

Trip to the Grand Canyon

2009-02-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well Dave was able to get himself a five-day weekend this weekend due to Lincoln's Birthday and President's Day so we decided to take a little trip. Thursday morning we woke up and drove over to Flagstaff, AZ. It was about a 5 1/2 hour drive. We were a little bit nervous about Emma being in the car for that long, but she did REALLY well - she was a Super Trooper! :)

On Friday morning we woke up and drove up to the Canyon. I had been there a couple of times before, but Dave had never been so it was a new thing for him. Our car had froze overnight so before we could get out we had to take a trip to the auto parts store. The clerks knew Dave personally after his 3rd trip in there - it was very funny. First he had to buy new windshield wipers, then oil, then he had to go get a funnel for the oil. It was very amusing, but we finally made it to the Grand Canyon and we had a wonderufl time.

It was very snowy and cold up there so we couldn't do much hiking or keep Emma out for too long, but we were able to take a scenic drive around a part of the rim. It was gorgeous and very amazing.

We drove home yesterday, Valentine's Day, and are now enjoying a couple of relaxing days at home. It was a very fun trip and here are a some of the pictures:

Six Months Old!

2009-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Emma turned 6 months old! We can't believe that she is already half of a year - it feels like she was just born yesterday. She is growing up so quickly and we can't believe how much fun we are having with her. She's been having a great time playing with her toys lately. She is always reaching for things and being very entertained with the world around her - it is so cute!

Here she is early in the morning last Sunday:

Another special thing about her 6 month birthday was that we were able to dedicate her at churcch. It just happened that her 6 month birthday fell on the same day that we were going to dedicate her, but it was very fun! A few weeks ago, some friends of ours who have a 3 month old baby let us know that they were going to be dedicating their son and they asked us if we would like to dedicate Emma with them. We were able to get everything arranged so it was fun to be able to dedicate our children together.

So here is Emma in her dedication dress and up on stage at church (she was very fussy that morning so we had some trouble getting her to smile):

Emma was supposed to have her 6 month Dr.'s appointment on Tuesday but it was cancelled because her Dr. was really sick. So it has been postponed which means I don't have her new measurements! When she does go in I'll be sure and post her progress.

Eating Food for the First Time!

2009-01-26T08:42:00.001-08:00

This morning, Emma got to try her first taste at solid food. Although, she ended up wearing quite a bit of it, she had a really good time and seemed to enjoy the whole process! Even though it was just rice cereal she gobbled it down and is looking forward to trying it again tomorrow. She's been watching us eat for awhile now and has acted like she wanted to eat as well, so we figured it was about time to let her try it! :)

Videos of the Snowy Ramp to the Roof

2009-01-20T14:04:00.000-08:00

So in an earlier post I had mentioned that while we were in Seattle my brother (and family helpers) had built a ramp out of snow from the ground up to the roof of the garage. We had a lot of fun sliding down the ramp in various ways! We took some videos of it and my Dad has requested a couple of times that I upload them because he wants to see them. I apologize for taking so long to get to it, but today I was determined. I sat down and figured out to edit and upload the videos - there was a lot of extra footage that would bore most people, but here are the hilights (please excuse my first-time editing skills). Hope you enjoy!

Five Months Old!

2009-01-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

I know I'm about a week late (well, longer now since I didn't finish this on the day I started it) in getting this up, but it's been a busy week. :) Emma's been keeping us on her toes. Anyway, it's been almost 2 weeks, but on the 8th Emma had her 5 month birthday. She didn't have a Dr.'s appointment so I measured and weighed her at home which is not always completely accurate, but my best guess is that she's about 14 pounds and 25 inches long. What a big girl!

Last week I took her grocery shopping and she sat in the front seat part of the shopping cart for the first time. I had to strap her in there real tight 'cause she is still not that great at balancing, but she really enjoyed it! Then when we were out to lunch last week with some friends, she got to sit in a high chair for the first time. It was padded with a couple of towels to keep her from falling to the side, but she had a really good time. She is getting so old. :)

She got a highchair for Christmas - it's still in the garage since we haven't quite had the time to set it up, but hopefully we'll get it up this week and she'll probably start eating solid foods!! I went to the store yesterday and bought her dishes and she's got some food so she's all ready to go. Mommy & Daddy just aren't quite ready - soon though!

She has also been sleeping in her own bed in her own room now for the past couple of weeks - ever since we got back from Seattle. We had a rough couple of days, but she has made so much progress and we are so proud of her! She goes to bed and naps now with little to no crying and for the most part is giving us 3/4 hour stretches of sleep at night - we are so grateful!

And as a sidenote, she has been in a size 2 diaper for about a month now. Yeah, for a growing bottom! Haha! :)

So, here she is on her 5 month birthday - drool, fingers and all!

Seattle - Day 15

2009-01-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

Dave, my parents and I took Emma for her first trip into the city! We took her to Pike Place Market. For those of you who have no idea what this is, it's the famous farmer's market in Seattle. It's the place where if you watch Real World Seattle or movies filmed there you often see the guys throwing the fish. It's always very crowded and there is such a collection of characters down there. Even if you don't buy anything, it's fun to just walk around and look at the people. AND, the very first Starbucks is right across the street! :) You can't see us very well in the first pic, but you can see all the fun people. Emma was pretty tired when the pictures were taken so she looks kind of bored. :)

We ended our trip in Seattle with a visit to the restaurant where my brother works. He works at an Outback Steakhouse in Seattle and so we went there for dinner. It was fun to see him in action and they even gave us an employee discount - hooray! It was a fun little outing!

Seattle - Day 12 & 13

2009-01-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

It's the New Year! I don't have anything interesting to post for this one, but I thought you'd all like to know that we did nothing. :) Some of my parents stopped by for awhile in the evening and we had fun visiting with them, then we ate Jack-In-The-Box and went to bed. Actually we did watch a movie before going to bed. I fell asleep on the couch, but Dave watched the whole thing and he really enjoyed it. It was called The Sting (I think). My brother came home from work around 11 and was sorely disappointed that we were all asleep.

And New Year's day was filled with lots of snacking and watching football. It was a relaxing day which was nice. Once again, I don't have any pictures for this post, but there will be more to come. Don't worry!! :)

Seattle - Day 11

2009-01-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday was the day that we got to make cookie houses. This is something that my family does every year, but this year Emma got to participate - yeah!! We had a really good time: building, decorating and of course eating candy!! :) Here is Emma helping out AND getting her first taste of anything other than milk - PEPPERMINT. She really liked it, but it was a one time treat (at least for awhile). :)

And here are the finished products. This was the first year that Dave & I didn't make a house together. We were all kind of suprised at his skill in this area (or lack thereof). Here's my house:

And here's Dave's house (it's a courthouse - hopefully this will not be a model for future buildings):

Seattle - Day 9

2009-01-05T09:53:00.000-08:00

This was the day that Emma got to meet many of her relatives for the first time. This was the day of the annual Kelly Family Christmas where all of my extended family gets together to celebrate Christmas with dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. We were supposed to have done this on the 21st, but with all of the snow it had to be postponed. This meant that Dave's parents were still in town and so they were able to join us. We didn't seem to scare them off so I suppose they fit in well with our crazy family! :)

Unfortunately, I realized that I didnt' take any pictures, but know that Emma was definitelly interested in all the people (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas). They tired her out so she had to take a couple of naps throughout the day, but she did walk away with a Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat stuffed animal from the white elephant gift exchange. It's red, black and white - her favorite colors, so she enjoys it. It was very nice for her to meet everyone and fun for me to see many of the people that I haven't seen in quite some time!

Seattle - Day 6

2009-01-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day was finally here - Emma's very first Christmas!! It was so exciting!! As you know, it had been snowing a lot before Christmas and it continued to snow on Christmas. So you know what that means...A WHITE CHRISTMAS!! Although, we'd already had our fun times playing in the snow, it was very cool to have snow on the ground on Christmas morning - there is a good possibility that it will never happen again for us and how special for it to happen on Emma's first Christmas. She is going to be spoiled. :) Here is a picture out my parent's window of what we got to look at while opening presents:

Christmas morning was very fun. Emma got to open more presents - she is becoming an expert at that. We opened presents with her before we left and then we did Christmas with Dave's parents the day before we flew up to Seattle so she knew what to expect. :) Here she is opening her stocking and playing with one of her new toys:

Santa had definitely come and left us lots of goodies (wink, wink):

We had a very fun morning with my family and after presents were over, Dad treated us to a spectacular breakfast!! After breakfast we started preparations for Christmas dinner. Dave's parents flew in that afternoon and joined us for the evening. It was really great to have all of our family surrounding us! Emma was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, and so after dinner she had to go to bed, but it was a wonderful day - one she has probably already forgotten. Haha!! We look forward to many more Christmases with her.

Seattle - Day 5

2009-01-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit behind on keeping you all updated with our trip, but I am going to do my best to catch up! :)

Day 5 was Christmas Eve for us and we had a very busy day. It snowed a lot more and so we had to take advantage of that and play some more in the snow. Here's Emma in a bucket (annoyed that we are making her pose for stupid pictures when she's freezing cold and just wants to be inside).

The snow was finally wet enough that it packed easily and so we did some fun things with it. Dave & I built a snowman:

And then my brother had the grand idea to build a ramp from the top of the garage down to the ground. It seemed like a crazy idea at first, but it ended up being really fun. We took the toboggins down and then some of the crazy men in the family took other things down the ramp - snowboards, skis...a canoe! :) It was a lot of fun.

Next on our list of things to do was Christmas Eve service at church. I've had Emma's Christmas dress for awhile now and she was soooooooooooo cute in it. It was a very nice service and a great way to remember that Jesus is what Christmas is all about!

The last thing to do on Emma's list for the day was to make cookies to leave for Santa. A few days before we left for Seattle I found the cutest little mailbox with a sugar cookie mix inside and you can make the cookies and then leave them in the mailbox for Santa. I loved it and it will be a fun thing to pull out each year!! :) So here is Emma making, decorating and mailing Santa his cookies:

Seattle - Day 3

2008-12-23T10:03:00.001-08:00

Well yesterday we woke up to a lot more snow on the ground and we were pretty much snowed in all day. My parents have one good snow car and between my Dad having to go to work and some different doctor's appointments, Dave, Emma & I hung out around the house all day. But here are some pictures of what we woke up to yesterday morning:

Seattle - Day 2

2008-12-22T14:13:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we were able to take Emma out in the snow for awhile. It was cold and she didn't always know what to think of it, but she certainly didn't hate it. We even got a few smiles out of her - it was cute. We might try to go out again today - there's still about a foot of snow on the ground! :)

Here's Emma getting ready to go out:

Here we are as a family:

Emma's standing in the snow:

Emma's sitting in the snow:

Emma's lying in the snow (making a snow angel):

Seattle - Day 1

2008-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had a lot going on even though we've only been up here a few days, so I think I'm going to try and post just a little bit each day (unless we're completely boring and do nothing). So we arrived on Satuday and after dinner, Dave & I went down to the Kirkland waterfront while Emma stayed home with Grandma & Grandpa (she slept the whole time we were gone so she didn't even miss us). We were hoping to go get some coffee and walk around in the snow, but most everything was closed down there due to the weather. But, it was still fun to walk around by the water and we did get a couple of cute pictures.

Here I am by a lightpost:

Here's Dave by a fire we found burning right on the waterfront. It was very warm!! :)

And of course here are the two of us enjyoing our time out:

It's Snowing in Seattle

2008-12-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

Well Dave, Emma & I made it safely to Seattle just in time. We flew in this morning during a dry stretch between snow falls. There are several inches of snow on the ground already at my parents' house from a few days ago and now it is snowing again!! They are expecting high winds tonight and more snow - it is snowing a lot right now. We love seeing everything so pretty and white - it makes for a pretty Christmas time. However, we are just praying that the power doesn't go out tonight - it might get a little bit cold. :) We are so thankful that we flew in this morning, as many of the flights for the next couple of days have been cancelled!! Good timing on our part. Haha!! Well, Dave & I hope to take a walk tonight after dinner so hopefully we will have pretty snowy pictures to post soon.

Hottubs and Rain

2008-12-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

It finally cooled down out here in the desert over the last couple of weeks and so Dave, Emma & I have been frequenting our hottub the last few nights. It is really fun to take Emma in there and see how much she enjoys it. Today it rained almost all day and so I decided to take Emma out in the hottub while it was raining. We got soaked but it was fun to play in the rain without getting too cold. Although rain is more common out here in the winter, it is not the most common occurance so we have to take advantage of it when we can. Emma was so cute!! :)

Four Months Old!

2008-12-10T10:15:00.000-08:00

Well, our little baby girl tuned 4 months old on Monday. Time has gone by so fast we feel like we're almost ready to be grandparents...haha!! :)

Emma woke up to a beautiful sunny day out here in the desert. It probably got into the mid 70's. She took a couple of naps, we ran some errands and she napped some more. Then before bed we watched March of the Penguins on our new t.v. She really enjoyed that. It was a very pleasant day.

I took her to the Dr. this morning for her 4 month checkup and shots (so sad). She did very well. The Dr. said she is strong and healthy. She is now 12 pounds, 15 ounces and she is 24.5 inches long. Although she is a petite little girl the Dr. says she is growing just fine. I asked the Dr. about the best way to wean Emma out of our bed at night and she said it's really hard to do that in the winter since the baby gets cold, so we'll have to figure out what to do about that, but other than that life with Emma is great. We go back in another 2 months for another checkup. She did really well with her shots too. She got one oral vaccine and then 4 shots in the leg - just like last time. She didn't even cry after the first shot, but after #2 she did start getting fussy, but she took it like a man and really didn't get that upset. We came home though and gave her some Tylenol and now she's taking a much deserved nap. We'll have to see if she sleeps as much as she did after her last set of shots.

And now for the best part - the pictures. Here are pics of our little angel, taken Monday on her 4 month birthday! We love you Emma!!! :)

Emma's First Thanksgiving!!

2008-12-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

I apologize for taking so long to get this posted, but here is the story of Emma's first Thanksgiving:

We woke up Thursday morning to a beautiful rainbow out front. It was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy in the morning, but as the sun started to come out, we were able to see the rainbow.

Then we spent most of the morning just hanging out. Emma took naps, Dave watched football and I just hung out doing whatever I wanted. It was my birthday as well, so I allowed myself a little luxury! :)

We finally got packed up and headed to Orange County sometime in the early afternoon so that we could spend the rest of the weekend with Dave's parents. We arrived shortly before dinner and then of course we got to eat dinner - yum, yum!!! Then later we got to have apple pie with icecream for my birthday. It was a wonderful day and here are pictures of Emma in her Thanksgiving outfit:

We spent two nights in Orange County hanging out with Dave's parents and a couple of different sets of friends. We took off Saturday afternoon. We were going to try and go get our Christmas tree that day, but Emma was just a little bit too worn out, so we saved that for Sunday. We headed off to Home Depot and bought the first tree we looked at, then we spent the rest of the afternoon putting up lights and decorating. It was a great way to end Emma's first Thanksgiving weekend! :)

An Emma Updatade

2008-11-25T10:38:00.001-08:00

So I realized that I haven't given an update on Emma lately so I figured now would be a good time while she's taking a nap! :) We haven't been doing a whole lot lately but Emma sure has been changing. She found her voice a couple of weeks ago and can now make the loudest sounds I've ever heard. She doesn't get upset, but she likes to hear herself scream at the top of her lungs. It's actually kind of funny. She is also loving to stand up now. She, of course, can't balance herself yet so we have to hold her, but it's one of her favorite things to do. She loves to interact with you too - she's full of smiles and giggles and she just seems to be loving being alive!

About a week ago, some friends of mine were in town and so we went to go visit them in Banning. Emma was a little bit fussy but it was fun for her to meet a couple of other babies that were there. Both of the other babies were 8 months and Emma is only 3 so she didn't really play with them, but it was fun to take pictures!

Two days ago we took her in the hottub for the second time. She really seemed to enjoy it and she looked so cute! It was nighttime and so the light on the bottom was bright and she mostly just liked to look at the light and all the moving bubbles. It was really fun and something we definitely should try to do more often.

I'm not completely positive, but I also think she might be starting to teethe. Poor baby. She just has been drooling a lot and gnawing on my finger a lot too. Plus she hasn't been sleeping that well. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it too much, which is why I'm a little bit unsure, but time will tell. I guess her Daddy started teething around 3 months, but didn't actually get his first tooth in until 7 months - maybe she is taking after him! I will be sure to keep you posted.

Well, Emma just woke up from her nap, so I should end this. We are heading to Orange County on Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with Dave's parents so I am sure there will be more pics to come. Emma's first Thanksgiving - yeah!!

Three Months Old!

2008-11-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday Emma turned a quarter of a year! She is such a big girl! She doesn't have a 3 month checkup at the Dr. so I don't probably have the most accurate measurements, but we did weigh her and measure her at home the best we could! She is 11 pounds and she's 23 1/2 inches long. I can tell she's been getting bigger, as some of her clothes are finally almost too small for her!

She didn't do a whole lot of interesting things yesterday, other than sleep. Neither of us slept that well Friday night so I think she was tired and needed some extra napping time. She did however, get to take a ride in our new car so that was fun! We've been keeping our eye out for a bigger vehicle for awhile now so that we can better accomodate our growing family. Anyway, enough about the car - this post is all about Emma. I'll post some new car pictures later. :)

So with nothing terribly interesting to report, I'll post her 3 month pictures! Here she is - the most beautiful baby in the world!!!!!!!!!

Two New Firsts for Emma!

2008-11-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Last week was Emma's first Halloween. Neither Dave nor I are that interested in celebrating Halloween so I didn't really get very prepared for it, other than buying candy to pass out to the trick-or-treater's. But, last week Dave told me that the people in his office were going to have an afternoon where all the kids of the employees could come in and trick-or-treat around the office. Well of course Emma was invited to come and so we quickly had to go out and try and find her a costume. There wasn't much left, but I did manage to find her a princess dress that would fit - she was soooooooooooo cute!

Emma also experienced another first this week. We took her in the hottub last night. I didn't really think she would like it since she didn't really love the pool, but she loved it! She probably liked it 'cause the water was warm and the sun wasn't in her face. It is definitely something we will have to do more often - she really liked it and she was really cute! :)

Emma's First Trip to Seattle

2008-10-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

So last Friday was my Dad's 50th Birthday and Dave, Emma & I all got to fly up to Seattle to suprise him! Emma and I have been planning on going since before she was born, but the day before we left we were able to get Dave a ticket too. It was so much fun! Emma got to experience a whole bunch of new things, including a plane ride. She also got to meet her two great-grandparents! We had a very fun time and my Dad was so suprised.

Emma has grown up so much in the past weeks as well. She actually had her first laugh while we were in Seattle (other than the times that she laughs while sleeping). They are still little half laughs, and not a full on giggle, but it is so cute! She is growing so much and talking a lot more now too! We've also noticed her trying to sit up on her own and can tell that there are times where she wants to be able to crawl - she is growing up too fast!

So here are some pictures from her trip:

Here she is on the way to the airport and a picture of her first plane ride. She was an awesome baby on the plane, by the way. She fussed a couple of times but for the most part she was either awake and looking around or sleeping.

And here is Emma with her Grandpa - celebrating his birthday:

While we were up there we got to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. It was not too cold, but it was cool, and sunny! It was perfect. It allowed us to do quite a few outdoor things, including going to a pumpkin patch and a corn maze. So here she is enjoying that:

We're home now and Emma has been sleeping a lot. Going to Seattle was quite an adventure for her and she was a Super Duper Trooper, but now she must catch up on some sleep! We look forward to going to Seattle again for Christmas.

New Diapers

2008-10-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official: Emma is no longer wearing Newborn diapers! :( She is growing and has now graduated to a size 1. My how big she is getting!! :)

Trip to The Living Desert

2008-10-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we had some time in the afternoon to try and do something fun with Emma. We wanted to take her to a pumpkin patch but couldn't find any that were close enough for just the afternoon. So we ended up taking her to The Living Desert. For those of you not familiar with The Living Desert, it is basically a really small zoo. It's a cute little place and is mostly full of animals from Africa. Dave & I were there last Christmas to view their famous lights, but we didn't get to see any of the animals. It was a fun couple of hours and was a perfect little outing. Even though Emma doesn't necessarily enjoy everything we want her to do, it's still fun to take her out! :)

Trip to Orange County

2008-10-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Since Dave had the day off yesterday we decided to go out to Orange County this weekend for a visit. We stayed with his parents in Huntington Beach so Emma got to see her Grandma & Grandpa Anderson. We didn't have much of an agenda so we mostly just hung out around the house. On Sunday we took Emma to Grandma & Grandpa's church so she got to meet some of their friends, and then on Monday I took her to the place where I used to work and she got to meet some of my old co-workers!

She fell asleep around 7 o'clock last night and is still sleeping. I think the combination of back to back trips to Riverside and then Huntington wore her out. It was funny because she actually seemed happy to get home yesterday. I told her we can stay home for a little while now and she seemed to like that thought... :)

3rd Visit to the Doctor

2008-10-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

So this morning was Emma's 2 month check-up with Dr. Gopez. Emma is now 10 pounds, 7 ounces and is 22 1/2 inches long. Despite the fact that everyone who sees her says that she is tiny, she is growing and the Dr. says that her measurements are smack dab in the middle of where most babies are at her age. The Dr. was impressed with how much she moved and how alert she is - she is a very healthy baby!

Unfortunately she had to get 5 vaccines today. :( One she got to swallow, but the other four were shots. I have been dreading today b/c I hate to see her get hurt. It was very hard for me. She was happy as a clam leading up to the shots but as soon as the prick came she screamed louder than I've ever heard her. It was really, really hard for me to hear and I almsot started to cry. Thankfully the Dr. was very fast. Emma got two shots in each leg and the Dr. had everything all ready to go so that Emma got to get them over with very quickly. She continued to cry for awhile after it was over, but the intensity definitely calmed down. By the time I got her to the car and all buckled in her car seat, she had calmed down and fell asleep within a couple of minutes. We had to stop by the pharmacy on the way home to pick up some Tylenol for her because the Dr. said that all those shots could give her a fever.

She is sleeping now and has been most of the day. She seems to be a bit more tired and fussy than usual, but she is doing well. I took a nap with her earlier and now she is sleeping right by my side while I post this. I'm sure she will feel better soon!

Two Months Old!

2008-10-08T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well, our baby girl is two months old today - my how time flies!! :)

So Dave has been in trial all week over in Riverside and so when it got delayed on Monday, Emma & I decided to head out there to stay with him - we couldn't go three whole days without our Davey!! :) So Emma got to stay in a hotel for the very first time and we're sure she loved it...haha!! Anyway, that is where she woke up on her two month birthday - at the Marriott in Riverside. She had a good morning of sleeping and lots of pooping (she had a major explosion right before we left the hotel)!! After I got everything packed we headed home and were back by lunch time.

She's just been sleeping and of course eating most of the day. We cuddled and took a nap together for awhile too - she is a very cuddly baby and Mommy loves that! :) Here are a couple of pictures I took this afternoon:

And here she is taking a much needed nap:

Tonight we have our new small group coming over to our house so she'll end the night with lots of visitors around. Happy Two Month Birthday Emma - we love you!!

Girls Weekend in Palm Springs

2008-09-27T08:48:00.001-07:00

Well, it's taken me awhile to get this up, but last weekend was a very fun and exciting weekend for Emma & I. 6 of my college roommates/suitemates came out here for a reunion and baby shower for Emma. We had a great time just hanging out in the pool, relaxing and catching up on our lives. I think we might try to make it an annual event.

The shower part was a lot of fun too. Bri planned some very fun games, including a drinking game for us older people (not Emma or her friend Maddie who came to visit too). We had to drink our drink out of a bottle. It's not so easy - let me tell you! Here are a couple of us going at it:

All of Emma's Westmont Aunties got to decorate onesies, shirts & bibs for her too. They are so cute and it was such a fun idea:

My friend Kate had a baby in February - Miss Maddie. She was able to bring Maddie with her last weekend and so Emma got to meet her first friend! Unfortunately Emma seemed to sleep the entire weekend so she didn't get to hang out with Maddie a lot but it was still fun! Here are Maddie and Emma meeting eachother:

So all in all it was a very fun weekend! Emma & I miss having our friends closer and we were so blessed to have them all come out to see us. Hopefully we can see them all again soon!

Emma's Getting Bigger!

2008-09-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

I went back to the breastfeeding clinic yesterday that I visited the first week Emma was born. It's in a baby furniture store and they have a lactation consultant there, but it's also just a place for moms to go and hang out with the little bambinos. It's very convenient if you happen to be out running errands and just need a place to go feed your baby.

Anyway, they have a scale there and so I got to weigh Emma again. She now weighs 9 pounds, 3 ounces!! I couldn't believe how big she was. It was funny b/c all the other moms there yesterday had about 3 week old babies so Emma was definitely the oldest and she looked so big compared to the other babies. She is growing up too quickly!!! :)

A Special Moment

2008-09-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

So this morning Emma woke up around 6 to eat. So I fed her and then I just let her stay in bed with me 'cause I was wide awake and she was cuddly. She fell asleep and I just cuddled with her until Dave's alarm went off. He had to get up earlier than normal b/c he has jury duty today and so I got up around 6:45 with him to see if I could start getting some things done around the house. I left Emma in our bed 'cause she was cozy and I knew I could keep an eye on her. Well it didn't take long before she woke up and was upset that she was all alone.

I went over to her and picked her up and she instantly stopped crying. Then I changed her diaper but I could tell she was still tired and not ready to wake up. So I went back to bed with her and she fell asleep as soon as I let her cuddle with me again. Right now she's just sleeping on my chest as I write this. I feel so special when she just wants Mommy!! :)

An Exciting Weekend of Softball & Swimming!!

2008-09-14T20:01:00.001-07:00

This was a very exciting weekend for Emma! On Friday she got to go to watch Daddy play softball for the first time. Since she's been born it has been too hot to go but on Friday it only got into the mid 90's so it was "cool" enough to go! :) She had a great time hanging out until about 1/2 way through when she got a little bit tired and then Mommy had to walk her around for awhile until the game was over. It was fun for me to be able to go see Dave too - I haven't gone to one of his games for a couple of months now.

Then on Saturday, Dave had a softball tournament in Beaumont and we got to go to that too. Emma was an angel and slept through most of the day. Everyone commented on how cute she was - which is soooooo true!! :)

Today we decided to take Emma for her first swim in the pool. I have a bunch of wonderful college girlfriends coming out next weekend and we plan to be outside and in the pool. Well we decided that we wanted Dave there for her first swim so we went today! Here she is in her swimsuit (which is still a bit big) getting ready to go to the pool:

She is relatively happy. Then we actually went to the pool. She didn't seem to hate it, but she also didn't love it. It was really bright outside and she didn't really like that so we didn't stay outside for very long. Maybe she'll need to get some baby sunglasses! :)

All in all it was a very fun weekend! After dinner she got a bath (which she liked 'cause the water's warm) and now she's all snuggled up in her jammies falling asleep in her bouncy sweet. She is very cute!!!

I'm Finally Writing an Entry

2008-09-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

My apologies to all of our faithful readers for not writing an update sooner. In reading Jenn's entries, I think she covered all the basics. Getting to spend time with Emma has been wonderful and I can't believe it has already been over a month! I've realized that, not surprisingly, watching Emma is a full-time job. She very much likes to be held at all times and doesn't really want to give you any time to do anything else. Therefore, I try to give Jenn some time to herself after I get home. That being said, Jenn pretty much does most things for Emma during the week. And I have to say she does a great job. To those of you who thought she couldn't function with less than 13 hours of sleep a night, she has proved all of us wrong!

This weekend, Emma gets to see me play in 3 softball games. This will be her first time outside for an extended period of time. Also, we are about to start a life group with 4 other couples, one who might have a kid about the same age as Emma, so she might be able to have her first friend! Of course, then she will have to become interested in something besides eating and sleeping!

2nd Visit to the Doctor

2008-09-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Emma had her second Dr.'s appointment today and she did very well! She had to get one shot and she only screamed for a tiny little bit! The Dr. said she is very healthy and is looking good. She now weighs 8 pounds, 10 ounces and she has grown 1/4". The Dr. said she is right in the middle of where most babies are at one month so that is good. She has to go back in another month to get a couple of more shots. Yeah for healthy babies - it makes Mommy & Daddy happy!! :)

One Month Old!

2008-09-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

Emma is one month old today! Parents always talk about how time goes by so quickly and it is SO TRUE!! It amazes me that she is already a month and it also makes me truly try to cherish every moment we have with her, because before we know it she will be all grown up. It has been a month filled with lots of different emotions and although it has been a bit exhausting at times, Dave & I can't express how much we love Emma and how much joy and pleasure she has brought to our lives!!!

So I decided that I'll try and keep updating this entry as the day goes by, so we can log everything she does on her one month birthday!

She slept really well last night and so Mommy is a very happy person. That also means that as of now (8:45), she hasn't done much but sleep. So here she is sleeping:

Well, Emma woke up at 9:00 this morning, had a good breakfast of Mommy's milk and more Mommy's milk, and got her diaper changed...whoohoo!! Then she wanted to cuddle so we sat in the recliner and rocked for quite some time - one of her favorite things (I think). It wasn't long after that when it was time to eat again and then take a nap with Mommy while watching Gilmore Girls. :)

She seems to be waking up now (12:00) and it's time for another diaper change and time for Mommy to try and eat some lunch. Maybe Emma would like to swing for awhile.

Well, our afternoon was filled with much of the same things as the morning: napping, eating and hanging out! Emma hung out in her swing long enough for me to be able to eat lunch and take a shower - she is such an angel! Then this afternoon I took a few naked baby pictures so here they are:

The evening ended with Emma getting to spend some time with Daddy after work while Mommy ran a couple errands. Then Mommy took over and she and Emma watched Gossip Girl and Prison Break. And by 10:00 she was asleep. It was a good day - we love you Emma!!

Weeks Two - Four

2008-09-08T08:36:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the delay in updating our blog recently. I have been trying to get Dave to write the next entry so it's not just all about my experiences. Although he willingly agreed to write something he keeps being busy or something like that and hasn't done it yet... :) So, I am going to leave this entry blank until he does get around to writing something - hopefully tonight!! But I will continue with the rest of Emma's life from here so we don't get too far behind! :)

Week One

2008-08-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Since we didn't create this blog until 2 weeks after Emma was born I'm doing my best to catch up! I won't bore you with all of the little teeny tiny details, but Emma changes so quickly and I feel like there is so much to talk about!

Emma's first week was a bit of a rollercoaster for all of us. It was such an exciting time, but it was also a very challenging time. As I'm sure is the case with any new baby, it was difficult to find time to sleep. Thankfully we had plenty of grandparents around to help us out in the middle of the night! Since I was still in a good amount of pain it was hard for me to get up a lot or walk her around and all of that fun baby stuff, so thank you grandparents who helped us get some much needed rest! We also had some trouble learning to nurse which was frustrating for all of us, but thankfully within a few days we had it down and life started to settle down a little bit.

As the week came to an end, we began to develop somewhat more of a routine. I continued to feel better and better every day so I was able to keep Emma with Dave & I at night. It was great to get used to getting up in the middle of the night and live without sleep, while at the same time still having help in case we needed it. We also took Emma on her first trip to a restaurant that week. We went out for pizza and she was a perfect angel. We also ran into the Dr. who delivered her at the restaurant - small world! :)

It turned out to be a great week getting to learn about our new daughter, seeing her smile and even laugh, and thanking God everyday for the amazing gift that He blessed us with!!!

Emma's Birthday!

2008-08-21T09:04:00.000-07:00

On August 8, 2008 our little baby girl was born! Emma Kelly Anderson came into this world at 4:39 PM weighing in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 21 inches long. We had been waiting for this day for so long!

For a few weeks prior to her birth our Dr. had been looking for any sign of labor (dilating, effacing, contractions, water breaking, etc.) but absolutely nothing was happening. He finally told us that he suspected she wasn't dropping because her head might be too big to fit through the birth canal. So the day before she was born we went in for my last regular appointment. Our Dr. gave us basically 3 options at that point: 1) continue waiting and eventually labor would come, 2) try to induce labor and 3) have a c-section. We thought about it for awhile and decided to just go ahead and do the c-section. There was a good possibility that both options 1 & 2 would end up in a c-section anyway, so we decided just to go ahead with the c-section which turned out to be the right decision because once she was born the Dr. said she did indeed have a fairly big head (just like her Daddy)!!

It was a bit of a strange day, waking up and knowing that before you went to bed that night that you would be a parent, but it was also a very happy day. We were finally going to be able to meet our daughter! The anticipation of becoming a mommy and having to have a surgery had me a bit on edge the whole day and it was about all I could do not to cry, but everything went so smoothly and our Dr. did an excellent job - we are sad that he will be retiring from O.B. this month. All in all it was a very happy day and Dave & I are so blessed to be moving ahead in life with our new daughter!