Emma is Walking

We have a new walker on our hands.  Emma started walking last week in earnest.  Before last week she had taken a step or two here and there, but not much more than that.  Here she is walking while in the foyer at church.  This first video below shows one of her first long walks across the room.

And here's Emma today.  Walking more steadily and quicker than before.  Emma is a lot happier now that she can walk.  She's on her way!

Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving this year.

Scott flew out from California and we were able to run a 5K the morning of Thanksgiving.  It was cold (27 degrees) but all those Utahan's there seemed relatively unfazed by the temperature.  They must be used to it.  We ran and warmed up.  Here we are at the end of the race.  We got to have a little pumpkin cupcake, hot apple cider and some other post race goodies.  The race was pretty crowded, but it was fun.

This was the race provided outfit for the guys.

And for the ladies.  The kids had little turkey outfits.

Scott in the village stocks

Plymouth Rock

Here we are at the real Plymouth Rock

Anna wanted to wear my pilgrim bonnet

And getting ready for dinner.  Anna and I made a nibbly tray while the turkey cooked.  Scott and I made dinner.  My mom made pies and apple crisp.  We had the usual things to eat.  I didn't get a picture of our feast this year, but it was tasty.  Matthew and Anna both ate a lot of food.  Anna was eating some roasted Brussels sprouts and exclaimed, mid-bite, "YUMMM!!  THESE BRUSSELS SPROUTS ARE SOOOOO GOOD!!"  I'm not sure any child has said that.  Ever.  So I had to make a mental note of it.  The kids liked the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey, rolls and fruit salad also.  And Anna and I fought over the leftover Brussels sprouts the next day.

We didn't made John take a nap so he pooped out mid-afternoon.  

Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.  He woke up mid-meal and was able to get some food.

 Emma has been very fussy (maybe teething pain) but she enjoyed the fruit salad.

Scott's sister, Serena, came up from St. George and spent a couple days with us.  The kids were very excited for her to come.  Here she is with Emma.  We also got to see one of Scott's other sisters, Alycia, and her family on Black Friday for a little while.  The kids were excited to see them too, but I didn't get a picture.

So Thanksgiving 2015 was a success!!  Here are Matthew and Anna breaking the wishbone.  Anna won again (and Matthew was upset).  Anna admitted that she had a winning strategy.  It was a fun day and a delicious feast.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Emma is 1!!

Emma turned one this past weekend.  She was due around Thanksgiving last year but came three weeks early. Scott was able to work it so he could be in town for her birthday, so that was nice.  Here's Emma getting ready for the birthday festivities.

I made cupcakes and frosting from scratch.  Usually I make cakes and cupcakes from a cake mix so this was an accomplishment for me.  (PS: they turned out only so so...they tasted great but the texture was very light and airy.  Maybe it's an altitude problem, but I might try a different recipe next time).

 Cupcake close up!

We sang Happy Birthday and gave her a chance to blow out her one candle.  She thought it was all very strange and needed candle blowing help.

After the candle was dispensed with, we sat the cupcake in front of her.  She immediately shook her head back and forth and said, "NO! NO! NO!"  It's one of her new words.

 She was very suspicious of the cupcake and examined it at length.  She didn't push it onto the floor outright, so that was good.

Her cupcake eventually slumped over (too light and airy?).  She gave it a few pokes and checked the consistency of the frosting.  She's a tough cupcake critic.

 She squished a little more frosting just to be sure.

Thorough.

 

And, at long last, she gave it a taste.

And then went back for a lot more.

 She eventually got through to the cake part too.

And we cut her off after a while.

 Then it was present time.  She cried when we put her on the floor with her gifts.

 The other kids had to convince her that this was a good, happy thing.

They also helped her unwrap some of her presents. 

Here she is with some puffs.

 She has no shortage of helpers.  Here she is with a play phone.

She was excited about the sounds it made.  Grant and John commandeered the phone for a while and we had to make them give it back to her.  They weren't happy about it.

 Emma opening a present from Grandma.

 It was a car (also "borrowed" by Grant and John later).

 She finally got to play with her own toys.  Here she is with Scott and her phone.

Can life get better?

 I submit that it can not.

A Little About Emma

Emma can crawl and cruise, but not yet walk.  She's getting close though.
She likes balls and cars and her light up phone.  She gets VERY excited to play with a big soccer ball we have.
She likes being with the other kids, eating puffs and listening to music.
She has three teeth (two on top, one on the bottom).
She can say, "Mama," "Daddy," "no," "down" and "hi."  She says something close to "down" anyway.
She is a pincher and will pinch you mercilessly with her strong, tiny baby fingers if given the chance.
Her current favorite book is The Very Busy Spider.  She likes the animal sounds in there.
She likes taking baths, splashing and going swimming.
She's a good eater, but not a great sleeper.
Even though she doesn't see Scott all the time because of our current living situation, she is always very excited to see him.  She points, jabbers and smiles really big at him when he comes back into town, and asks for "Daddy."
She is now in the 25th percentile for weight (she was way under the chart when she was born so yea!) and the 75th percentile for height.
Her arms reach farther than you would think (like Dad) and she is quick (like Mom) so she can pull things off the table in a flash - things you didn't think she could reach.
My pregnancy with Emma was a little dicey and at some points I wasn't sure she was going to make it here safely, but I'm so glad she did and that she didn't have any lasting health problems.  I'm grateful for my vigilant doctor who insisted on inducing me early even though the surprise induction was very stressful.  We're so glad she's a part of our family!!

Autumn Leaves

The kids helped Scott do some leaf raking at my parent's house this weekend.  Here are some pictures.  Matthew was only a little scary handling the rakes.  He also jumped into a leaf pile a little overzealously and got the wind knocked out of him.  But he was ok and had fun with the leaves.

 John loved the tactile experience.  He liked throwing the leaves and smooshing them around.

Matthew hiding in the leaves.  Luckily no one jumped on him while he was hiding.

 And just some wild craziness

Yes, Emma has a leaf on her head.

 Emma had fun playing outside but she kept trying to make a break for the road or crawl away down the sidewalk.  I tried not to take it personally.

This was taken one day before her first birthday!! Such a big girl!!

No More Cast!

Anna got her final cast off today!  It's been seven weeks since the initial break.   She was excited to be done with it but nervous to meet the cast saw again.  She has had three different hard casts plus a partial cast the first week.  She doesn't like the saw.  But this time she did good - no screaming.  Maybe she is getting more used to it.  Here she is, post-saw, getting the last of the cast cut off.

At home with no cast!  Anna said it was weird getting used to having the cast off.  Her skin felt funny and she was worried about it getting hurt again.  It must feel very vulnerable without the cast.  She wasn't sure how to hold it at first.  The doc gave her a soft brace/splint to wear when she plays.  She is supposed to wear that for two months, but can take it off when she is doing calm activities.  Here she is without her splint.

Anna's poor, embattled arm.  You can see the bump along the bottom.  That's the site of the break.  It's healing really well and that bump will smooth out over time.  I'm just glad her arm is healing.  Seeing that bump reminds me of how her arm was pointing off at a weird angle the day she broke it.  Poor Anna!!  I'm glad it's been healing so well and that she can get the cast off.  I hope we have no more broken bones for a good long while.

Halloween Fun!!

Here are some pictures of our Halloween adventures this year.  The day before Halloween the kids had their school parties and a big school wide Halloween parade.  In Illinois the kids' school didn't allow them to dress up at school for Halloween.  So it was fun to have Halloween at school again.  Scott was in town, so we all went over to the school to see the parade.  Emma wore her costume - she was a black cat.

Waiting for the parade.  Anna and Emma were both black cats and when I got their costumes, John insisted that he also wanted to be a black cat.  I got him some black cat ears (Emma is wearing John's in this picture) but, come Halloween, John refused to wear the costume.  This is not uncommon - we've had other kids who've had a costume change of heart once Halloween really arrives.  But John didn't want to wear anything.  He was angry that I kept trying to dress him up.

And here come our paraders.  Anna as a black cat.

Matthew as Steve from Minecraft (a video game - Steve is kind of the main character)

Grant as a creeper also from Minecraft.  The creepers are bad guys that creep up on you silently and then explode.  They also have big square heads but we didn't think Grant would want to handle that big head.  We got him this cool zip up creeper hoodie.

Here's our creeper with his hood off.  Last year I didn't even know what Minecraft was.  This year we have two Minecraft Halloweeners.  Most other moms and dads with kids our age knew what Minecraft was and who our kids were.  :)  Even people who didn't know liked Matthew's block head.

On Halloween morning we carved our pumpkins.

I was waiting until Scott would be here again.

The weather was pleasant - maybe in the low 60s in the afternoon/evening.

Note the shorts and the no-pants.

And here we are getting ready to trick or treat.

Scott is Clark Kent and I am Lois Lane.

My SUPER husband!!

And our crew!!

Matthew as Steve from Minecraft, Anna as a black cat, Grant as a Minecraft creeper, Emma as a black cat and John as Batman.  John did not want to be a black cat.  He kept saying he wanted to be a creeper too.  I tried to put on some sort of costume and he kept yelling at me, "I NO BE A BLACK CAT!!" and later, "I NO HALLOWEEN!!"  I forcibly put his Batman pajama shirt on him and brought him out to take a picture.  When he saw that we would imminently be trick or treating he forgot about being sad that he was sort of dressed up.  

Our reluctant Batman.

As we trick or treated he told people he was a zombie, which was kind of confusing.

He never committed to being Batman - after all it wasn't his idea.

Emma the black cat

Steve

Matthew

Anna as a black cat

Creeper Grant

I think he was trying to make a scary face

All creeper-ized

Steve vs. the creeper with a  photobombing Johnny/Batman

My parents ward was having a trunk or treat the night of Halloween so their neighborhood was eerily quiet on Halloween night.  We had to venture into an adjacent neighborhood to find trick or treaters.  The kids had a great time trick or treating and we saw a few of their school friends.

Emma didn't get any candy, but she was a good sport and even made some Halloween appropriate growly sounds.

Hooray Halloween!  After going through the neighborhood a little we walked back by the church where they were just starting the trunk or treat.  The kids got to see some of their friends there too.  Anna told me it was SOO FUN!!  And she is already counting down until next Halloween.  Next year Emma should be able to walk on her own and maybe John will be more eager to dress up.  We'll see.