Emmy Updates at 16 months.

Here we are, just a few more days and she'll another month older. Time just keeps flying by and this girl just keeps growing and growing! Can't believe how big she is. She is a full fledged toddler, has been for a while now, but still it amazes me everyday. I still, obviously, call her my baby, but in a few months we will have a real baby and Emery will officially be the Big Sister. We'll be transitioning to a big girl bed, and all other things big sister. Makes me sad :( But excited at the same time. She is at such a fun age right now, she has such a silly sense of humor. She is always doing things that she thinks are so funny and then she covers her mouth with her hand, squints her eyes, and just laughs. Cutest thing ever. Her favorite foods right now are oatmeal and greek yogurt. She loves them, like a lot. She always has at least one or the other for breakfast every day. She is like her Momma and has to eat breakfast within a few minutes of waking up. She can't even wait for me to open the yogurt or make the oatmeal. When I finish the oatmeal and give it to her she gets so excited she hurry and takes a bite and then has to give me a big (slobbery, oatmeal-y) kiss. It's the absolute sweetest. She also HAS to feed herself. She has gotten very good with a spoon the last 2 months, and she wants to always eat food that requires the use of a spoon. She doesn't even get too messy with it anymore. It's a pretty smooth process. The only time I get to feed her anymore is if it requires a fork, I won't let her try those yet. She tries to take it from me and use it but I haven't let her yet. I should just give it to her. Anything that requires a fork she just eats with her hands still for now. Getting so big I can't even feed her anymore :( Her favorite snacks are bananas, apples, and raisins. She eats so many it's amazing. The other night after dinner she ate 2 bananas. haha. I don't mind too much since they are so healthy. She also loves fruit snacks but she only gets those on special occasions, aka, church. It keeps her quiet. :)

In the mornings she loves to come and lay in Mom and Dad's bed. Jake is already gone to work so I go get her and bring her in. She goes to Jake's side, climbs under the blankets, pulls them up around her, and lays down on his pillow. Then she wants my phone to play games on. Her favorite is Talking Tom. She loves him. She talks and talks and talks to him. Says Hi! a million times. The funniest is when she signs to him and he doesn't respond so she keeps telling him something over and over. It always cracks me up. 

She still asks me a thousand times a day "Where is it?" I rarely know what she is looking for but she is usually satisfied with my answers. For a little while. The only time she isn't is when I say something about Daddy and she says "Where is he?". I tell her work but she continues to look all over for him and ask me over and over. She hates him being gone. Her new word this month is now "What is it?". She is so curious. The "Why" stage that is coming shortly is going to be awfully fun I'm sure :) 

She has been showing some major irritation with having to wear a diaper lately. It kind of came out of the blue but she isn't a fan. I've contemplated attempting *very* early potty training, but considering how put out she gets when she has to stop running around a million miles an hour to get her diaper changed, I can't imagine it would go to well. We'll see. We have so much on our plates right now it's going to have to wait a little while at least. Possibly until like August. haha. 

She still loves walking around in our shoes. Especially Jake's. She can just slip her foot in and walk. The funniest is when she tries to do the same with her own shoes. She can't just slip her foot in like Jake's big shoes so she gets really frustrated. It's pretty funny. 

We're still freezing to death. At least the last week it has finally gotten above 20 and even into the 30s. It's made a huge difference, but we are still freezing. In order to keep the poor girl warm, and in an effort to keep her entertained since we're locked up all day. We've been taking lots of baths and finding lots of activities to do in those baths. Bubble baths with food coloring and shaving cream paint have been two big hits. Her favorite is the paint. She will do that for almost an hour straight. Pretty impressive for this one. 

She literally climbs everything. Her most favorite, the kitchen table. She likes to climb under the table, push the chairs out, then climb up the chair and onto the table. Then she wants to jump off. Needless to say we have to keep a very close eye on her these days. She is going to break her arm one of these days. She climbs anything she can and then jumps off. Usually it's just the couches or the ottoman, but she'll try anything she can. 

It's crazy how much I love this little sweetie. 

Bubbles!

OH I love that sweet face SO much. Sweetest, most beautiful little thing in the world. 

Last weekend....

This post is about a week late. haha. Emery has kept me so busy this week. Plus everything else that's going on has put me behind. But better late than never! Our weekend last week started off with a bang! Literally. 

Utah got pounded with snow. For days it didn't stop snowing. (Here at least...I don't know about the rest of Utah...) But for about 48 hours straight it snowed. Then factor in the fact that in the last 3 weeks it hasn't gotten above 20 degrees. Makes for awful road conditions. Well Friday night Jake stayed late at work, like usual (at least lately!). He finally left to come home about 8:00. Well about a half hour later I get a phone call telling me he's been in an accident and he needs me to come get him. Typical guy waiting until the tow truck is already on it's way to come take the car to call me to A) Tell me he was in a wreck in the first place and B) I need to come get him (I am 35 minutes away...) haha. It just makes me laugh because had the tables been turn and it was me, I would've called him the second I got off the phone with the police. (Anna I'm sure you can relate :)) Anyway....He is FINE! (Thank goodness....) What happened was he had just left work and gotten on I-15. He was in the far left lane, there was a car next to him, and then a car just ahead of them in the far right lane. I don't know if that car was driving too fast or what, but he lost control, over corrected, and slide across all 4 lanes and flipped around so they were facing Jake. He couldn't swerve because there was a car next to him and even though he hit his brakes he just slide right into them head on. Luckily it wasn't a hard hit though. Everyone was fine. Their airbags deployed and Jake said when he went to see if they were ok (it was a young newly married couple) there was smoke in their car. There's was beat up a lot lore than ours. Luckily our airbags didn't deploy. The car actually doesn't look that bad but as of right now the insurance company is saying that because of the damage that was done it is totalled. But we don't know for sure yet. Right now we just have our Mazda 6 rental car until they get it figured out. I think it is funny when Jake went to pick up the rental they gave him a choice between the Mazda 6 and a Mustang. I'm shocked he didn't take the Mustang but he says the Mazda is more logical for us. Which is true. Although I'm sure he would have loved the Mustang. But I'm just glad he is ok, I'm not thrilled that this happened to our brand new car. I'm getting REALLY sick of car issues lately. It's been one thing after the other lately. 2012 was a really bad year for health and cars for us. I was hoping 2013 would be better. It isn't looking too likely but I'm still hopeful it will get better! So basically this week has been full of constant calls to and from the insurance company. Which I have decided I have insurance companies. After everything we had to go through to get our health insurance to pay for my hospital bills last year and then now everything we've had to go through with the auto insurance. It's been a nightmare. And I hate insurance companies! But luckily stuff is FINALLY getting worked out. So hopefully it'll all be good in a few weeks! 

Saturday morning we headed down to Provo for my little sister's State Cheerleading competition. They have taken State the last 2 years but due to a very unfortunate event in the first 30 seconds of their routine this year didn't go so well. In the very first 30 seconds during their first tumbling one of their fliers came down wrong on her leg and broke both her Tibia and Fibula. She quietly hobbled off to the back but they couldn't do any of their big stunt groups without her. Poor girl was in so much pain. 2 compound fractures, I can only imagine! The paramedics came and took her to UVRMC and she went straight into surgery. She is in for another 8 months of recovery and rehab. So she is out for next season too. I felt really bad. They girls were really upset about her getting hurt so bad. But hey they are still qualified for Nationals so they'll be heading to California in March to compete. 

Emery loves watching dances. Everyone gets a round of applause! 

After the competition we went out to lunch then headed to Chance and Anna's to hang out. Like old times! Emery had to play in Kate's carseat. She loves those carseats to just recline in. But don't even think about buckling her in them! She was climbing in and out of all of Kate's toys. She is a busy little girl. 

After being there for a little while we headed to Salt Lake to meet the rest of the Allen Family, have some BBQ for dinner, and then headed to City Creek for a caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and to play on the toys!

Emery was in heaven. She was so tired to begin with but after running around there for hours she was exhausted. She had a blast going down slides with "Grandma" Allen. She wanted to hold her finger and go every where. She didn't even want me after she saw how fun she was. haha. We love Debbie! Thanks for playing with Em!

It was such a fun weekend, and the perfect way to cheer us up after an awful Friday night....So glad we got to see everyone! Now hurry and have that baby poor Katie! 

Just a few random pictures of Emery. These are two of her favorite things right now. First, walking in our shoes. if there is a pair of our shoes anywhere she puts them on and walks in them. She loves it. Second, she is really loving her baby she got for Christmas lately. She feeds her her bottle and loves when the baby starts "talking" she sits there and talks back to her. The dolls blows raspberries so Emery will blow them back, it's hilarous. She wraps her in her blankie and carries her around with her. She is going to be SUCH a good big sister! I can't wait. I though I would be more patient waiting for my second, and I am, but I'm still so excited to get this baby here. I am being a lot more patient than I was with Emery though, mostly because double the kids I know is going to be double the work. The places that I can take Emery without having to get a babysitter is going to get slimmer! It's easy to take her to my work meetings because it's just her. But I don't know if I can handle it with two. We'll see! I'm just excited to get a healthy new baby!

Round 2

Little Miss Emery is gonna be a big sister! 

We are so excited!

The pictures are with the tree because how we told everyone was one of Emery's Christmas presents was this book. We gave it to her Christmas morning and she opened it. Everyone was really excited, but apparently not too surprised. Haha, oh well. Truthfully I didn't really expect them to be! I was 13 weeks already and I kind of expected that they all suspected. But still it was fun. Emery was just excited to have another book, she has no idea what she is in for :)

Can't believe it, but in July this family is gonna be a family of 4! We are so excited. My due date is July 5th. Originally is was June 21st, but at our 2nd ultrasound, (LOVE my new doctor here, ultrasounds at EVERY appointment. Amazing.) Anyway, at our 2nd appointment she did the ultrasound and said baby was way small and I was actually 2 weeks less than we originally thought. I was bummed...But either way June or July we are getting a sweet little bundle and we can't wait. I am 15 weeks right now and had an ultrasound today! We had hoped to find out a gender today but unfortunately the new little one is going to apparently not be any less stubborn than their older sister :) Legs crossed and over the head. But the doctor did say as of right now she thinks it is a GIRL!!! But she said don't go buy anything because she is kind of guessing :) So in another 4 weeks hopefully we'll know for sure. Both Jake and I have been sure it's a boy since the beginning (especially with my lack of sickness), but we will be thrilled with either. I would love a girl because it would be SO awesome to have two girls so close in age, but a boy would be fun too. So really we don't have a preference. So if the doctor is right as of now and it's a girl...we are SO excited! 

This pregnancy (so far) has been leaps and bounds easier than Emery. With all of the illness and problems I had after I had Emery it made more sense why I felt so terrible, but still. I have felt great! I have been nauseous, but nothing like I was with Emery. It's mostly just the evenings, a few hours before bed. Other than that my only real complaint during the first trimester was the overwhelming exhaustion. I don't think I have ever in my life been as exhausted as I was! I was tired with Emery but I kind of attributed it to working full time night shift! It didn't feel that different than normal, haha! But I was so tired I couldn't make it through the day. Every day I was trying to find time to take a nap at the same time as Emery, some times it worked, sometimes not. But I have gotten lots of my energy back now and am just ready to get ready for this baby! It's way too early for nesting though, haha. Until then I'll just keep organizing everything else. I started feeling this one way earlier than I did Emery, I know they say that you feel them sooner after your first but I didn't expect it that early. It was around 13 weeks that I was definitely sure that is what I was feeling. Maybe with Emery I just didn't know what to expect so it felt like longer? Who knows. I just love after the first couple months when you don't have to wait 4 weeks to hear the heartbeat to know everything is ok. You can just feel that little sweetie and know he/she is doing just fine. If only the worry went away, but it doesn't. I'm such a worrier I am constantly checking to make sure it hasn't been too long since I last felt him move. Not so much right now since it is just so early and he/she is still so small, but when they get bigger...it's bad. And it still doesn't even end after their born :) Oh well. Life as mom right? 

Emery is going to be such a good big sister! She loves to take care of her dolls, so I am really excited. We will continue to keep everyone posted as we go along. Can't wait! We already love our little bean so very much!

New Years 2013 and 15 months

Every year my Kilmer side celebrates Christmas the weekend after Christmas. We all gather at my grandma's, have our family Christmas party, and if it falls on New Years/New Years Eve we celebrate that too! It's nice to not have to worry about cramming it in in all of the craziness of December, plus after Christmas is over and done we still have something to look forward too! This year where New Years Eve fell on a Monday we were able to drag the weekend out even longer. It was SO nice. We headed down to Manti on Friday night, along with my Aunt and Uncle Chris and Karen, (the other family had to work on Saturday and/or Monday, and my Dad and Brother were out of town) . But we headed down on Friday. We never pass up an opportunity to go to Manti for as long as possible, especially since it means lots of help with Emery! 

Emery and her cousin Amber watching cartoons together. They are 3 years a part, it's a little far right now, but hopefully in the coming years they'll bridge the gap. 

They still had fun playing together anyway. Emery just followed Amber every where she went and had to do everything she did. If Amber had a toy Emery wanted it, if Emery had a toy Amber wanted it. haha. It was rather entertaining to try and teach the principle of "sharing" to these two all weekend. They just couldn't figure out why they weren't getting everything they wanted. Neither of them have anyone to share their toys at home with so it was hard to understand :) haha. In time. 

Following Amber upstairs. They went up and down and up and down. With 3 sets of staircases there are plenty to climb and never get bored. 

This for some reason is Emery's favorite spot at Grandma's. Maybe it's because Amber couldn't fit so she always got it to herself? Who knows, but she loved to sit under here and play "drive" with the wheel. 

Doing a puzzle. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of the finished product! We got it done pretty quick!

New Years Eve it warmed up enough for us to go outside and sled! Finally! (It was 16 degrees...hey the day before didn't get above 5 so it was feeling pretty good)

Emery decided that sledding is her new favorite thing to do. She was SO happy. 

This series of pictures kills me. It sums up exactly how much of a Daddy's girl this one is. Her Daddy is wrapped around her finger, right where she wants him :) She loves every minute. 

We pulled her on her silly little red "snow seat" (long story behind that thing...) but then we hooked up the good old fashioned sled (they just don't make them like they used to) behind the four wheeler and pulled her around. That was the highlight of her day. 

She did not want to go inside, the only way we got her to were her hands were so frozen she just didn't care anymore...and the hot chocolate helped too. 

We decided it was special occasion why not let her have a little...she wouldn't put it down. She sucked that stuff down so fast until every drop was gone. I was just glad it helped warm up her poor frozen hands. (It's impossible to find gloves small enough to fit those tiny hands!)

Her new favorite thing lately is to go get shoes and walk around in them. She found Daddy's slippers and walked all around the house. She always puts them on backwards though. She can't walk in them if she puts them on right, haha. 

  

Later that night after everyone else had gotten there and we had some dinner, we opened presents. Emery soaked up all the attention she could get. As you can see, she is quite the ham. And definitely not shy at all. The center of attention is right where she wants to be. 

She was pretty intrigued by Grandpa's dancing, singing, lighted up hat. (White elephant gifts :))

 

Then it was time for cousin presents. Emery got a Minnie Mouse that she LOVES. She gives her lots of hugs and kisses. 

That night was spent catching up, eating way too much junk food, playing games, and watching movies. We made it until midnight even. Except for Emery. She may not be a napper, but she loves her sleep at night, which I'm 100% ok with :) 

The next day we did a little more sledding, eating, games, shooting, hunting, the usual. It's always so much fun. We weren't ready to head back to real life. I still want Christmas break! I was so spoiled having Jake home for 5 days in row! It was great. We got back late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning Jake headed out to Fort. Worth, Texas for his first "official" business trip. He spent a few days in meetings for a project he is currently working on and then made it safely home. We are sure glad he is back!

Emery is just growing up so fast. I can't even stand it! Her new favorite thing to say is "Where is it?" (other variations include "Where is he/she") We are rarely sure what "it" is. She just loves to ask it over and over...it's like the 4 year old that asks Why? We get asked "Where is it?" One word that I forgot to write last month that she likes to say is "Wiggle" don't know why but she does. She still is a dancer through and through. There is never a beat that she isn't dancing too. Even if it is the slow sacrament hymn, she dances. This girls got rhythm. No doubt about that. She loves feeding herself. Most times she won't even eat if I try to feed her, she has to do it herself, she gets fairly messy, but really not too bad. I try to not let it bother me, I know messy eating is how they learn. (Even if it means a bath after every meal :)) She loves to climb everything she can, toys that are unstable and shouldn't be climbed, she is climbing. Most especially she likes to climb the ottoman and couches and jump off. She has learned to count "one, two, THREE!" Which sounds more like "uh, oh, EEEEEE!!" and jumps off. We just try to always be there when we hear the count down begin.  Lately she's gotten a little more interested in cartoons. Which has been a huge blessing for me! Call me a bad mom for letting my kid watch TV, I really don't care, those 3 minutes that it catches her attention and she just sits, and the only 3 minutes in a whole day that I get! It is usually only the 3 minutes at the beginning of a show when the music is playing and she can dance to the music anyway. I'm not too worried about corrupting my kid with Word World and Super Readers though. If anything maybe she'll learn how to read and spell early? ;) Her current favorite toy is her rocking horse. She loves to climb on that thing and rock it as hard as she can and say "weeeeee". She also loves any type of chair that is her size, she has a few benches that my grandma has given her and then my mom has a little rocking chair at her house for her that she loves to climb in. It makes sense that she likes them so much, in a world where everything is so big and such hard work to get to, it must be nice once in a while just to have something exactly your size that you can just walk up to, and sit on. She is understanding what we tell her a lot more too. It is really nice to say go get your sippy, go get your puppy, or whatever else and she goes and gets it and brings it to me. She is filling that mouth right up with teeth. Over Christmas she broke 5 teeth! 4 molars and one in the front on the bottom. I noticed today there is another molar swelling up so I'm thinking we'll be working on that one in the coming weeks. Poor thing. She also had her 2nd major accident of her little life. Poor girl was running through the house 1 million miles an hour (like usual) and tripped and fell right into the door. I heard her hit her head but that happens all the time and she never cries, just gets right up, puts her hand on her head says "ooohhhh", rubs it a little, and is off again. But this time she cried, so I knew it had to have hit hard. I went in and picked her up hugged her and then she sat up and looked at me, she instantly had a HUGE goose egg on her forehead, it was totally dark red, I thought she had a hematoma for a little bit. But after a few minutes it had just turned purple, and within a few hours the swelling had gone down considerably. She had a scrape down the middle though that is still going away. You can kind of see it in some of the pictures above. By New Years Day it was pretty much just a green/yellow bruise. It never seemed to bother her after those first few minutes. It must've just looked a lot worse than it was! She loves any thing that she can play on our phones or the Ipad. She loves it. It amazes me how she knows to to work them already. Her very favorite is Talking Tom. She gets so excited every time we turn it on and tells him "Hi!" over and over. She loves to say Hi to anyone really. She is so friendly. She walks up and down the halls at church saying Hi! and waving to everyone. Some (grumpy) ones, ignore her, most are surprised at the little voice and laugh, say hi, and then wow she is friendly little girl isn't she. At the grocery store she says it to every one too. She likes to keep saying it until you reply. She will say it over and over and over until she gets a hi back. It's pretty funny. One thing that we learned recently that she loves is popcorn. My goodness. We knew she liked it, but we always had to pull the hulls off to give it to her so we would just give her a few kernels and then be done with it. Well we decided the other day that she was old enough to just eat it and so I was letting her eat out of my bowl. She took the bowl and ate the entire thing! Then she went and took my mom's and finished hers. I couldn't believe it. (That was after dinner, and eating an entire banana too). She is a little piggy, she may be picky, but when she finds something that she likes, she eats A LOT of it. 

I can't believe she is growing up so fast. Every night after she is long asleep when I go in to check on her in her crib I am amazed at how big she is! I feel like it was just a few days ago we were putting her in there for the first time when she was 6 weeks old. She looked so tiny in that big thing, now she takes up half of it. I know it's cliche, and everyone says it, and everyone tells you it, and I knew it would happen, but they grow up way too fast. I am so grateful to be able to be home with her every day and just soak up every moment, and every stage. I'm so grateful for modern technology of pictures and video cameras that allow me to go back and relive those moments. Gosh I love that little girl so much. 

We love you princess!!