Emery's New Do

A better picture of Emery's new do. She just looks so darn cute!

But what's new...love that girl. 

1st Haircut

I decided it was finally time for Emery's 1st haircut. Truthfully it's probably been time for quite a while...haha. But I've been putting it off, I liked to see how long her hair was getting, and I was terrified to do it! But I couldn't put it off anymore. So I got up my courage and went for it, finally...

Before

Fruit Snacks and Jake's entertainment kept her still enough to get through it. It honestly went a lot smoother than I thought it would! I was shocked. But grateful! 

Ta-da! It looks so much better. I know it's still a little bit baby-mulletish but I want it to still fit in pigtails, since that is what we do every day. So I left it like that intentionally. But truthfully it is really cute, it could even be left down if I wanted to. I am very pleased! I was surprised how easy it was to cut. I am terrified of cutting hair! I have never even tried to trim my own bangs before. I'm way too afraid of ruining it. But it was a lot easier than I thought. And I'm very glad!

Emery seems to like it too ;)

Then she jumped in the tub to wash up before bed. 

Yay for her "new look"! 

Wishing for Spring

We're getting a bit tired of waking up to this.

And the days feeling like this. 28 degrees and feels like 16. Awesome. 

So we're locked up inside again, trying to stay warm. Which is much easier to do in a house that actually has a heater...who knew?! That's what I'm grateful for today, a heater! And for this little girl that makes even these days happy. What a sweetie. 

Emery's 1st Day of Nursery

Ok so maybe it's not as big and exciting as her first day of school, but the first day of nursery was a big deal to us. A day we've been looking forward to for quite some time now. Because, let's face it, last time we were able to sit and listen during church was, well. Before she was born. There was that one time that my parents happened to be driving past our church right as our sacrament got out and stopped by and "stole" her for us. Other than that, it's been try our very best to entertain her and keep her quiet during sacrament, and then out in the hallway for the rest. (We don't let her play in the hallway during Sacrament, she had to learn to be quiet during that, but we figured since she'll be playing in nursery during Sunday School and Relief Society than we didn't care too much about those. And let's face, expecting a baby/toddler to be quiet and good for three hours straight is 100% unrealistic)

But anyway. Nursery. 

I was excited, sad that she is growing up so fast, but excited. I figured she wouldn't have any problems whatsoever and I was right. As soon as we walked in the door she saw and bright yellow ball. She took off and didn't even stop to wave good-bye. Jake peeked in on her in after Sunday School and she was just running around having a blast. (While the other kids were sitting in a circle listening to stories...yeah that loud, crazy one full of never ending energy...she's mine) We weren't surprised at all. 

When Jake went to pick her up they were blowing bubbles. You've never seen a happier kid. She didn't even care that Jake was there to pick her up she just yells "Dada! Bubbles!" I walked up not too long after that and the whole way to car she just kept telling me over and over, "Bubbles! Bubbles!" The nursery workers (I don't know what else to call them) said she was great, no problems at all. She did try to steal all of the other kids fruit snacks during snack time. No surprise there though. 

I think it's safe to say that Emery is a fan of going to church now. And ironically enough, so are we ;) A free babysitter for 2 hours, I'll take it. 

Emery's picture she colored and brought home. 

Haley's Shower

Today we had a bridal shower for my new (almost) sister-in-law Haley. Just 2 more weeks until the wedding! Can't believe my little brother is old enough to get married...I'm pretty sure he is still 16 and in high school...at least that's how I feel like it should be! But it's not. If he is old enough to get married we are sure glad it's to Haley, because we love her! As someone who was, let's say, "less than happily welcomed", by their in-law family, I wanted to have a fun shower to make Haley feel welcome in our family, because we love her! And let's face it, I know it really sucks when you aren't. We can't wait for her to officially join our family!

I originally had a big shower planned, lots of food, ya know how it goes. But a lot of people couldn't come. So we decided to just go to lunch instead. I still made some Strawberry Sugar Scrub favors and we did a couple games while we were waiting for our food.

We went to Taggarts for lunch, of course, it's so good. Haley got lots of gifts for her new kitchen! She's going to be busy cooking ;) I got her a recipe binder. With everyone's invitations I sent them a recipe card to fill out and either mail back to me if they couldn't make it, or bring with their gift if they could. Then we filled up her binder with everyone's favorite recipes! 

Unfortunately I'm lame and didn't get a picture of everyone...oh well though. We had my Aunt Terry Lynn, my Aunt Kim, my cousin Emily, friends Teresa, and Gaylene, and of course Haley, her mom, and my mom.  It was really fun and thanks so much to every one who made the time to come! We really appreciate it! ;)

St. George and Easter part 2

So since the Easter Bunny spaced doing Easter basket Saturday morning, he did it Sunday morning. We have talked about it a little but haven't decided which morning for sure to do it. The Easter Bunny came on Saturday growing up mostly. As our kids get older he'll be more creative and on top of it, but alas once again, Emery doesn't not care. ;) She got some new Dora DVDs for the car, she was pretty pleased. She also got a coloring book, crayons, sidewalk chalk, and some books. 2 of the books she got accidently got left at home due to the move...But it's all good.

Oh and check out that bed hair! That's what pigtails will do to ya if you're wanting to replicate the look for yourself ;) I love it. 

She really likes her Five Little Monkeys book.

She is really into coloring everything right now, so this present has been a hit. 

After breakfast we got ready and went outside to take some Easter pictures. Emery was cooperative for all of about 5 minutes. So by the time we started taking some pictures of all of us, she was not in the mood...She had to be on the ground to not be yelling, but she was not about to smile. Oh well, I don't mind. 

This is her pre-tantrum "Dad let go of me so I can go play in the rocks or I'm gonna scream" 

He didn't...and she delivered. ;)

After some pictures my dad, Todd, Colton, and Haley went and hid eggs at the park for an egg hunt. I'm pretty sure this has been Emery's favorite holiday to date. Well...she really liked Halloween too. But she really liked Easter. Even after we got home for a few days she would find her Easter Basket and walk around the house saying "egg, egg" and try to find eggs. She didn't even care about the candy she just wanted the eggs. She ate one tootsie roll. (the one she is eating in the picture above, haha. It came out of the egg so we gave it to her.) The candy that was just scattered on the ground she wouldn't even pick up though. Only eggs!

After a while we packed up, cleaned up, and hit the road. We were very sad to leave the warm weather...Emery had so much fun. She was so happy down there being able to be outside all the time, and go swimming whenever she wanted, and then spend the rest of the days at a playground. But she was so tired! She fell asleep within about 30 seconds of pulling out of the driveway...haha. She slept until about Beaver, which was really nice. Since that is only about 10 minutes from Cove Fort where we had planned our next stop. Jake had never been, and I hadn't been in a long time. So we all stopped to have the missionaries take us on the tour. 

Colton and Haley even got married while they were there ;) haha. 

I'm so glad we got to take a little mini-vacation for few days. We desperately needed it. After the stress of buying and getting into this house, and getting out of our other one (which proved to be worse than trying to get into this one...argh...), the baby coming, and everything else, we just needed to get away for a little while. It was awesome. Hopefully we'll be able to get time to do it one more time before the baby. Jake is soooooo busy at work right now though that I'm not counting on it...haha. But maybe. 

St. George and Easter (Part 1)

After cold (and oh so stressful) winter we had, we were in desperate need of a vacation. And a warm, sunny one at that. The last warm, sunny vacation Jake and I went on was when we went to St. George for our anniversary when I was pregnant with Emery! So we were more than excited when my mom asked if we wanted to go to St. George for Easter weekend. It was a definite yes! Our plan was to leave Thursday morning but when Jake went into work to get a few things done he ended up having a surprise meeting, and some extra work he hadn't planned on. So we didn't end up getting to leave until about 1:00 when he got done. But it was ok.

 Emery does not like car rides, like at all, she does ok with shorter distances as long as we have the DVD player on with Dora, but even that only keeps her entertained for so long...After some Dora, a short nap, and my mom and Shayli trying to entertain her in the back seat. (While I drove and Jake did some remote working in the passenger seat) Anyway, by the time it had been a few hours, we hit Beaver and Emery was in desperate need of a break. We decided the Cache Valley Cheese Factory would be the perfect stop. Jake had never been, and we love Cheese Curds, or Squeaky Cheese as my family calls it, so we made the stop. I was also ready to relinquish driving duties to Jake... 

We ended up getting Ice Cream too. Needless to say, Emery is a big fan of Ice Cream. Check out that face when Dad offers to share his with her ;)

My Dad was in St. George the whole week for conferences and meetings for work so he just met us down there. We made really good time too. (Thanks to my driving! ;)) Emery was very excited to not be in the car, and to see Grandpa. She immediately jumped in his big bed and started "fake sleeping and snoring". She thinks she is so funny. Then we decided to head to dinner at our very favorite St. George restaurant, Pancho and Lefty's. It's right across the street from the hotel we stay at every time too so it's extra convenient. After dinner it was getting pretty late but since Emery was still pretty wound up we decided to hit the pool/hot tub for a minute. Then we headed to bed. 

Friday morning we got up and my Aunt and Uncle and Cousins had gotten up and left early so they met us at our hotel. My dad had more meetings that morning, and Jake had work to finish. So we left him at the hotel to work and we headed to the St. George Square to check out the Art Festival. It was pretty boring to be honest...haha. We weren't too interested, but they did have a carousel that we checked out. Last summer when we took Emery to Lagoon she LOVED the carousel. She would cry if you took her OFF the ride. This time...not so much. She cried the second she got on. After about the 2nd time around though she warmed up and liked it. I don't know why she hated it so much at first. 

Emery's very favorite thing in the world is animals. Any where that we go, if there is an animal, Emery is right there. She loved this little puppy. 

Then for round 2 of screaming while doing something she normally loves. We put her in the little splash pond they have and she freaked! I have no idea why....

She was a little more ok with it when Aunt Shayli tried...

After about 30 seconds she bailed though and went to listen to the concert. Grandma got a strawberry lemonade though that she was more than ok with sharing. (or stealing...whichever)

In front of the statue of Robert Gardner. He is my great, great, great grandpa who was sent by Brigham Young to settle St. George. They put this statue up of him in the Square a few years ago and invited our whole family to the celebration. I was at BYU-Idaho at the time and couldn't make it. But some of our family was able to be there!

Emery getting to bed so late the night before made her a little grumpy, so we took her back to the hotel to take a nap since Jake was there working anyway. Then my mom, Shay, me, my aunt, and cousins headed to the outlets to do some shopping for a few hours while we waited for the guys to all finish working!

Once the finished we went back to the hotel packed up our stuff, grabbed some lunch, and headed to Mesquite! One of my moms good friends has a condo there and offered to let us stay there. Since there were 12 of us total, it was a lot more practical than a hotel room. (Thank you Shirlee!!) It fit us all perfectly. We loved it. As soon as we got there and go our stuff unpacked we headed to the pool. Emery did not want to be inside for one second the entire trip. She LOVES being outside, and HATES being inside. All weekend she would talk someone, whether it be one of her cousins, grandpa, grandma, dad, mom, anyone to take her outside and just let her run around and play! There was a play ground right outside the condo that she made sure to visit regularly. 

I tell ya, this girl loves giving kisses!

Funny story about this ball...My mom got it for her the night before at Wal-Mart. She loved this ball. It was as big as she was but she would carry it around with her where ever she went. We brought it home with us and about 4 days after we got back I guess it couldn't handle the elevation change any more! One night at about 10:00 Jake and I were sitting in the living room, Emery was asleep, and apparently the ball was in the kitchen. Well Jake and I hear this huge explosion and freak out. We thought for sure some punk kids had put a bomb on our back porch or something. Jake was telling me to stay back and was going to check it when I look in the kitchen and see the ball split in half in the kitchen. I just busted up laughing. Once Jake realized what I was laughing at he did too. It was pretty funny. 

Emery thinks it's funny to try and escape from Dad....

She doesn't realize how slippery it is...and trips.

But it doesn't bother her ;)

After a lot of sunshine and swimming, Emery was really ready for a real nap. We wrapped her up in her Dora towel and took her in to lay down. Then Jake and I headed back outside to get some stress free sunshine! No making sure the baby isn't falling into the pool!

When we originally came to the condo we noticed a really big playground and park across the street. So after Emery woke up from her nap we decided to go and check it out. It also ended up having a separate "Dog Park" there. I had never seen one of those before. It was basically this big fenced in area where dog owners can take their dogs and just let them run! They have trees, fire hydrants, you know, all the dogs favorite things. haha. Emery loved just sitting at the fence and watching them. Until some angry Scottish Terrier came and freaked out on her. He scared her so she was ok heading to the actual playground at that point. 

Emery had a blast going down the slide, then climbing back up, going down, climbing back up. Over and over. She just has so much energy. It is getting harder and harder for me to keep up with her. It's times like these I am so glad Jake is there to chase her. Sometimes I just don't have the energy!

 

After a while of playing here we headed back home, as you can see that decision was met with a tantrum. As a lot things are these days, haha. Oh the terrible two's came real early around here. 

While we were swimming my mom and aunt hit up Wal-Mart and stocked up the condo with groceries. That was the other really nice thing about staying there rather than a hotel, we didn't have to constantly be eating out! So we headed back, had some dinner and just lounged around the condo the rest of the night until Emery went to bed. After she fell asleep Jake and I went back out to the pool, the hot tub was closed this particular night so we just kind of waded in the pool for a minute and then went back in. Jake kept asking me, Why don't we take more vacations again? haha. It's true. I told him we definitely need at least one more before this 2nd baby comes!

On Friday I did some Googling and found an Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning in Mesquite. So we planned on going to that. Mesquite is an hour behind our regular time so Emery got up at a bright and early 6:00 am. So we ended up being ready to go really early. My dad got up early to work out so when he was done we went for early morning walk around the neighborhood. The weather was so gorgeous. I couldn't believe how nice it felt to be outside at 7 in the morning and not even need a jacket. 

After our walk, and some breakfast we went to the egg hunt. While we were waiting for it to start we kind of explained to Emery what to do. We kept telling her to go out there and pick up the eggs. She'd say "ow der?" Yup out there. Then she'd say "Egg?" yup eggs out there. Okay she was ready, haha. I really thought she would pick up like one egg and become so enthralled in that one egg we'd be done. And really I was okay with that too, she didn't need any candy. 

We had to keep her corralled in until they said go.

We took her to the very back corner so there was literally no one around us. It was nice. And boy did she catch on quick, she immediately started picking up every egg she could find and put it in her basket. She did get confused once when she thought she found an egg but it was a dandelion, haha. She took our instructions very seriously because ONLY eggs were allowed in her basket. She found a ball that they had just thrown in the grass to pick up and threw back. So Jake picked it back up and set it in her basket, she went right over and took it out and put it back in the grass. She was very adamant about only eggs being in her basket. 

She didn't even care one bit about the candy inside her eggs. She was just so happy to have a basket full of eggs. There were candy in some and some had numbers that you could go and turn in for a prize. Well Jake and I thought we had checked them all and she didn't get a prize, turns out when we got home and actually emptied all the eggs she did get a prize...oh well. 

Showing off her goods. The whole way home she just kept saying "Egg, egg, egg" she wanted more eggs!

We came home and played outside for a little bit, and then headed back to the pool. My dad grilled hamburgers and we had a little picnic outside while we swam and swam.  

Emery is a little hoarder. If you give her more than one of something, she has to hold them all at the same time.

Playing catch with dad. 

Spoiled much? Yes, yes she is. 

Grandma got up and Emery immediately seized the opportunity to steal her chair ;)

Then she decided she'd rather sit by Grandpa than by herself.

 After a few hours of swimming, and eating, and more swimming, she was really getting tired. So we laid her down for a nap. We were all getting pretty worn out so we all headed in to do some egg coloring. I was ok with Emery missing out because a) she doesn't care or understand at all and b) she would probably just make a massive mess. Next year we'll introduce egg coloring to her. 

Haley's Wal-Mart egg ;)

Earlier that morning before the Egg Hunt Jake got a call from his brother in the Army that he had been selected to be in the Special Forces. He is very excited, and Jake is too. So Jake made a flag egg in his honor, haha. 

After Emery's nap we took her back to the park. She loved this place. 

She loves to make friends. 

All of this sunshine, attention, and being outside made this girl VERY happy. She was just content to run and run and run. 

After a while at the park we all decided to go on a hike. Well of course they don't choose to go a nice little stroll, they wanted to climb rocks and cliffs...yeah this pregnant girl...not gonna happen. I made it up the first trail and then when Jake wanted to "pull me up" the cliff I said bag it. He took Emery (which I wasn't extremely thrilled about, I'm a worrier...but my dad and brother were there to help with her) my mom and aunt stayed with me at the bottom and the rest of them hiked to their hearts content. 

After they finished their hike we went home, had dinner, put Emery to bed, watched movies, played games, and just enjoyed being on vacation! We also had a glow in the dark egg hunt. My mom and cousins filled some eggs with glow sticks and then went out and hid them. Emery was in heaven once again findings eggs. 

Part 2 coming soon, I decided even 2 parts would be a little bit of picture overload, so we'll stop there! :)