An 18 month old.

I honestly can't believe we are here. 18 months. What?!? I cannot believe how fast time flies. Jake just said to me a few days ago when the new baby is Emery's age Emery will be turning 4. HUH? There is no way. It just flies by way too fast. But regardless, it's time for an update so I can keep track of all of this craziness. So Emery at 18 months:

21 pounds 12.5 ounces (20%)

31 1/4 inches (45%)

She's only gained about 1 pound since she turned one...haha. She runs around so much she must just burn it all off! She's my skinny little shrimp ;)

Will talk your ear off! I can't even keep up with all the words she knows, because she literally learns a few
new word every day. It's amazing to me really. She knows so many, but a few of my favorites that she says are chees (cheese), gees (Jesus), nigh-nigh momma (night- night momma), tay-oo (thank you), eye (just that...eye), oh-mey (oh man!)

She knows pretty much every animal sound. Even a monkey, which is my favorite for her to say. It's so funny. She doesn't know what an elephant says, but every time she sees an elephant she sings the elephant song from Barney. Cracks me up. When we took her to the zoo a few weeks ago she sang it over and over.

She knows 9 body parts. Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, belly, belly button, head, toes, and hair. She learns them so fast though, by next week she'll have added a few more. She calls her toes "pis" (pigs). She loves to play "this little pig went to the market, etc..." So she always calls them pigs. But if you ask her where her toes are she'll tell you. If you ask her where her nose is, she'll have to beep it for you. haha. And if you ask her eyes she'll practically poke your eye out.

Has been a better eater lately, which has been a HUGE relief, her favorites are all still the same. Oatmeal, yogurt, etc...One fruit we have discovered that she is obsessed with is pineapple. She loves it. I have also discovered she really likes pasta too. Good girl ;)

She had her first actual sickness this past month. She had a mild cold last year, just a runny nose, and a cough, but she has never really been sick. She got a MAJOR miserable cold, horrible cough, sore throat, runny nose, etc...She was so miserable. She would just cry and want to be cuddled constantly. That lasted about 10 days and it seemed like she started feeling better. But then one night she woke up in the middle of the night screaming. She acted like she was in a lot of pain, she had a very low grade fever, but that was about the extent of her symptoms. I gave her some Tylenol and after about a half hour of rocking her she fell back asleep. When she woke up in the morning it was the same story, so we took her in the doctor. She had a double ear infection and was really close to having pneumonia. They gave us an antibiotic and instructions to come back if she still had the cough in a week because at that point chances are she would have pneumonia. LUCKILY within 24 hours of the antibiotic it was like she'd never been sick. Just that at that point Jake and I got it. Awesome. At least one member of the family was sick the entire month of March. At least it was warmer though, so can't complain too much!

She LOVES to give kisses. It is the sweetest. She gives them to us all day long. I love it. She says hi to every one she meets (and every one who is around her all day...) all the time. I get told hi about 50 times a day at least. She has recently started following everything with "momma" nigh-nigh momma, mo (more) momma, bye-bye momma, and the list goes on. It's so cute.

She fake sleeps. ALL the time. If you chase her, she'll run and then drop and fake snore and pretend to be asleep. Sometimes when she is getting into something that she shouldn't be and she gets in trouble she'll fake sleep. She'll climb in our bed and do it. She'll be running around outside and just drop and do it. You never know! It is so funny.

She calls my dad papa, and my mom mama. Sometimes it gets confusing since we can't tell if she is talking to me or grandma when we are with them. Chances are it's grandma though usually ;) She is her favorite.
Loves to go bye bye. Even if it's just out in the backyard. She doesn't care. She just likes to be outside! LOVES it.

She recognizes Jesus in pictures. It's so sweet. At church in the foyer she will see the pictures and say "gees-gees". A funny story..The other day while I was unpacking there was a picture of Jesus in the box and I took it out and set it on the floor. She came and picked it up and says "gees! gees!" and kept giving it kisses over and over. So sweet.

She has learned how to fold her arms for prayers. We just need to work on the actually keeping them folded the whole time...She folds them right at the beginning for about 3 seconds then she is done. Like I said...NO attention span. So busy.

She weaned herself from her binkie! I was shocked really. I had thought about taking it away after she turned 18 months, but she loved it so much I didn't really have the heart. And frankly I was really worried about how it would go. But for some reason when we went to St. George a few weeks ago she just decided that she was done with it. If I gave it to her she would take it out and give it back. I was shocked. It was so easy, and she did it all on her own. She hasn't had one since!

She loves babies. So much. Every kid that we see, even if they are 5 years old, she points and says "baby!" I keep telling her that she is the baby. So now every now and then she has started pointing at herself and saying "baby". She will also point at my belly and say baby, but I'm sure she doesn't understand that at all. Especially since sometimes she will point at her belly and say baby too...haha.

Still loves to watch Dora the Explorer. When she wants to watch it, she dances and sings "Do-do-do-do" She also calls Boots (Dora sidekick) "Boa".

For Christmas my Grandma (Emery's Great-Grandma) gave her a rocking horse. She LOVES it. She rides it and says "ah-ha" (yee-haw) and neigh! It's so funny. She loves horses, or any animal really. She loves to feed the kitties at Grandmas house too.

Loves to read books. She brings us books all the time. She'll say "buh" and plops down in our laps to read.

I can honestly say that this has been my very favorite age so far. She is honestly a crack up. She has a huge personality with an adorable sense of humor. She is always keeping us laughing and on our toes. At the same time though, this has been the hardest age so far as well. Tantrums come at full force, she ignores me like I'm not even talking, absolutely zero patience for anything, absolutely no attention span whatsoever. Honestly some days by the end of the day I am at the end of my rope. But all it takes is one of her sweet kisses that she so freely gives and it melts away. That girl melts me. I wouldn't trade my job for the world.

All Girl.

In spite of Jake (and possible some of my) very best efforts, I hate to admit that so far this girl here is 100% girl through and through. Probably the result of her Aunt Shayli's best efforts (the gifter of this little number below) She is all about everything "pe-ey" (pretty). Every trip to the mall when we walk past the store with all the prom dresses she runs to window and just stares. "Pe-ey mama pe-ey" 

This particular outfit came out of the result of a stubborn girl. I had her in her usual cute shirt and leggings. Well I was unpacking the boxes in her room and came across this skirt. She promptly started pulling off her leggings. She got pretty grumpy about it when she couldn't get them off so I helped her. Then she proceeded to try and dress herself in this skirt. Once again she required some help. The rest of the day this was outfit. To the bank...to the post office...you know how it goes. She found some sunglasses I had unpacked as well and wore them around the house for a little while. She didn't take those to run errands though. I know for a fact this is only the beginning of many outfits along this line.

I am really excited to get her in a dance class and stuff soon. I may have been really into sports, camping, and all that, but something that most people don't know is that my real love was dance. Clogging to be exact. I started when I was 3 years old and did it all the way up to my Sophomore year at BYU-Idaho when I was on their World Dance/Clog team. Some of my very best memories there and growing up are with dance. From the recitals, to nationals, to when we competed in New Orleans in the Jr. Olympics I had some pretty amazing times. I can't wait for Emery to start being able to make those memories. 

So maybe an all girl won't be so bad ;) Now just to convince Jake...

Breaking in the Sidewalks

with her new Easter chalk. This has been our afternoon activity almost every day this week. Unfortunately after our rain storms today it's all washed away. But I'm sure as soon as our sunny weather is back she'll be hitting the sidewalk again with her chalk. 

The Zoo

Finally! I am back in the blogging business. We got a new (much needed) computer last night so now I can finally catch up on all of these pictures! I have so many to go through...and on top of a months worth of our own pictures I have two photo shoots of other families that I need to get to as well. So it's going to take a lot of time, but I'll get there. That's what nap time is for right?! 

First up in my slew of posts to come is our trip to the zoo we took at the beginning of March. With the weather warming up, and the sun coming out, we couldn't pass up a sunny day at the zoo. We have really been wanting to take Emery, we never took her last summer mostly because she was so young we knew she wouldn't care at all. So we postponed. I'm glad we did, she really loved it. She is at the perfect age. But any way we called up some of our very favorite people ever, The Allens, and met them for a picnic and zoo day. 

After our quick picnic we headed off to the elephants first. We maybe should have saved these for last because they were Emery's favorite by far. Nothing really compared after the elephants. She was making us laugh because as soon as she saw them she recognized them from Barney (Let's Go to the Zoo epidsode!) and started singing the tune to the 'Elephant, Elephant' song. I didn't even know she knew it. So the whole rest of the time at the zoo she sang that song. And ever since, when ever she sees an elephant, she starts to sing the song. 

Next up were the monkeys and gorillas. Emery was just the size of an infant gorilla. She didn't wanna stand there too much though, it took a little coaxing from Dad. 

Pointing at the monkeys. There were some kind of monkey that they had there that were super furry and had long tails that she thought were cats. So she kept meowing at them. Once we got to the monkeys that looked more like monkeys she started making her monkey sound. It's my personal favorite of the animals sounds she makes. She says "he, he, he, ho". But the best part is the expression on her face. She puts her whole body into making that sound and I can't help but crack up every time. 

Being outside, on a sunny day, with animals all around, and hanging out with Daddy. For this girl, a day does not get any better. 

The giraffes. To Emery these resembled horses. haha. So these got "neighs" from her. 

Super close up...sorry! (Thanks Chance! ;) haha)

I love Kate's face in this one so I had to post it. Such a cutie.

Never could figure out what Emery and Kate were looking at, but they both found something very interesting in the same place. 

After we finished at the zoo we went to a park just across the street. Emery was so happy to just be able to run. She gets sick of being carried and wants to walk, but she always runs away so we can't let her! The park is the perfect solution. 

Doing her 'stink bug' crawl. I have no idea why she does this but every so often she whips it out for everyone's entertainment. 

Trying to tell Kate something, who knows what. Kate sure thought it was funny though whatever it was. 

ahhh kisses ;)

After a little bit longer at the park Emery and Kate were beat! So we headed home. Emery fell asleep in the car, she was so tired from all the sunshine and running. It was such a fun day. Thanks Allens! Can't wait until next time!

The next day was Stake Conference for us. We went up to my parents church and went with my Dad and brother. (My Mom and Shayli were in California, so it was just us). Emery did the funniest thing though that I have to share. For some reason Emery has issues with a few things...the first one is bare feet. She doesn't like any one to be without shoes. Jake and I have both started having to always wear slippers in the house because she will bring you shoes if you don't have any on. The second thing is people sleeping...if you fall asleep on the couch, or anywhere she is around, be prepared to be woken up. Well at Stake Conference one of my parent's neighbors was sitting behind us and he fell asleep. Emery spotted him and yells, "Oh No!!" She has done this before but usually she is sitting on my lap so I can quiet her down before she makes a scene. This time though she had walked down the row so I couldn't get to her. So she yells, "Oh no!" about 3 times until every one is looking at where she pointing. His wife was laughing and woke him up. Emery was satisfied and came back. We couldn't stop laughing. 

After dinner Emery talked "papa" and "dada" into setting up the trampoline for her. She even helped. 

She was a big fan. She thought that was the funnest thing she'd done all day. She screamed and screamed when we brought her in. Big shocker I know. She screams every time we bring her in the house from outside. Little stinker. 

All in all it was a perfect weekend!