California

We had the funnest time in California for Jeffy's homecoming! Lynne, me, and the kids got on Jeff's flight from Salt Lake to Long Beach, which was so much fun. He was totally surprised and he got to be a fun uncle before we went and saw everyone at the airport. I just love going to California when everyone is there because it is so much fun to have all the cousins together! Cam and Owen are just too cute together and all the older cousins were loving on Emry, it was totally adorable!! I just loved it! I wish Bri and Kell lived closer so we could play all the time. We played a lot at Grandma and Grandpa's pool, went to downtown Disney, went to the Disneyland Hotel pool (thanks to Scottie), got to see the fireworks from the Disneyland Hotel (so much fun!!), shopped, went to the beach, etc. Here are a few pictures to document the fun we had!!

Me and Jeff on his first day home! So fun to have him back!

 Emry loved this little jumper thing! It was so cute to see her swing around in it! Haha! She is so adorable!

 Besties!!

Hanging out at the beach! So happy to be in the warmth!!

Never seen such a cute girl!!

 Just look at that smile!! She is the most adorable little thing in the world!! She is so happy to be at the beach!

 Hanging out with Daddy at the beach!

 All the siblings back together again! (LOVING Brian's sunglasses!!) 

 Daddy and Emry at the beach

Family Pictures (we added two more baby girls since our last picture here when Jeffy left on his mission)

 Best we could do with all the grand kids 

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa! We had a fun BBQ and pool party for his birthday. It was so much fun to have everyone there. All the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids! What a fun family time!

 Angels Game!

 We met the characters at the Disneyland Hotel lobby. One perk of knowing the Disneyland Hotel Manager is having all the characters know you. We saw like 4 or 5 characters just standing in the lobby. Awesome!

 Grandpa Bob with Emry

 We had a fun hangout with all the cousins on my dad's side. There were 10 kids under 3 years old! It was a crazy day, but so much fun!

 We had such a fun time going up to the concierge  lounge of the Disneyland Hotel and watching the fireworks. They dim all the lights and play the music even, so you get to watch the fireworks, hear the music, and not deal with any crowds! It was such a fun date night for Ryan and I.

4 Months

Oh my goodness, how I love this little girl!! She is just adorable. The last month has been so much fun! Emry has really grown and learned so much! Here is all the fun things for this month:

Weight: 15 lbs 3 oz (70%)

Height: 25.9 inches (95%)

Head Circumference: 16.8 inches (80%)

(The doctor asked me a second time how tall my husband was because Emry is so tall. Funny to tell him again, only 5' 10" haha)

*Ryan finally got to see her laugh and she now laughs much more often (practically every day). I think she may even be a little ticklish. 

*She is wearing size 3-6 clothes and size 2 diapers

*We had our first sickness, and let me tell you, it was NO fun! We got Hand Foot Mouth disease and she was totally miserable! She got sores in her mouth and it totally hurt her to eat. We had a rough couple of days, but thankfully she got over it and has gone back to being my totally happy giggly little girl!

*Because we had our first sickness, we had a bonus doctor visit and got weighed, so last week she weighed 15 lbs 7 oz with her clothes on. We have her real 4 month appointment tomorrow so we can see how much she really weighs then. 

*She normally sleeps from 8PM to somewhere between 4 and 5 AM. Then she goes back to bed until about 7:40 AM. Still trying to figure out how to get her to eliminate that early early morning feeding. Hopefully one day she will go a full 11-12 hours but for now, I'm just grateful it's only the one time.

*She sleeps on her stomach all the time now. I put her on her back (arms not swaddled anymore!) and almost immediately she is on her stomach sleeping. I always find her in different places in the crib too. She scoots herself around all night! :D so cute!

*Not only does she sleep on her stomach, but she also spends most of her day on her tummy too. She still hasn't remembered how to get back onto her back so she rolls onto her tummy and then just hangs out and plays with toys. Every once in a while she tries to get on her knees, but not very often. 

*She likes to read books. I read her books with her in my lap and when she sees the books, she starts talking and talking. It's adorable! Like she knows she is supposed to be reading it. Adorable!

*Started snuggling when she gets up from naps and in the morning. My very favorite part of the day!

All Smiles!!

 Cute little 4 month old!! :D

3 Months

Can you believe it, because I really can't! It has been 3 months already! Emry is such a joy to us, we are so blessed to have her in our lives. I think that every single day. I think sometimes our trials really do help us appreciate the blessings we have in life. I think with all the hard times we have had have made me so much more appreciative for our sweet little Emry. I feel so lucky to be her mom and I hope she can always feel how much I love her. I thank Heavenly Father for her every day. 

Anyway, this month has brought some changes. 

*Emry started to roll over from her back to her tummy. This has made swaddling and night time a little scary since sometimes she will turn over and then get stuck. Lucky enough, she is pretty strong to get her head up and start screaming for us to come turn her back over. (She can't roll from her back to her front without her hands! haha) I think we'll have to stop swaddling her soon! 

*She smiles ALL the time, but she is pretty picky about what will actually make her laugh. So far it has been me pretending to laugh, me coughing, and me actually laughing. Sadly, Ryan has yet to see her laugh in real life but we have caught it on my phone a couple of times. She is adorable! She really is just the happiest baby. We get people telling us all the time, "She is a happy baby, huh?" because she will just smile and talk to everyone. I'm convinced she is gonna be an early talker because she loves to have conversations with you. 

*We had our first trip to California (see separate post for the details). It was fun and Emry did amazingly well. She had her first car ride (13 hours! phew, that was long!) and her first plane ride (we really prefer flying because it was SO much fast and I can hold her the whole time!). It was good to see every one and we can't wait to go back! 

*I don't know how much she weighs but she has enough rolls for me to know that she is getting plenty to eat!

*We found out she can, indeed take bottles pretty well. In anticipation of me having to go back to work, we made sure of that! However, I really hate giving her bottles. For some reason I hate watching her get fed by the bottle. I really enjoy nursing her so I guess I'm just a little selfish in that matter.... 

*Graduated to size 2 diapers and to 3-6 month clothes. I am really hating putting her 0-3 month clothes away because those are her cutest ones, but I guess it's time for more shopping... haha.

*Started playing with toys. She loves to play with her toy keys and is getting really good at grabbing them and putting them in her mouth. She will also track things now with her eyes. I can't remember if she used to do this earlier, but I know she does this really well now. 

*Still LOVES blanket time. Sometimes she is really fussy and all she wants is to be put down. She loves to lay on her blanket and (now) play with toys and just hang out. Maybe she will be an independent child. I better watch out for that one!

*She has started to like to sit in her bumbo now. She sits in there while I make dinner or while I eat, etc. She will just hang out and just recently she has found her toes, which she loves to grab and play with.

*Sleeps pretty well at night. She will mostly sleep through the night from 8 pm to 7 am but recently has been getting up one time at around 4 AM. We are working on that currently so I'm hoping its back to 11 hour nights again... We'll see.

How do you not just melt with that smile! Oh, she is adorable!

 Another one with slightly better lighting

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

Wow, I cannot believe it has been 2 years since Olivia was born. It seems like just yesterday! We went and took flowers to her grave and showed Emry her big sister on her birthday. She is my precious little angel and I wish I could hold her and tell her happy birthday. We miss her a lot but we are so grateful for the gospel so that we can be with her again some day.

Gardner Girls!

Blessed

We blessed Emry on August 5, 2012 in the Draper 3rd Ward. It was a very special day for our family. Ryan did such a great job. I just love how much he loves our little girl and our family. Emry looked so beautiful in her cute little dress and she did such a good job during the blessing. She had the hiccups which you could hear through the microphone but no crying at all! We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!

Grandma and Grandpa Gardner

Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker

4 Generations: Great Grandpa Gardner, Grandpa Gardner, Daddy, Emry

New House

It is official! We finally closed on our house and we couldn't be more excited! Yay to having our own place and more than 2 rooms. We absolutely fell in love with this house and neighborhood as soon as we saw it. There are like 3 parks within walking distance and all the neighbors seem so nice. We put an offer in in the middle of April and we are only now getting to move in, but it was worth the wait! We can't wait to get in there and make it our own! Yay to finally having our house!!

2 Months

We had our 2 month appointment today and let's just say that Emry did much better than her mamma! I was stressed all day about her having to get her first round of vaccines and I had cause to be. 3 shots!! Come on, that is just mean! She screamed louder than I've every heard and so high pitched. I was on the verge of crying. Thankfully afterward she let me feed her and she was fine. We will see how the rest of the day goes. 

Weight: 13.5 lbs (90%)

Height: 23.5 inches (90%)

Head: 16.25 in (97%)

-Gives smiles out freely. She has been smiling and cooing for some time now! It is the most adorable thing ever! She is the happiest in the mornings right after breakfast. She could smile and coo for like an hour straight until it's time for another nap.

-Still wears 0-3 month clothes but could probably start to transition to 3-6 months soon. She still wears size 1 diapers as well.

-Sleeps really well at night. Most nights she will give me an 8 hour stretch and occasionally even a 10 hour stretch! Sadly, I can't go this long and I end up getting up anyway to pump. Hopefully I will adjust soon because I would love to sleep all night long!!

-Still loves her daddy!

-Still loves to be outside. 

-Loves to be swaddled. Occasionally, she will even put herself to sleep if you just put her in her crib. She is such a nice little baby!

-Does NOT like tummy time anymore. In fact, she won't even roll over anymore mostly. She just cries and kicks her little legs. Maybe she won't be crawling anytime soon...

Here are some cute pictures of my chubby little girly!!

 Check out those band aids!

Pictures as of Late

Sitting in her Bumbo chair. She is getting so strong, although mostly she doesn't like sitting in this very much because she would rather be standing.

 Sunday afternoons

 So happy with her mamma!

 She started just rolling over like this when we do tummy time. Just laying on her side as happy as can be. She is adorable!

 Helping mom make Sunday cookies!

A Girl and Her Daddy!

This girl is lucky to have such a loving, wonderful daddy! He just totally absolutely adores Emry. I think she already has her completely 100% wrapped around his finger! It is pretty adorable. He constantly wants to hold her, kiss her, and tell her how pretty she is (which she absolutely is!). Thanks Ry for being such a wonderful dad and husband! We love you!

Standing on Daddy's hands at 7 weeks old! Every Whitaker has to have a picture like this right?

Smiles

I caught a couple of cute smiles on camera this morning. She is just the cutest!!

Cousins

All the Gardner cousins together. I have a feeling this little girl is going to be outnumbered her whole life. At least she will be well protected by all her boy cousins!

This is what it was really like. Hard to get a good picture of them all.

What a cute girly!!

Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandchildren

Look what my baby can do!!

Today while Andrea was making pancakes, Emry rolled over for the first time! I had just set her down for tummy time and just kicked over all of a sudden. I screamed to Andrea who I'm sure thought that Emry had been attacked by something. We of course tried to get her to do it again and caught her second one on video. Way to go baby!!!

1 month

Today is Emry's one month "birthday." I thought I should write down a couple of things about our little girl so I can remember this fun time!

--She is getting so strong lately. When we put her on her tummy she lifts her head and just looks back and forth, kicking her legs. We are convinced she is going to be crawling so soon!
--She has the funniest little cry. And when I say little, I really mean very big! She is so feminine and it really does sound like a big giant "Waaaaah" It's almost so adorable that you don't want her to stop. Except you do because it's so loud!
--I think she has smiled like twice a real smile. Like because she was actually happy, not just because of some gas. :D
--She loves to be bounced on our exercise ball. I'm convinced it's because I spent the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy bouncing on that thing trying to get her out.
--She normally does a 5-6 hour stretch between eating at night and then it is back to 3-4 hours. However, one night she went 8 hours! I was slightly worried and checked on her like 3 times but she just kept on sleeping. I'm praying she repeats this again at some point soon! :D
--She eats really well. We still haven't tried a bottle because I love to nurse her. It is just a fun time where it is just me and her and we get extra cuddle time. My favorite!
--She is wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. She does not fit any of her newborn stuff anymore.
--She LOVES to be outside. She is gonna be a sun-lover like her mamma!

We are trying to find a way to stop her from growing up too fast because we just love having our cute little baby!

Family Time

A whole lot of girls! Grandma Donna, Mom, Me & Emry, Lynne & Lila

Four Generations

Great Grandma and Grandpa Workman with Emry

Great Grandpa Bob with Emry

So excited for these girls to grow up together. They are going to be so cute running around together!