California

Last week, we drove down to California for my Grandpa's funeral. Ryan, Emry, and I left Wednesday night and drove to St George. We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way. Emry did great in the car and we actually ended up making great time. We had a good day just hanging out at my Grandma's house, preparing for my Grandpa's funeral. We had a viewing that night. It was a great time to all gather together as a family and remember my Grandpa. He has so many people who love him and miss him so much. 

On Friday, we had my Grandpa's funeral almost all day. It was a wonderful funeral service that highlighted what an amazing man my Grandpa was. My cousin, Missy, gave the eulogy and she did such a good job capturing who my Grandpa really was. One thing that is actually wonderful about funerals is that it is such a good opportunity to feel the spirit testify of the truthfulness of the plan of salvation. I am so grateful for eternal families. The graveside service was next, which was done beautifully. Representatives from the US Navy came, which was really touching. It made me feel very patriotic and so grateful for all those who serve our country. They presented my Grandma with the flag with Owen on her lap and so Owen now thought it was his. It was adorable and I just loved it! The services were followed by the luncheon. Lynne put together a wonderful DVD of pictures with my Grandpa with all his Great Grand kids. It was wonderful because my Grandpa loved his kids, grandkids, and his great grand kids. He found such joy in spending time with them. It was a wonderful day to remember my Grandpa. 

Saturday, we spent the day all together going to the aquarium. It was a fun little aquarium where the kids could touch animals in the "tide pools." All the kids (and adults) had a blast! Here are some pictures from the day.

Emry riding along in her stroller

 Us at the "tide pools" (Kelli, Owen, Cameron, Cadence, Gabby, Me, Emry, Maddie)

Grandma with Emry

Emry and me in the shark's mouth! Happy Girl!!

Grandma, Emry, and Cam by the giant whale!

Saturday night, Ryan and I went out for a fun dinner date since we had so many babysitters. Everyone else went to the Stake Roadshow. On this trip, Emry decided to get stranger anxiety. All she wanted was me. She also got sick (yes, again) and so sleeping was not the best on this trip. So when we met everyone at Roadshow to pick her up, she was a sad sad baby. So we didn't get to see much of the Roadshows.

Sunday morning, Ryan, Jeff, and Jason drove home to get back to work. Lynne, my mom, and I went to Cypress 2nd Ward to see a friend from my ward growing up who was having her homecoming. Also, my Dad was talking, so it was fun to see him speak too. We had a big family dinner that night. I just love having all the cousins together. It's so fun to watch them together and becoming such great friends! I wish we all lived closer so we could see each other more!

Emry and I enjoying the sunshine at my Grandma's house!

Hanging out in the CA sun!! (ok, it was a little chilly in the shade, hence the jacket!)

Cute girls taking a bath in Grandma's great big tub!!

Emry learned to walk using this cute shopping cart. She is getting too big!!

Post bath snuggles are the BEST!!

Monday became our shopping day. Nothing too exciting to report except for the first time in forever, Emry actually fell asleep in her stroller for a nap while we were out at the mall. (She is a really good napper in her own bed, but a terrible napper anywhere else!) She must have been exhausted! She wasn't sleeping well at all at night because of her runny nose, so that must have been a part of it. On Monday night, my  mom pulled out all our old FHE stuff. It was fun remembering all the fun felt stories we used to use when we were little. The kids loved to play with them too and tell all the stories.

So funny! Cam was having a blast pushing Emry around the food court!! Hilarious! And it was good for Emry because she was fussy and wanted to be pushed around! What a good little helper!

Emry sleeping at the mall

The kids and Grandma on the train at the mall. They loved it!

All the cousins gathered together! Love this!

Gabby loved picking Emry up! It was totally comical! She is such a little mommy! Too cute!

Tuesday we had such a fun day at Disneyland. (Actually we only went to California Adventure.) Scott signed my Mom, Lynne, and Me in with all the kids and my Grandma Nancy came too! It was so much fun, but it was pretty crowded so we only went on 2 rides. The new Cars Land is awesome and so is the new Cars ride. Emry surprised me again when she fell asleep in her stroller again! It was beautiful! We had a great time in the park and ate lunch just before we were going to leave. However, I didn't pay close attention to what I was eating and happened to have pesto, which has pine nuts in it. Which means I got to visit the first aid clinic in the park. After some barfing and some Benadryl, we all left and spent the rest of the day at home (me, recovering!).

Me on the new car's ride.                                        These are the cool cars you ride in!

Cute Minnie ears

Best friends! (Emry also learned to say Lila on this trip. It sounds more like "yiya!" but it's adorable. One morning Ryan had Emry and she heard Lila's voice and said, "yiya!" Adorable!! They really are best friends already!)

Sleeping at Disneyland! Wonderful!!!

 Waiting to go on the kiddie ride!

On the ride with Grandma. It was in the Bug's Life land. Kind of like the swings but much slower. Emry actually wasn't scared, which I was surprised about. She did well!

Lynne and I drove home with the 3 babies on Wednesday. We went the full 11 hours and honestly, all the kids did relatively well considering the long drive. The last 3 hours were a little rough because one baby would try to fall asleep and then another one would scream and wake everyone up. It was fun! :D But we all made it home safely and just in time for the snow to return :D


We had such a good time with all our family and only wish we could all get together more often!

Funny

Ever wonder what it would be like to be pregnant with an 18 lb baby? Haha! Since it's been so cold, sometimes Emry and I will take little walks to just get outside. She is really cozy and warm inside my own jacket! Such a cute girl!!

Grandpa Bob

Today, my Grandpa lost his battle with cancer. He was brave and fought hard, but now he can rest and be free from the suffering. My Grandpa is the best man I know. He has so much wit, laughter, and smiles. Most importantly, his life was spent serving others. He taught me so much on how to love others. I will miss him so much! Love you Grandpa.

A Picture Update

Playing peek-a-boo with mom!

Sunday afternoon popcorn snack while Emry napped

Emry and Mommy

Emry was sick this day but she still managed to smile for me! She is such a sweet little girl!

Doing some shopping with our favorite friends, Aunt Lynnie and BFF Lila!!

Loves to play in her car seat and give mom cheeser grins!!!

I painted her toes to which Ryan responded, "What happened to her toes!" (He thought they were bleeding!)  Boys...

9 Month check-up. Our favorite one since there were no shots!!

Happy Happy Girl!

Playing in the Tupperware cupboard! She just crawled right in! Cutie patootie!!

We were showing off our new shoes when she gave me this look, like, "Mom, enough pictures already!" There can never be enough pictures of this cute girl!

9 Months

Happy 9 Months to my cute little Emry girl!! Nine months seems like a huge milestone to me for some reason. Like she is in between infant and toddler! She is such a big girl and we are loving every minute of it! (Although I also really miss having my tiny little baby around...) She has really started to show her personality and the best way to describe it is HAPPY! People are always commenting on how happy she is and it is really true! She loves to smile and laugh. (Don't get me wrong; when she is mad, she is MAD!) But most of the time she is just a happy little girl! We are so lucky to have such a fun, cute, happy, nice, smiley, etc baby! We love her so much!!

Stats:

Height: 28.7 inches (90%)

Weight: 18 lbs 11 oz (75%)

Head: 17.75 inches (50%)

At 9 Months:

*Crawls everywhere and is in to everything! She pulls herself up on everything and will cruise sometimes. She doesn't do this too often but she has started to do it by herself (without me giving her something to work toward or sitting there encouraging her!) She even climbs the stairs, but can't come down them yet. Thankfully, they are a little out of the way so she only gets on the stairs when we take her there. 

*Has 4 teeth and they are adorable!! She has learned out to bite food. For example, she can bite off a piece of the graham cracker and she kinda chews Cheerios with her front teeth! Smart girl!!

*Eats everything. She doesn't really like peas, green beans, or beans but she will eat them if you are feeding them to her with a spoon (she just won't feed herself them). Her favorite thing lately is cheese. She could eat so much cheese, it's ridiculous. It's like she is never too full for cheese! 

*Babbles all the time. She sometimes will copy you if you say "mamma" or "dadda" and I swear she copied me when I said ball the other day. She is one smart little girl!

*Copies you when you blow raspberries  It's really funny when you do it and then this baby copies you! She cracks me up!

*LOVES bath time. She loves to play with her toy turtle and discovered splashing. So much fun!

*When she is healthy and happy, she sleeps really well, but when she is sick, it's like we have a different baby. She got sick last week and she was up like 4 or 5 times a night. It was kinda ridiculous, but now she is all better and she sleeps 11 hours straight. I am so sick of winter and being sick! It has been a rough winter for us. I feel like Emry gets sick and then she gets better only one week later to get sick again! It's horrible. We are currently healthy and hoping that we stay that way!! 

*She takes 2 naps during the day. She has been doing pretty good with these, so that's a plus!

*Wears size 3 diapers and 6-12 month clothes (some 12 month clothes too). 

*Still LOVES other kids. At church it is crazy how much she will laugh and smile at all the kids around us! Today the little boy in front of her actually gave her a kiss! haha! He also gave her his sister's burp cloth and said, "Here Girlfriend". It was classic! First love, I suppose! But then she turned around and flirted it up with the boy sitting behind us, so I wasn't too worried! (Or should I be more worried... hmm..)

*Loves to go outside. Every time I open the door she gets so excited!

*Started getting so excited when Daddy comes home from work. She hears that door open and sees him and gets so excited and almost starts hyperventilating she is so excited and crawls toward him. It of course, makes Ryan's day! She loves her Daddy!

*Waves Hi and Bye all day long!

Nine months has been one of my favorite stages! I just love it! She is so much fun!

Look at that smile! 

 I let her stand on her own for a second. She didn't like it! haha (I'm actually not holding her at all in the picture!) Also, if you look closely, you can see her bottom two teeth!

 Did I mention she is adorable!!

 Standing! This is what we do all day!

St. George, How I Love Your Sunshine!!

Ryan's brother, Brandon, got home from his mission last week, and so we had the funnest time with his family. Scott and Vivian flew down to pick Brandon up from Guatemala and then came to Salt Lake with him on Feb 13th. We all went to the airport to welcome them home. It was fun to see Brandon again and see how much he changed! We had dinner at our house: Brandon's favorite Chicken Fingers!! Hey, it is what he wanted!! :D We all sat around and looked at Brandon's pictures and just hung out that night. The next day, we had a really good breakfast with everyone and then everyone went home. 

On Friday after work Ryan, Emry, and I headed down to St. George to hear Brandon's "homecoming talk" and hang out with the whole family. All the brothers came down and it was really fun to have the whole family together again. 

On Saturday morning, we played hiked up this hill by Ryan's parent's house. It was a good exercise, especially for someone who hasn't exercised in a long time! After that, we played kubb outside in the wonderful sun and then the girls went to Parade of Homes in St George which was amazing!  There were some really awesome homes that made me want to tear down my house and start over! It was pretty fun! (Sidenote: it was amazingly warm in St George!! It was only like 60 degrees but in the sun, it felt like 80! I wore sandals and I think I even got a little tan! It was wonderful and we may have a new address for you in a couple of months! jk) The boys stayed home and watched the babies so we could go, which was way nice of them! That night we had a bunch of people over for a BBQ and heard more mission stories, and saw more pictures. A lot of Ryan's family was there, so that was fun! 

Sunday, we went to Scott and Vivian's ward to hear Brandon speak. He did a really awesome job and told some really good stories from his mission. We went to the rest of church and I put Emry to sleep in the mother's lounge. It was pretty funny because in our mother's lounge in SLC, there are always like 2 or 3 moms in there, but in St George I had an hour completely uninterrupted! It was great!! Anyway, after church we had a fun lunch with all of Ryan's family before all the extended family had to go home. We played games the rest of the day and then took family pictures (which sadly, I don't have any copies of... hopefully soon!). 

On Monday, we spent most of the day just enjoying the sun! It was wonderful!! We went on the same hike again, which was slightly easier this time, and then we just hung around the house for the rest of the morning, getting ready and such. We went and dipped our feet in the Gardner's friend's hot tub, which felt wonderful! Then that afternoon, the boys (Ryan, Nate, and Scott) went golfing while the rest of us went and got frozen custard at Nielsen's. We ate it sitting in the sun and seriously, I was sweating! It was amazing! (Can you tell I'm totally done with being frozen solid!!!) We rushed home and went and saw one more house in the Parade of Homes and it was the BEST one!! Seriously, my dream house! It was so beautiful. Now I want to redo my whole house and make it look just like the one we saw!! :D The boys got home from golfing and we got home from looking at houses so the only thing left to do was to pack up and head home. We left St. George around 6 PM and made it home with no problems. It was a really fun weekend and I just love having Ryan's parents living so much closer and in such a warmer place where I can go defrost during these long winter months! 

Cael and Emry at Grandma and Grandpa Gardner's house!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had such a fun Valentine's Day this year. We normally don't celebrate Valentine's Day because it falls a week after our anniversary, but it is still a fun day to just show extra love to everyone we love! (Including this little lady!) My present to Ryan was to let him sleep in until 8, while I got up with Emry at 6:30. I think that was a pretty good gift! Haha! Ryan got me some really pretty flowers and I made a really good meal for us! It was a really fun day and of course, Emry was adorable in her Valentine's outfit! Love this girl!

 Kisses for Valentine's Day!!

I know there is a weird shadow in this picture but it was the best we got with both Emry and I looking so here it is anyway... 

Emry Updates

Emry has been changing so much lately, that she needed an early post!

*She has been crawling EVERYWHERE! She started crawling at about 7 1/2 months and then about a week later, she started really pulling herself on everything! She crawls over to the couch and then up she stands! It's adorable!
*She even cruises a little bit! If she is on one side of the couch and you put something she wants on the other side, somehow she always finds a way to walk her way over to it. It might take a while but it's adorable! She loves to hold onto the laundry basket and then I push it along and she just walks behind it! It's too cute!
*There have been times when she is holding onto my hands standing and then she just lets go and will just stand there for like half a second before she realizes what is going on and grabs me. Too cute!
*At about 7 1/2 months, she got her first tooth/teeth! Her left middle top one broke through first but the bottom two followed closely afterward! I better start taking tons of pictures of that gummy smile because it is  going to disappear so soon!

Almost every time I get her from her naps she is standing in her crib! Just waiting for me to come get her!

She is in to everything now. Pulls herself up on everything and is in to everything!! Good thing she's cute!

Just a picture of her trying to stand up. Also, since her teeth starting coming in, her tongue is almost always out like this! Funny girl!

Today, we went to play in the snow. She looks so darn cute and was so happy before we went out, but when we went into the snow, she was not happy about it! She must be her mother's daughter hating that snow!

We went bowling and she LOVED to stand and play with the balls. So cute!

Bowling fun!

Another one of her standing up on anything she can! And that smile is too cute!

California

We had so much fun when we were home for Christmas. Emry and I stayed for about a week after Christmas and it was perfect! I really needed that time in the warmth! It was wonderful!

We went to the wetlands at Bolsa Chica and it was the most perfect weather. Here is Emry with Cade!

Emry and me at the Beach

An adorable picture of Cade and her best friend Great Papa

Such cute cousins!

I am in love with how much Emry's cousins love her! They just gather around her and say "Emry, Emry" over and over again. It's the sweetest thing ever! I wish we all lived closer!

Look at that adorable face!!!

All the girlies at the beach!

Taking a walk by the water!

I'm Dreaming of a Warm Christmas

Our Family on Christmas Morning

 Happy on Christmas morning!

 That pile of presents!! Wow!!

Ready to come out to the presents!

Emry opening her presents

Christmas morning

All the Grandkids! This is adorable!!

7 Months

At 7 months:

*The girl can really get around. She just lays on her tummy and scoots ever so slowly. She can roll anywhere, and although she doesn't really make it very far, she is NEVER in the same position I put her in.
*She is all over the place: You are holding her and she wiggles trying to reach anything she sees. You put her down and she tries to get anything she sees and acts like she would rather have you holding her. It's a lose/lose but she is still adorable, so it's okay!
*Loves to say MAMA!! Yes!!! She babbles "Mmmmmmmmmaaa mmmmmaaaaa" all the time! In fact, toward then end of month 6, she has pretty much stopped saying dada, which Ryan is very upset about. I think she'll be back to saying it in no time, though!
*Pulled herself up!! Can you believe it! It was in California when we were home for Christmas and she just held on to this little toy piano and up she went to a standing position! So strong and so cute! She really is growing up!
*Pretty much never eats in the middle of the night anymore. (Unless she is sick and needs it.) She goes to bed around 7:30 PM and gets up around 7 AM. We are still working on consistent long naps, but she normally gets 2/day in. The morning one is shorter lasting only an hour, but the afternoon one is normally closer to 1.5-2 hours. Again, she is mostly all over on the times and such, but oh well, it works for us!
*Size 3 diapers, 6 month or 9 month clothes
*She is SOOO close to actually crawling! It's amazing. She really has the feet motions down, but her hands don't move. Normally its the legs kicking with her face on the ground (can't be comfortable). But the last 2 days she has actually started to move her hands a little more. I wouldn't be surprised if she was crawling within a week or so.
*She has started to chunk up again.
*She will eat anything. She tolerates baby food, but she really likes real people food. She loves eating Cheerios and can even pick some up and get them in her mouth half the time! I would say one of her favorites is soup. She really likes that. I would name the food she has had but it would take too long and I can't remember them all. Basically, if we're eating it, so is she! She still nurses 4-5 times a day.
*LOVES to stand up. She is going through a phase of not wanting to sit down. It's hilarious! You try to put her in her high chair and she does everything she can to keep standing up. She loves to stand up and hold on to things to steady herself.
*Likes to read until her attention goes elsewhere. She will start to fake laugh when you open a book to read it to her, like she is so giddy! It's adorable.
*Loves little kids. She will laugh and laugh when there are other little kids around. It's too cute! She has the time of her life when we are around her cousins. Adorable.