Rainstorms & Happiness

6/28/13

Happy Father's Day Ry!!

Happy Father's Day Ryan!! Olivia, Emry, and I are lucky to call you ours!! You are such a great Dad and we love you so much!!

Daddy and Em cuddles for Father's Day!

Ryan's Father's Day present: a new grill!

6/2/13

What? I don't have a little baby anymore? I have a one year old? How did this happen?!?! I can't even describe how awesome this last year has been. It really has been the best year of my life. It has been so much fun having Emry in our family and she has brought us so much joy! Happy Birthday sweet girl! Your mama and daddy love you so much!!!

Here is how Emry's day went on her birthday:

Daddy gave her chocolate milk for her birthday breakfast

Played some catch with daddy!

We modeled our cute birthday dress!! Cute Birthday Girl!!

More cute dress!!

Emry and me on her birthday. This is her birthday dress that Daddy brought home from China. It was totally perfect for her 1 year old birthday. She looked adorable!!

Having fun with mommy!

She loves when we dance with her lately. We spin her around and then dip her like this and she laughs and laughs. She loves dancing with her daddy!!

Later, everyone came over to celebrate Emry's birthday with us!!

We practiced walking with our walker!

Crawled around and looked cute!!

Played with Uncle Jeffrey

Uncle Jeffy and our BFF Lila!

Before the cake came out.

Everyone sang me a Happy Birthday song. Mommy helped me blow out the candle!

We could NOT get her to take her finger out of her nose. I don't know what the deal was with that today but it made for a pretty hilarious picture for us!! It will work for some awesome graduation photo one day! haha!! Silly girl!

Our Family!

Mmm Cake!! She had no reservations eating the cake. I guess we have given her too much practice in her first year of life. Some kids get their first taste of sugar on their one year old birthday. That was not Emry!! She has had sugar since she was like 4 months old... whoops. Oh well, at least she is happy! She loved eating her cake and made a grand old mess!!

Mmmm It was some good cake!!

She really wanted to share with Dad. He thought it was tasty too!

Signing "all done" She made a big mess and she loved her cake!!

Emry at 1 Year

Our cute little baby turned into a one year old today! I refuse to call her a toddler since she does not actual toddle yet! :D Can't she just stay my baby forever? I'm going to just say yes!!! Here are some fun things Emry has been doing this month.

Weight: 21 lbs 11 oz

Height: 30.75 inches

Head: 18.5 inches

*She has learned how to say Dog. It normally comes out as "Da" with a really hard D sound and when she says it her face lights up! She loves dogs!!

*Started saying "no" She says it while shaking her head. It's pretty cute!

*Tries to say "Up" when she wants you to hold her or she wants to get up on the couch. Mostly it just sounds like the "P" sound but we know what she is saying.

*Signs "All done" and "more"

*She knows what a dog, elephant, and cow say. It's pretty fun to see how smart she is!!

*Stands by herself. She mostly does this when she doesn't realize it but lately it's been even more like she will stand up without using anything to grab on to. I'm feeling walking is right around the corner. (If only she would be brave enough to just do it!!)

*Sleeps through the night pretty much 100% of the time (did I just jinx it?) She will go to sleep at 830 and get up at 7 (give or take 15 minutes)

*Takes 2 naps. One at 10:30 and one at 3:30. Both are about 1 1/2 hours. This is just enough time for Mom to get something done

*She has started to like her blankie more and more. When you go get her in the morning or after her naps, she first bends down and hands you her blankie. She loves it.

*Had her first taste of cow's milk about 2 weeks ago. She LOVED it!! A lot people I've talked to say their kids have a hard time switching from breast milk because the taste is so different but Emry LOVES her milk. She nurses in the morning and at night and gets a bottle of milk in the afternoon before nap #2 and it's the highlight of her day! She drinks it cold and everything. So glad she loves it!!

*Started throwing temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way. All I can do is laugh because it's really funny how dramatic she is. She throws her head back and then goes forward and lays on the ground while she whines/cries. Oh the drama!!!

*Still loves to go outside. She goes over the doors and tries to reach for the handle to try to get out. Heaven help us when she gets tall enough to reach the handle!!!

*She will push her walker around the house for a really long time. The other day while I was at work Ryan said she walked around for 16 minutes (he timed it) just pushing that thing around. Ryan had to turn it and stuff so she didn't run into walls, but man, she can go for a long time!!

* Dances to music. Any time music comes on she starts bobbing her head. It's adorable!!

*Does the cheeser grin! Also, she fake laughs and it's adorable!!

*Learned to fold her arms for prayers. Okay, really it's just folding her hands but it's too cute! (see the picture below if you don't believe me).

This is how she has been sleeping lately. On her tummy with her arms underneath her and her bum in the air. It's adorable!

The temper tantrum . First, the head thrown back crying. Then the look at you like "why are you not giving me what I want." Then, the head to the ground!! DRAMA!!!

This is Emry saying her prayers. She does this whenever she sees Ryan and I fold our arms. Sometimes we don't know we are even doing it until all the sudden Emry thinks it's time for a prayer. She will fold her arms about half the time we tell her it's time for prayers. Such a reverent little girl!!

Daddy and Emry in her birthday dress. She is just adorable!!

5/27/13

Happy Memorial Day

Most everyone was still in town for Memorial Day so we decided to do a fun hike up Provo Canyon. We hiked Bridal Veil falls which is really easy and fun! Perfect hike for 2 pregnant girls and lots of kids! It was a blast!!!

Daddy and Emry at the base of the waterfall

Cael, me, and Emry at the base of the waterfall

Feeding the fishies in the pond (Jason with Jacks, Jenna, Ben, Cael, Ryan, Emry, Gavin)

Throwing rocks in the river (Jenna, Jason with Jacks, Gavin, Brooke, Ben, Cael, Shalon, Emry, Ryan)

We hiked up a ways to where the waterfall actually fell. A small, easy hike. Here is our family after the hike

We all met at Riverwoods to have lunch and they had a fun splash pad. Emry was less than impressed but at least she touched the water. haha

We totally wore her out from our day of hiking (and no real naps) so by 7 she was so tired she would just lay on my shoulder and fall asleep. It was some much needed cuddle time!! Love her!!

5/26/13

Surprise Surprise

This year Ryan is turning 31 and since I was overdue with Emry on his 30th birthday and we didn't do anything really special, I thought it would be fun to do something big this year! Thanks to the help from family and friends we were able to pull off an awesome surprise party for Ryan. He totally had no clue and it turned out to be a great party!

Nathan helped out by taking Ryan golfing that morning (I know, it was a huge sacrifice). Since all his family decided to come to the party, all the boys ended up going golfing (Nate, Ryan, Scott, Ben, and Jason). I was scared Ryan was gonna get suspicious but I just played it down and acted just as surprised as he was that all his family just decided to show up without telling anyone. I figured he wouldn't catch on because his family does visit a lot now that they are so close in St. George and thankfully, he didn't even question it! Phew!!

That morning I just got everything ready for the party (cutting up fruit, setting up the fun twister game and the mini tramp, getting the hot dog toppings ready, etc.) and just prepared for everyone to get here. Everyone started arriving at 1:30 PM and then it was just a waiting game until we got the call that Ryan was on his way! We all gathered in the front room and when he walked in, we all yelled "Surprise!!" He was slightly confused I think but then he got it and said, "You lied!!" haha!! It was pretty fun!!

Ryan walking in (having no idea what's going on!!)

Ok, now he gets it!! :D

We had a delicious BBQ fashioned after J Dawgs (a famous hot dog stand right off BYU campus). We even got the J Dawgs sauce so it was really authentic! We had all the toppings they offer and it turned out really yummy. We had a fruit platter, a veggie platter with dip, chips, and homemade Root Beer!! Ryan has been talking about making home made Root Beer for awhile so I decided it would be fun to have it at his party. He loved it!

Eating outside. It was SO windy but we managed to survive.

Getting some yummy J DAWGS from the food table!! (You can also see the really fun fruit skewers that we had. Yummy and cute!)

More eating!

Emry liked the food too!!

Ryan trying really hard to blow all the candles out with one breath. He just barely was able to do it!

I love this picture because it looks like Emry is saying, "What just happened!!" She is too precious!!

Ryan and me!

Emry enjoying her bottle in her high chair!

Mostly at the party we just ate and talked. It was really fun to just visit with friends we don't get to see very often and family. We had cake and ice cream and then people started trickling out. Ryan was exhausted from getting up early to golf and from working late earlier that week so he took a little nap while his family and I played games. (It was supposed to be a game themed party, but we didn't play any games until it was only his family left. Oh well!) We played twister and Kubb outside and then we came in to do some "Minute-to-Win-it" games. We had a blast and it was really funny to watch everyone try to do the activity. Comical.

It turned out to be a way fun party and I'm glad Ryan was genuinely surprised! (It's so much better that way!) Happy Birthday Ryan! Emry and I love you so much! Hope you had a way fun Birthday party!!!

Jenna, me, Jason, and Jeff playing twister. Instead of using the actual mat, you just paint colored circles on the grass. It was really cute and really fun too!!

More twister fun! Jeff, Jason, Jenna (this was after I got out!)

Grandma Vivian with Jackson and Gavin jumping on the mini tramp!

Playing Minute-to-Win-it games. This one you had to stack 6 dice on the end of Popsicle stick within 1 minute. I think we all did this one pretty easily. The next one you had to start with an Oreo on your forehead and then just wiggle your face until it moved down into your mouth. This game was hilarious to watch and made for some awesome pictures!!