20 Months

*Loves to sing. The best part of my day is watching her try to "sing" while she dances all over the living room with her princess figures. Mostly it sounds like loud, long talking but she doesn't sing actual words, so it just makes me laugh. Occasionally you will hear words like "prince" "come" (Someday my Prince with Come) and today she sang "work" after doing the tune to "whistle while you work" It is pretty adorable.
*She also likes to sing real songs. She could sing nursery/primary songs all day long. Her favorites are Book of Mormon Stories (she does the hand movements and everything), The Wiseman Built His House Upon the Rock (Rock hand movements included), Popcorn, I Love to See the Temple, I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS, Once There was a Snowman. She always tries to get us to sing "baby Jesus song" which means any song with baby Jesus in it (mostly Away in a Manger). Apparently it is still Christmas at our should because she constantly wants to sing Christmas songs!
*She is getting so smart. She loves to sing the ABC's and will fill in the G, LMNOP, S, V, X, and Z if I pause at the right times during the song.
*She is also learning how to identify the letters. We have these foam letters she plays with in the bathtub and she can identify the O, L, M, A, E, R, X, B, C, D. I need to add more letters to the ones we do all the time so she can learn more of them.
*She is learning how to count. She can do 1 and 2. Then I help her to 4 but then she knows 5,6,7,8 and then I help her with 9 and 10. I think soon, she will be able to count to 10 on her own.
*She is learning her colors too. She gets red 100% of the time and then the other colors about 70% of the time (like blue, green, pink, and yellow).
*She is really good at her puzzles (especially the shapes one and can put all the shapes where they go without help.)
*Loves nursery so much! On Sundays if I tell her we are going to Church/Nursery today she will ask me a million times to take her to Church (we have 1 pm Church so she asks me all morning long). She knows that in nursery you sing songs and color, so what's there not to like. She still doesn't LOVE us leaving her there but I think she is getting used to it, because there is no more crying when we leave. The leaders say she is constantly asking "Where'd mom go?" and "Where'd dad go?" the whole time, which is totally adorable.
*LOVES her baby brother. She always comes up to my belly and says, "I want to see him" which really means she wants to see my actual belly. Then she kisses and snuggles my belly and pats it softly and says, "Hi, baby brother." It's darling and melts my heart every time.

19 Months

It's a new year: 2014!!! and my baby turned 19 months today! 

Here are some fun things she is doing these days

*Talks up a storm. She surprises me all the time by the things she says. Mostly, it's things I say that she has learned over the months. Some examples: What happened?, I want to read it (yes, full sentences), Dang it (that one made me start watching what I say around her... haha), 

*Loves her Grandmas the very most. She always wants to play with her Grandma if she's around. She says "Mama" for Grandma and "Mommy" for Mom

*Loves her cousins. Her favorites are Owen, Lila, and Jackson. She also loves baby Rylee and baby Leah

*She loves babies a whole lot. Her favorite would be baby Jesus. It was so fun having her around for Christmas because she really helped us focus more on the Savior's birth. She always wanted to look at pictures of baby Jesus and in every nativity we saw, she was so excited to see baby Jesus. 

*Doesn't really like the snow. Every time we go outside she says "Cold" and she doesn't really feel the need to play in the snow. We took her sledding a couple of weeks ago and she did not find that fun at all. Maybe one day she will change her mind...

*Loves Elmo. Her favorite books are her Elmo books and we have one movie of Elmo and she would watch that over and over again if I'd love her. She loves to sing "Elmo's song" and dance to it. 

*She loves the temple. Whenever we drive by the temple (which is a lot where we live) she yells, "Temple" and then starts jabbering in song with a couple of words you can understand like "see" and "temple." She wants us to start singing "I Love to See the Temple." It is pretty cute. 

*Her favorite way to drive mom and dad crazy is to say "No, Mine!!" in a really bratty tone. That is not my favorite :) We are working on learning how to share and be nice.

*Her appetite has slowed down quite a bit lately. It seems she has no desire to sit still long enough to actually eat. I'm hoping it will pass and she will start back up again soon. I feel like I waste so much food lately.

*She has started loving taking showers with me. She will just sit on the ground and let the water fall on her, but she doesn't really love it when I pick her up and actually put her in the water. I think the pressure bugs her. 

*Loves to brush her teeth

*Loves to color

*Most of all, she loves her Mom and Dad. It's so fun to see her run to her daddy when he gets off work and to hear her yell "Daddy" or "Mommy" when she wakes up in the morning.

We are so blessed to have you, Miss Emry. You make our life happier and full of fun! 

Here she is watching a baby Jesus movie with Daddy. Emry could watch these all day. Ryan is less than impressed. :D

Emry helping me shovel the sidewalk. We found these cute little shovels and she loves hers!!

Merry Christmas

The very best present I got this Christmas was not having to go into work, which means I got to spend the whole day with my loves!! We started the morning off by coming down to all our presents. Emry actually "got it" better than I thought she would. She loved to pick a present and then sit there and open it. Thankfully, most of the presents were hers so it didn't even matter which ones she picked because it was probably hers! We opened maybe half the gifts and then took a break to make a yummy breakfast.

After a delicious breakfast (homemade pancakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and Orange Julius) we finished opening all the presents. Ryan got tired on a full stomach and decided to take a nap so Emry and I played with all her toys until her nap. 

After everyone's nap, we decided to take a trip to visit Olivia's grave. It was a special time to have our whole family together again on Christmas. We miss that little baby every day. 

On our way home, we stopped at Ryan's Aunt Julie's house and played some games with their family. Then we headed home to have a thrown together dinner of whatever we could find. 

All in all, our Christmas was wonderful and filled with the Spirit of Christ. I feel like we had such a simple Christmas and so we had a lot of time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and really spend a lot of time together as a family. We hope you all had a great Christmas this year!! 

Our tree all ready for Emry to come down and open present! It was so fun being Santa Clause. I think I was the most excited person Christmas morning!! Couldn't wait to see Emry love her present!!

 This girl LOVED her new car. She kept getting in and out and telling us "bye bye" and "see ya later" Totally adorable!!

Daddy helping Emry open her gifts

My new scarf from Ryan

Ryan giving Emry a "ride" around the house.

Emry's new piano. Our life just got a whole lot noisier!! haha

Ryan loved his new golf club too. He is pretty much the easiest person to shop for sometimes. New golf clubs=happy hubby!!

Ryan and Emry at Olivia's grave

Not the best picture quality but it's the only picture we got of our family on Christmas. LOVE these two!!!

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas, we had our first Gardner Family Christmas at home, just our little family. I was scheduled to work Christmas day, so we had to stay home and we couldn't convince anyone to come hang out with us, so it was just us! I was worried it wasn't going to feel like Christmas, but we had such a fun  holiday together. It was nice to just slow down and be together as our own family.

Christmas Eve day, we had a fun day playing with Lynne and her kids. We played in the snow, sledded, and built a snowman. It was a fun day hanging out with family.

Needless to say, Emry didn't like the snowman much...

Christmas Eve day lunch with our cousins. So happy they are all best friends!! 

Christmas Eve, we decided to have dinner with Kris & Bjorn and their family. We had a delicious ham and potatoes and then we had a program of Christmas songs we sang. It was a simple night focused on family and Christ. It was a great night.

Emry on Christmas Eve

Maddie, Emry, & Gabby in front of the tree

Emry working on her Christmas Eve gift

She loved her new Christmas PJ's and wanted to put them on immediately. Such a cutie!!

Ryan and his new PJ's (can't leave out the adults with all the fun!!)

18 Months

Emry is getting so big and I've been so bad at recording all her new fun things she does, but I guess better late than never, right. Stats:

Weight: 23 lbs 14 oz (70%)

Height: 33 inches (85%)

Head: 19 inches (75%)

*Talks in sentences now. Mostly it's 2-3 words but she has said full on sentences before. It's awesome hearing her grow up! She sounds like a little girl now.
*She still doesn't ever say "yes." She will either grunt in agreeance or say "K" It's my favorite when she says that because she sounds like she is 14! 

*She likes to hold hands when she's in the car seat. Not all the time but when she gets fussy, holding mom or dad's hand makes everything better.

*Loves to hear her kids music. If I'm listening to my own music or even Christmas music in the car she points to the radio and says "No. Dancing!" which means she wants her own music to dance to. It's pretty adorable.

*Eats anything we eat. She is still a pretty good eater. One of her favorite things is a frozen Go-gurt. She knows exactly where we keep them and goes over to the freezer and says "this" The girl knows what she wants. She also is getting really good at eating with a fork and a spoon. Big girl!

*Still loves to watch videos of herself on our phones. Her favorite thing ever!

*Loves to read books all day long. Her favorite is Elmo.

*Loves to go swimming. We have an indoor pool at the nearby rec center that she loves to play in. She loves to wear her puddle jumpers too. 

*She loves her daddy. Every morning before he leaves she says, "miss you" and won't let him go. It's adorable!! I love that she loves her daddy. 

*Loves her cousins so much! She is constantly asking about Lila, Owen, and Lynnie and whenever she sees the picture on our fridge of the cousins, she has to point out Cadence and Cameron. She loves to look at the babies on our fridge too (Rylee and Leah). 

*She loves babies so much. Whenever she hears them crying she says, "baby sad" and then says "be happy." She loves to kiss them on their head and give them loves. 

*She is learning how to say her prayers and it's adorable. She always wants to pray for Owen, Lila, Lynne, Grandpa, and Daddy. And she says Jesus, Amen. Every night we say prayers I just melt with cuteness and love for her! She is so sweet.

At our Doctor appointment. She looks so old here to me.

She loves to do puzzles and she is getting pretty good at them too!

Looking happy as can be

Disneyland Day 2

After everyone else went home for Thanksgiving, Ryan and I still had a day or two so we decided to take another trip to Disneyland. It was fun to have Ryan there this time to see how much fun Emry had! My grandma came too and we had a fun, exhausting day. We decided to spend the morning with Emry and then have my mom come pick her up so Ryan and I could stay until the fireworks that night. It was really fun but I was so tired and hurting by the end of the day. All that walking made my pregnant back really tired. Here are the pictures of our fun day!

This is Ryan's favorite ride ever. I'm pretty sure we rode it like 400 times that day. Ryan was trying to get a high score and even googled how to get the highest score. I'm telling you, he was obsessed. 

Emry loves her daddy. I would ask her, "Do you want to go on the ride with Mommy or Daddy?" and she would hug her daddy and say "Daddy!!" There is nothing cuter than a girl and her daddy! Love them!

Ryan and Em on Autopia 

Me and Grandma Donna on the ride

All of us on the train

 Emry on the 'Mater ride

Ryan and I in front of the Christmas tree that night. We are about 13 weeks in this picture. Funny thing is, we have a picture at Disneyland in front of the Christmas tree when I was about 14 weeks pregnant with Emry. 

Disneyland Day 1

 Before Thanksgiving, Emry and I went to California to spend time with my family and thanks to Uncle Scottie we got to go to Disneyland!! Emry had a blast. So much fun, in fact that she would not fall asleep until finally at like 5:30 pm. She was a trooper though and we had a blast!!

I love Disneyland at Christmas time. They have the best decorations!! This was in the Hotel lobby. A huge gingerbread house! So cute!

Yes, we got my dad to go to Disneyland. If you know my dad, you know how rare this is. 

The group on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. Emry loved seeing the fishies.

It's A Small World ride. Emry loved the dancing.

Me and Emry in front of the castle

This pose was for Ryan. He loves trying to get the sword out. Gotta pass on the traditions.

On the merry go round

She finally conked out at like 5:30. No naps for this baby finally made her give in

Me and Scottie in front of the Christmas tree

Emry and Grandma vs me. I won :)

Happy California Thanksgiving

When Kelli first announced she was having another baby right before Thanksgiving I knew we had to spend Thanksgiving in California to snuggle that cute baby boy!! 

Emry and I went early because Ryan was out of town for work. And I'm so glad we did because it was a blast!! I'm just going to let the pictures tell the story of how much fun we had. We also went to Disneyland twice, but this post is going to be too long, so I'll do a separate post for those. 

We made it a priority to see this little man! He is such a mini Brian! 

We decided to make this trip when we announced to everyone that we were expecting again!! This little girl is gonna be a BIG sister!!! 

 Cade and Cam were excited to see Em! Love these cousins! 

  Emry loved being with Grandma. This is her coming up with the Thanksgiving meal menu :D

 Eating OUTSIDE with our cousin Cam. We love these sunny days. Cadence and Cam were fighting over who got to sit by Emry. They love their cousin.

Best thing about Grandma's house is making cookies!! She looked so cute in her apron! 

Everyone loved helping!! 

"Look what I got!!" Grandma's house = lots of sugar

Since we wouldn't all be together for Christmas, we decided to do our Christmas picture at Thanksgiving. Everyone is so much older than last year, plus there's a new baby this year!! Can't wait to see how these change each year. 

 More sunny days!! Emry loved getting back to the park! We've been missing outside lately! 

Remember the Grandparents = sugar thing? Grandpa got us an ice cream cone!! 

Of course, we had to visit the beach while we were there! Emry loved playing in the sand. 

Emry and Daddy on the swings at the beach

Grandpa's specialty is digging holes for kids to play in, and all the grand kids LOVED it!

She's cute

 Rides on Grandpa's shoulders

We rode the ferry across the bay at balboa. Emry loved the "water choo choo"

Our cute family on the pier. I really do love these two (or three)

Us on the beach (Also, as you can see, Ryan still has his beard/mustache from "movember")

One day we got Uncle Scottie to let us in to the Disneyland hotel pool. It wasn't quite as warm as we would have liked, but it was still fun and Emry liked the little water slide.

On Thanksgiving day, we spent more time at the park. This girl was in heaven with all this outside time!

All the cousins wearing their Big Sister and Big Brother t-shirts. 

Daddy and Emry