family

Not only did Cristin and her kids come to visit, but Kelley, Vak, and Kaci showed up too! It has been over a year since all my sisters and I have been together. My mom and us girls (including miss Emma) all went out to P.F. Changs, and we had a barbecue with the whole family at our house. Here are all the pictures from the visit. Please come again soon you guys! It was so much fun!

week of fun

Cristin and her two boys came to visit last Monday. Three boys under the age of three was quite the adventure!
Jonah worshiped his older cousin Luke (age 3) for the first two days here, until he realized that Luke did nothing but take all his stuff, and manipulate Jonah
into doing whatever he wanted. Cristin's other boy Charlie (age 1) loved playing with Jonah until Jonah started sitting on him, taking his toys, and pushing him down
all the time. After that Charlie was a little frightened to be alone with Jonah the rest of the trip. They are sure cute though.

The first day we took all the kids to the park and let them run wild.

I'll post the rest of the pictures later, I took a lot while they were here!

Emma hung out and enjoyed the nice weather.

Cristin showed me how to use the play ground equipment.

Luke and Jonah

Charlie took a pretty hard fall , but that didn't stop him! He got right up and chewed on sand the rest of the day.

random pictures: last week

sit still PLEASE

Trying to bribe him with candy to smile. No luck.

Jonah has an ear infection and croup. Every day for the past week, Jonah starts running around the house which turns into a coughing attack and throwing up his breakfast. Have you seen The Office episode where Pam has morning sickness? That's how I feel every time Jonah vomits. It's getting really old cleaning up his puke. (Luckily Zach has done most of the dirty work)

I have been trying to find activities to keep Jonah calm and his food down, but it has definitely been a challenge keeping my VERY active two year old calm.

Jonah playing with a quarter

For example: The other day I attempted to take some pictures of him. Let me just say, I have a lot of respect for photographers! At first I bribed Jonah with treats to hold still,which didn't work, so I then bribed him with a visit to Grandmas, which made him think we were leaving to Grandmas, and that led to letting him hold a quarter, thats right. For some reason he really likes change. Probably because I always take it from him. For one photo I told Jonah to fold his arms, then I couldn't get him to UNFOLD his arms. It was a very difficult ten minutes. This is why I haven't taken him to a professional yet!

Things are improving with him. Jonah doesn't throw nearly as many temper tantrums as he used to, he is much easier to take to the store, and he is talking more and more each day which helps a lot! But with all that comes new challenges. He seems to get smarter each day, and wants to be very independant. He has been taking off his poopy diaper every day and trying to play with his poop. Don't know HOW to stop that, except for catching it before it happens!

Jonah is going through an airplane phase. Ever since he saw Stuart Little 2 and we flew on the big airplane, he holds a plane every where we go. It's really cute to watch him pretend to fly his plane all around the house.

He loves his sister to death! Besides trying to suffocate her with her blankets, he has been pretty sweet. He is absolutely in heaven living by both sets of grandparents! We all are. One of my new years resolutions is to take more pictures of my kids and try to journal more. I have a lot of pictures and catching up to do.. but no time to do it! So we'll see.

bliss

Here I am..trying to describe just how good it feels to be outside

Arizona, I love you right now.

In about three months you might burn me alive, but as of right now.. you are paradise.

2 months

Today my baby is two months old! It's weird, most people might say, " It seems like just yesterday I brought her home from the hospital." I don't know if something is wrong with me, but I can't remember life without Emma! I can't believe she is ONLY 2 months old! And it's not that she is a hard baby either, she is the BEST BABY. Really, maybe it's just cause Jonah had (has) so many health problems but Emma is such a calm, happy child. I could have ten children if they were all as easy as this! Lets just hope it doesn't change. ;)

I definitely think the lord knew I needed an easy baby. Our life has been pretty crazy with new jobs, moving, Jonah's problems, and having a colicky newborn might have just threw me over the edge. Emma is changing so much every day! She started smiling around five weeks old, and hasn't stopped since! She loves sitting on our laps while we coo and aww at each other.

At first, Emma hated her car seat! I dreaded every time I had to strap her in, because she would scream for about five minutes straight until she eventually fell asleep.

Now, she loves it! Almost every time I set her in, she looks up at me with the biggest grin. Then she will coo and make little noises while we drive. It's really cute.

Her hair is still long in the back and sort of falling out in the front. I can't tell if she is turning blonde or red! Whenever I take a picture of her using the flash, her hair turns out so red looking. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in a year.

She loves it when her big brother comes over, kneels by her face and says "It's okay Emma." or "Izamo memma" . .She smiles until he starts pinching her cheeks.

Emma looks a lot like Jonah yet sometimes, I don't know who she resembles! She is almost able to roll over! I can't remember at what point babies roll over but she is almost there! It's a little scary to me!

I can take Emma anywhere. Zach and I take her on all our dates, and she usually just sleeps the whole time. I forgot how easy new babies are! I remember thinking what a pain it was to take Jonah anywhere when he was a newborn. After having a two year old, I see it so differently now.

Emma sleeps pretty well too. She sometimes will sleep for six hours straight which is pretty incredible to me! Because of her reflux, she sleeps in either her swing, car seat, or in bed with me. She also takes a pacifier now, which Jonah never did.

I haven't taken her to her two month check up yet, but I think she is around 12 pounds. She still fits into her newborn clothes, though they are getting pretty small.

Emma has been such a joy to have in our family. We love watching her grow and change each day. We can't wait till she and Jonah can play and fight with each other... or really just until she is big enough that I don't have to worry about Jonah smashing her or something.

forgotten

My little Emma has been a little neglected on our family blog. Well actually I just have been neglecting my blog. Things are finally settling down, I only have about 3 boxes left to unpack. Tomorrow Emma turns two months old! I am really going to try and take some more pictures of this cutie and make an effort to post them tomorrow. So Kelley, you will finally get what you have been asking for! Hang in there just a little longer.