October.........

October was a crazy, stressful, hectic month that I do not care to re-live again anytime soon.  What was already turning into a very busy month -with Thomas going hunting a couple of weekends, football starting up, Thomas being called as the YM president, general conference, birthdays, tutoring (that is what I forgot to mention in Sept..... I started tutoring!), Dr. appts., and Halloween- only got more complicated when Thomas ended up in the hospital with pancreatitis again.  Like usual, it came without warning, but at least it started on a Friday so he didn't miss too much work.  This bout was particularly painful (the most painful he has ever had, to the point where they couldn't give him any  more pain meds because it would have stopped his heart and he was still writhing in pain) which made his stay about a week long.  He got to try a feeding tube this time around but wouldn't opt for it again, just fyi for anyone wanting to try it out :)  It is a good thing we live so close to family because I couldn't be at the hospital very much (Ember would just want to crawl around on the floors and stuff) nor could I stay the night.  So his family watched over him and mine watched Ember when I went in to visit.  The downside to having her babysat that much in a week was that she turned into a very clingy girl for a while afterward.  I was torn between wanting to be with him as much as possible but not leaving Ember for too long either.  Anyway, we made it through, but like I said, I don't care to re-live it anytime soon :)

Here are some Ember highlights:

 

She frequently opens her mouth at me, this time she happened to have something in it.

She woke up from one of her naps kind of sad so Thomas held her for a few minutes and the next thing we knew she was asleep again. 

One of her scrunch faces she loves to do.  Cracks me up!

She found the candy drawer and as you can see is very pleased with the mess she made.  :)

 

She started walking this month! While Thomas was in the hospital, actually (yet another reason it was such a frustrating episode). I haven't had time to sort thru the videos of her starting out but when I do, I will post them.  She also waves bye-bye and can say I-da, which means "hi dad!" when he comes home from work. 

September

September went by quickly, so I don't have a lot of pictures and my memory is not very good these days (what with being pregnant and all) but here are some highlights.

 

Ember discovered the piano and loves that it makes noise when she plays it. 

She crosses her feet like this all the time and I love it!  This is the only picture I have of it though.

She loves it when grandma and grandpa come over (both sets, I just don't have pics of the others)

She loves going to grandma and grandpa's because they have different toys that are so much fun!

She loves bouncing on trampolines (just like her mom).  As I type this I am freaking out that she doesn't have pants on because it is freezing today, but then I remember it was summertime :)

She really liked spaghetti and COVERED herself in it.  She is really starting to like table foods better than baby food.

First ultrasound of baby#2!  I will have to show her how happy she was before the baby came :)

 

Starting to stand and walk with push toys!  This one is her favorite because it sings as she pushes.

 She has also developed a love for looking at books and this is one of her favorites.  She won't sit long enough for us to read it to her but she loves pointing at the pages and turning them.

I don't have pictures of it but Thomas's side of the family had a girls weekend up in Logan where we went to Time Out for Women.  It was really refreshing to be spiritually uplifted even if it was only for a few hours.  It reminded me of a very short/simple version of EFY and I would definitely attend it again.  Well that pretty much sums up September although I feel like I am forgetting a lot............. :)

August

We started off the month by taking our first family vacation to Yellowstone.  I refused to tent it with a baby (it gets COLD at night there) so we rented a camper trailer and hauled it up there.  She slept well every other night (horrible the others), but overall did really well for all the driving and car-seat time she endured.  Here are some pics to highlight the trip.

There was a little hole in the rock with water in it and she had a blast trying to fit both hands into it.

Thomas and his brother jumping off a ledge into Yellowstone Lake (which is like 45 degrees, crazy boys)

She also loved finding and picking up rocks everywhere she went. 

 

I just love how chubby her face looks in this pic :)

Again, sitting in the rocks.

Her hair is awesome :)

She has awesome cousins who kept close track of how much time each one got with her. 

The pic is cute, but the video I took of these two hiking together is awesome.  She was giggling really hard as Thomas would trot down the trail.

Thomas and his brother trying to be whales in the Firehole River :)

Ember discovered that she is a huge fan of licorice and was dyed red for a long time afterwards.

Taking a swim in the river with dad.  She actually liked it for a while even though the water isn't that warm.

 

Warming up on the riverbank with grandma :)

 

Sorry if they are hard to see, but Thomas's phone can take panoramic pics and I really liked how they turned out. 

 

We decided to drive to Beartooth Pass (I think that is what it is called) which is absolutely breathtaking!  These pics are awesome but don't even come close to doing justice at how magnificent the scenery is. 

 

She learned how to fake cry :)

She also developed some weird sleeping positions if she woke up in the middle of the night and put herself back to sleep.  We would try and change her position if she was deep enough but couldn't figure out how to prevent her from sleeping like this for about 2 months.

Happy girl :)

Makes me bust up laughing every time I see it, ha ha ha

One week after we got home from Yellowstone, she started to figure out how to crawl.  She loves being mobile!

 

 Think she likes chocolate cherry cake?

 

Another highlight of August was that I attended my 10 year high school reunion (Thomas was on a scout camp so I had to brave it alone!), but it was really fun to see people again.  A friend and I actually won some bowling tickets so a week later we got to go bowling with them. 

 

And to bring the month to a close we announced to our parents that we were expecting baby #2!  Thankfully I was only sick for a couple of weeks after Yellowstone and have felt pretty good since.  I am due around the 20th of March, which means they will be about 16 months apart........ bring it on baby :)

July baby!

(Disclaimer, I wrote most of this post back in July and am just getting back to it)

Lately she does this scrunched face and I haven't figured out what it means but it makes me laugh every time.  I kind of got a shot of it here.

Her first 4th of July!  I thought I uploaded the one where she is actually smiling, but I think this one is actually funnier :)

Another trip up Cottonwood, but this time to do some work on the fenceline.  She did really well until we hit halfway, then we had to turn around.  Again, eating dirt while we took a rest in the shade :)

For my dad's b-day we surprised him by going to a Bee's baseball game.  She did really well for having to be held the whole time.  The game went on for forever and we finally just had to leave cuz she was tired.  1 minute after getting in the car, she was passed out! 

 

We spent a lot of time at ward baseball games for about 2 weeks.  While Thomas played, she would do whatever she could to get to the dirt.

We discovered that she LOVES corn on the cob.  Well, what is left after we ate the corn off of it so she wouldn't choke :)

For the 24th we went to Mueller Park Jr High and watched fireworks.  She wasn't sure what to think of them and was very snuggly while they were going off. 

Then we went to Provo to spend time with the Butler family and what kind of a get-together is it if there isn't dancing? ;)

We planted a garden this year and this was our first crop! 

 

One of my college roommates drove all the way from Ohio just to see me!  ha ha, j/k but I was so glad she had time to stop by while she was visiting.  I can't believe it has been long enough that we all have kids now!

 

Family Pics June 2013

One of my cousins, Kristine Perry, dabbles in photography and she was going to be in town one day, so I asked her to take some pictures of us.  We LOVED them and Ember did pretty good smiling although we learned we need to bring someone else along to make her smile so the photographer doesn't have to and miss shots :)  Anyway, these are some of our favorites (Kristine, if you are reading this, the website still doesn't have all the ones it said it did so if there were some fun ones in that lot, that is why I didn't put them up). 

 

This one caught the early stages of her open mouth-banging on chest motions to indicate she wanted to be picked up :)