Happy Halloween!

Here are pictures of Emery's 2nd Halloween costume. I attempted to make her a punk rocker - it didn't quite work out as I had imagined, but I still think it's cute!



Emery with her cousin Hanna who was dressed up as "Wendy's the restaurant".

An eventful weekend...

Although we didn't go anywhere or do anything too exciting, a lot has changed this weekend with Emery. She has...

• Officially starting walking regularly. It's so cute, she walks pretty fast, smiles the whole time with her arms out like she's reaching for someone. Surprisingly, she's been pretty coordinated and hasn't even fallen once. I'm sure it will come in time though.
• Become a cuddly baby and I'm so happy about it. Up until now, she's been too busy and independent to ever cuddle. She got up early this morning before I left for work and just wanted to lay with me and cuddle. I'm loving it!
• Figured out how to pick her nose - gross! She loves exploring with her right index finger and usually chews on it due to teething. I think one time she missed her mouth and then figured out that her finger fits perfectly into her nostril! I keep telling her no, but I guess it was bound to happen sometime.
  

Countdown about Summer...

Ten things I wish I could say to ten different people right now:

1. You have made me the happiest person since coming into my life.
2. Thank you for taking care of our baby and cleaning up the house tonight.
3. It was a wonderful weekend visit and I can't wait until Christmas.
4. Your life is in turmoil and I wish you would realize it.
5. You are my best friend and I am so grateful to have you in my life.
6. I'm sorry that we don't talk or see each other as often as we should.
7. I am so proud of your family's strength and I think of you daily.
8. Please leave me alone so I can get some things accomplished.
   

Nine things about myself:

1. I am a freak about dry skin and put lotion on my hand after washing them - every time!
2. I hate to get my face wet.
3. I love pajama pants and bare feet.
4. I am somewhat addicted to blogs.
5. I have become much more of a people person over the years.
6. Having a baby has really changed my perspective on life in a good way.
7. I still sneak into Emery's room after she's gone to sleep to check on her.
8. I HATE putting laundry away.
9. I need a massage.
   

Eight ways to win my heart:

1. Bring me a big fountain coke with extra ice
2. Costco cake.
3. Take me to get pampered with a pedicure or massage.
4. Put the laundry away for me.
5. Make me laugh.
6. Make me feel safe and secure.
7. Watch home shows/HGTV with me and act interested.
8. Give me unexpected little things - notes, treats, hugs, etc.
   

Seven things that cross my mind a lot:

1. Am I the best Mom I can be for Emery?
2. What will go wrong next with the house?
3. Do I really have a shopping addiction?
4. Keeping my house clean.
5. Guilt for not following through with ideas that show my gratefulness for those who help me.
6. I hope Utah Football wins this week...
7. Is Carter really miserable now that Emery is here?
   

Six things I do before I fall asleep:

1. Wash my face and brush my teeth
2. Watch shows that were Tivo'd that day
3. Pack Emery's diaper bag
4. Check email, blogs, etc.
5. Check on Emery
6. Set my alarm
   

Five people who mean a lot to me:

1. Ivan
2. Emery
3. Mom
4. Mandy
5. Grandma Ruth
   

Four things I'm wearing right now:

1. Pajama pants
2. T-shirt
3. Hair clip
   
4. Wedding rings
   

Three songs I listen to a lot:

1. "I know I've been a real bad girl" ...Gwen Stefani?
2. Whatever is on the radio..
   

Two things I want to do before I die:

1. See Emery grow up and be involved in all of her special moments
   
2. Build my dream house
   

One confession:
I made Ivan keep Emery up past her bedtime so I could see her tonight after I got home from work late. I hope I don't pay for it in the morning ...

Halloween Party

We had a family Halloween party at Aunt Vickie's tonight .. Costumes were required, but only a few people followed the rules. Everyone who dressed up looked very cute though ..

Shannon, Aunt Wanda, Aunt Vickie and my Mom

Shannon dressed as Mary and had Emery be her little lamb..
Grandma Phyllis and Emery


By the end of the photo-shoot, this is what Emery looked like. Poor child, she was dressed like an animal most of the day and also in front of flashing camera's all day. I finally said, "Emery is done" and took her in to put her regular clothes on. Even though Emery couldn't say it, I think she was very grateful that I finally called it quits for her.

Gardner Village

I have family in town this weekend from California, Nevada and Arizona. We decided to head out to Gardner Village this afternoon, although it wasn't exactly what we expected. Most of us had never been to Garner Village during Halloween season and while there were lots of fun shops to go into, we didn't think about the fact that there were 3 babies, 2 kids and about 10 adults. Needless to say, we didn't get much shopping done, but we did enjoy the warm weather and being outside. Here are a few pictures from the day (not surprisingly though, I have the most of Emery).




Emery had her first taste of a donut. Of course, like her Mom, she was in love at first taste and couldn't get enough ...

Self Feeding..

We've been trying to get Emery to self feed for the past few days. She loves Cheerios (will seriously get all excited and dance when she sees the box of them) so we decided to practice with them. Ivan and I were sitting on the couch feeding her Cheerios. Ivan ended up putting a Cheerio on the couch instead of putting it into Emery's mouth. What did she do?

She leaned over with a huge open mouth and put the Cheerio directly from the couch to her mouth without any hands! I totally knew that's what she was going to do and it was hilarious!

After that, Ivan realized he had to put the Cheerios further back on the couch so she couldn't reach them with her mouth. She finally figured out the concept of self feeding and is getting better and better as the days go by. I'm hoping she'll have it down enough by her 1st birthday so she can feed herself cake!

Emery's 11 Month Pictures

Yes, I'm late ... I love the idea of taking monthly pictures like this, but I have to admit I'm glad there is only one more month ..

Anyway, below are Emery's 11 Month pictures. I love the 1st one other than 1) she isn't smiling and 2) she has a dirty sock in her hand. Which one is your favorite?

Things this past month...

• Emery now has 4 teeth - two top and two bottom
• She loves to sleep - sleeps roughly 16-18 hours/day still
• She loves all table food
• She loves to rough house with Daddy and Carter
• She loves to play with books, shoes, socks and all electronics
• She loves to race around the ottoman in the living room

Fruit vs. Veggies??

Overall, Emery is a great eater. She loves table food and will actually "run" to you when she sees food. The other night, I had just fed Emery her 2 containers of baby food and then I was eating dinner. Sure enough, my little shadow ran over and had to share whatever it was that I was eating. There aren't any table foods that I can think of that the child won't eat - including pickles, salmon, yougurt and steak.

Anyway, Emery has been refusing to eat her baby food fruits for about 6 weeks now. The craziest thing is that she can tell which are fruits and which are veggies - how, who knows? It must be something about the colors of the foods? I won't even say anything about which I'm feeding her and I'll mix up the order between fruits and veggies.

As soon as I put a little bit of fruit onto the spoon, she looks away and refuses to open her mouth. If I actually happen to get the fruit into her mouth, she spits it out. It's funny to me that she is so particular and actually prefers veggies over fruits. Oh well, I'll keep trying to get some fruit in her here and there.

Are you there?

I saw this post on another blog and I can totally relate:

Have you ever been engaged in a conversation with another person and they are completely ignoring you? That's what it's like to blog if people don't leave you comments. I know you all check the blog, so use your highly honed computer skills and start leaving me a comment every now and then. I'm not going to name names, you know who you are. That's enough for now.

Have you wondered HOW to leave a comment? It's easy, just follow the steps below:

• At the bottom of each post, it says who posted and the time posted. Click on "comments".
• A page will come up where you leave your comments
  
• Yes, you have to do some validation by typing in some weird letters that pop up by the website
• It's as SIMPLE as that

So, Mom, Danny, Brenda, Karen, Mac - I know you guys are out there. And, I'm not sure who else checks in regularly, but start leaving comments please.

Thanks to my friend Jodi who always supports my blog by commenting on it!

Last Pictures ...

Emery with her cousin Elysia who is 4 months old. We really discovered Emery's love for other babies during this trip. I need to find a playgroup in my area so she can interact with other babies her age.

I don't know why, but bath pictures are always my favorite.
Do you see Emery has a fat upper lip? She was trying to walk in the hotel lobby and fell - she was a trooper about it though. She is one tough little girl.
On the plane on the way home. Emery has discovered her infant carseat and thinks it's a toy now. She stood in it backwards and played in it for about 45 minutes on the plane ride home. The only time she screamed the entire plane ride was when I took the carseat from her because we were getting off the plane.

Emery, Emery, Emery...

With teething, Emery wants to chew on everything. She found the Tylenol bottle and sucked on the top like it was a binky. She also enjoyed chewing on the lid. How beautiful are those big blue eyes??Sleeping in her pack-n-play in the hotel..


Emery is finally getting enough hair for me to try pigtails. What do you think?

Us on the subway ...




Mama Emma and Emery taking a nap on a long car ride..

Emery with family...

Emery with Grandma Lola and Mama Emma

Her Uncle Eduardo (Rodolfito)
Uncle Manuel
Aunt Bella and cousins Natalie and Pamela
4 Generations

WARNING - Picture Overload!

Here are some cute pictures of Emery - in the stroller at the airport and in the plane on the way to NYC.




How adorable is this? Emery has become attached to her binky on this trip - we definitely let her have it more during this trip than she ever has it. It normally stays in her room and she only gets it when she goes to bed. That's a habit we'll have to break quickly now that we are home.

We're HOME!!

It's so nice to be home! We had a good trip in NY and got to visit with all of Ivan's family. It was nice seeing them with Emery and knowing how grateful Ivan's Mama Emma was that we made the trip out there. It's late, so no pictures tonight, but I will post some tomorrow. It's crazy, we were only gone for 5 days (including traveling days) and Emery changed so much. During this trip, she learned to FINALLY hold her own bottle and put her binky back in her mouth.

We didn't make it to Wicked, the tickets were sold out by the time we decided we were really going to go. So, we didn't experience anything that NY had to offer, but we got in lots of family time. The trip was really to visit family anyway, so Ivan and I weren't disappointed.

Day #1 in NYC

Yesterday was a bit of a challenge. Emery slept ok the night before, although, she did wake several times for her binky, but she got a good amount of sleep.

We got up, had a little continental breakfast at the hotel and then headed out around noon. I've always said that I'm not made for a bit city, and now with Emery, I believe it even more. We headed out with the baby, diaper bag and stroller. Wow - it was lot of stuff. We took a shuttle to the subway and then went through 2-3 transfers on the subway. We finally made it to Times Square.

We walked (in sprinkling rain with humidity) down to a little steakhouse called Tad's Steakhouse. The restaurant greeter was hilarious - very friendly and a huge flirt with all of the ladies - pretty entertaining.

Ivan and I had a good lunch and then headed out to walk around. Right at that time - Emery's meltdown started. She wouldn't go into her stroller, she wasn't sure that she wanted to be held and she was just screaming. Our child doesn't EVER behave like this and Ivan and I weren't really sure how to even react. The good thing is that we didn't start fighting and kept our cool. We walked over to Macy's to see about trying to feed Emery. No go! So, we decided to head back to Ivan's Grandma's to try to let Emery take a nap. First, I wanted to change Emery's diaper. We spent about 10 minutes trying to actually find a restroom (not a good time to be in such a large department store). Emery was screaming the entire time. I was so ready to cry! Finally, I decided to take off her shoes just to see what would happen. Silence - it worked! I'm not sure what the deal was with the shoes, but I can guarantee that Emery will never be wearing those shoes again.

Once the ordeal was over, we were still a little nervous about heading out to the town again based on Emery still being tired. So, we headed to Ivan's Grandma's apartment. We got there and Emery went down for a nap (I joined her) and Ivan got to visit with his Mom and Grandma.

We then went for a quick dinner and then back to the subway (a train was down so a 10 mile ride took 1 1/2 hours to get home). We got home at 10p, settled down, and went to bed. Luckily, Emery slept the whole night through until 10a!

We are going to meet up with family and visit this afternoon and Ivan and I are hoping to get to Wicked Sunday afternoon. Hopefully we have better days to come!

We made it to NY!!

We were up early and left the house at 7a. Now mind you, when we don't have to wake Emery up, she usually sleeps until 1030a - yes, from 9p-1030a straight. Yes, we are very lucky and very spoiled.

Anyway, I was worried about the 4 1/2 hour flight to begin with but then even more worried since we had to wake Emery so early. She ended up doing very well during the flight. The first 15-20 minutes were quite rough, but that was just because Emery was over-tired by that point and wasn't in her crib to take her nap, so it took a bit for her to get to sleep.

She ended up sleeping for close to 2 hours and then drank a bottle and played a bit. I walked her up and down the isle of the plane once and then it was time to land. I feel really good about how she was on the flight. Let's just hope she is the same on the way home Monday.

It seems like we spent most of the day in the car. Ivan's Uncle Manual was nice enough to pick us up from the airport. We then headed to the hotel to check in and drop off our luggage. Then, off to pick up Ivan's Mama Emma and cousin Rodolfo. We ate dinner at a very delicious Mexican Restaurant and now we are winding down for the night. It was a very busy day, but a good day. I can't wait to get home and post pictures of Emery with her daddy's side of the family.

I finally did it!!!

It's very sad how many times I have tried to get a cute background on this silly blog. But, I am proud to say that I finally did it all by myself! yeah!

Now, the question is, will I remember how to do it again? You will be able to tell by whether or not the background ever changes.

Oh, and my new camera finally came in today. I'm so relieved it is here before we head off to NY!

Crimereports.com

I actually watched about 20 minutes of the news the other night. For those of you who don't know, I despise the news because I think it's all negative. They never talk about something good that was done in the community or country, just about deaths, crimes, etc. Anyway, in the 20 minutes that I saw, they actually talked about a cool website.

crimereports.com

Check it out - you type in your address and it will show a map of your neighborhood and the crimes that have taken place. You can even put the mouse over the little symbol and it will tell you the month/year of the crime and how far in miles from your house it occurred.

I feel good to know that there's not much crime in my neighborhood. Most of hit happened at the Family Center area - but that's expected since it's a shopping center, right?

I hope everyone lives in safe, crime-free neighborhoods too!

Emery is WALKING!!!

Well, she's taking 3-4 steps by herself. That's just the beginning of walking, right? She took her first few steps on Friday night. And, dare I say that Ivan and I encouraged it? I am torn because it is so dang cute, but I also am totally not ready for her to start walking on her own yet. Below are the pictures that I attempted to take of her first steps. (my new camera BETTER be here before we leave for NY)

And, Emery has also figured out to smile for the camera - YEAH!! Here are some cute pics of her bath time last night. Emery loves the bath and speed crawls into the bathroom every time I mention bath time for her.