Monday, November 17, 2014

Final First Birthday!

My little baby is ONE! I guess I should call her a big baby now, or even...dun-dun-duuuuuun...a TODDLER!  *sniff, sniff*

 Laura made a beautiful cake for her to destroy, but she was surprisingly delicate. 
 Apparently she only likes to make messes when no one is looking.

More pics of our little cutie-kins from her first year, and a little beyond (since I'm so behind right now!)-

Careful not to put the popcorn bowl too close to Emma on "popcorn movie nights."  She absolutely LOVES it, and can get a little crazy/messy. 
 Not the easiest baby to get a smile out of, but she looks so dang adorable even with a serious face -










Emma has been able to open this type of door handle for a long time.  Unfortunately, our new house has them ALL OVER - her bedroom, the bathrooms, (If I have to explain to her that toilets are YUCKY one more time, I think I might just lose my mind!), the pantry...  Fortunately the doors that go outside have regular knobs, or I might-a lost more than just my mind!


 It's hard to see in pictures, but this girl is a wild thing!  Whether it's rocking a horse, or singing "Row, row, row, your boat" on my lap...she throws herself into it like a crazy person.  She also loves to be tossed in the air by anyone with the energy to do tricks, and then they realize that no matter how many times they've done it, she'll ALWAYS say "gan!" (Again.)
 SHOES!
 Emma LOVES shoes.  Probably because she knows that her chances of going "ouside" are better when she's wearing them.
She's always been such a good sport when the other kids want to "play" with her -


Messes!

It's never  good thing when you come out of the shower to your toddler saying "Mom, uh mesh...uh mesh..."  Thankfully this is just peanut butter -


 And no, I haven't taken pictures of every mess.  Not even close. 


 She absolutely LOVES babies -


The Pretzel Sneeze 
A few weeks ago during sacrament meeting, Emma was eating a bag of pretzels and playing peek-a-boo with the people sitting behind us.  I was watching her out of the corner of my eye, when suddenly I noticed the lady behind us flinch and hold up her hands.  Before I could figure out what was happening, Emma let loose a MASSIVE pretzel-crumb laden sneeze ALL OVER the poor woman.  The woman jumped in surprise, and then she (with the help of her husband) began picking little pieces of pretzel off her face, clothes, and hair.  I mouthed I'M SO SORRY to her, but she probably didn't believe me considering that for the rest of the meeting, my entire body was randomly convulsing with silent giggles.  (What can I say?  I kept picturing her lurching back in disgust, and her husband picking little pieces of soggy pretzel off of her LIPS!  It was HORRIFYING, and yet...HILARIOUS!)  To make matters worse, I had ZERO wet wipes in my church bag to give to her.  (I don't want to point any fingers, but Randall someone else had packed the bag that morning.)  After the meeting I apologized once again, and she told me it was alright, but I'd better remember to tell Emma when she grows up about how she COMPLETELY MORTIFIED me one Sunday morning long ago.  Well now I guess I can say that her request has been fulfilled.   ;) 

Emma's Dictionary
Umma - Emma
Cog-ger - Carter
Ia - used to be Lydia and Meleah, but now it's just Lydia
Mia - Meleah, also Ma-ye-ya
Cam-in - Cameron
Shanna - Savanna
Shebby - Shelby
Sorn - Soren
Styer - Stryder
Jack Jack - Jaxson
Baby - used to be Taryn, but now it's just baby
uh - I want; her absolute favorite statement of ALL TIME.
shit - shirt (Don't look at me if you hear my daughter say "uh shit!"  She's just asking for another shirt!)
Dop it - Stop it
Yesh - Yes
Uh uh - She thought this plus a head shake meant yes for a while, but I think she's figured out that it's actually the opposite now. 
I hurt - I got an owie, and it needs to be kissed right away. 
Uh get down - I want to get down so I can destroy something/go somewhere you don't want me to go
Uh gobbage - I want to throw this in the garbage.  (Her favorite chore)
Brush teet - brush teeth (Her 2nd favorite chore)
Uh wuv you - I love you (my personal favorite)
tisses - kisses
Me! -  Dad has trained her (like all the other kids) to respond "me!" with a raised hand, whenever he asks a question. 
I sow-wy (with a slight lisp) - I'm sorry
see-yal - cereal; one of her favorite foods...to eat AND make huge messes with
cake - used to mean ice cream, but now she knows what cake actually is
ice keem - Ice cream.  Her all-time favorite food.  Could eat her weight in it - even after getting a brain freeze from inhaling it too fast.
ca-ful -  careful
uh hep you/uh stuck - I need you to come and get me out of a situation I put myself in.
dink/sippy/ba-ba - I need a drink
pes - pears, another favorite.
Chock-it - Chocolate.  SUPER favorite
cheese - cheese; go ahead and take my picture, but I'm NOT holding still. 

Before she even started talking she had mastered a wide variety of sounds - one of them, I can't even do (this really fast b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b sound, if that makes any sense).  She has an awesome gravelly growly voice that I fortunately caught on camera, because I can't really explain it - along with all the usual farting sounds, and tongue clicking that babies like to do. She talks really well, and most of the stuff she says is pronounced correctly.  Some of her favorite things to say are: "uh more (even when she still has some), uh coo-kie, uh food, uh eat, Com n' eat!, uh ou-side, uh go, uh Daddy, Daddy home! (REALLY loud), uh shoes on,  uh hold you, I poop, mine!, awww cute!, I get it, he ya go!, Dan do (thank you, AND you're we-come if you're too slow to say it.), Danks Mom (Thanks)... She's EXTREMELY repetitive, so you better get what she wants/acknowledge what she has said right away if you don't want to hear her demands over, and over, and over, and over again...with growing intensity so that by the end, she's using her really loud gravelly growl voice that I described earlier. 
 
She doesn't seem to be afraid of anything, and has no problem standing up on top of our counter, wandering off on her own, and doing all kinds of jumps, flips, and tricks all over the house. Even though I make a lot of comments about her sending me to an asylum, and that she's DEFINITELY ensuring that she's the last child... I LOVE my little Emma Sophia SO MUCH.  She melts my heart with her impromptu leg hugs, and the way she says "Hi Ma-ma...hi Mom...hi Mommy..." (in her sweetest little voice and repetitive style) whenever she can tell that I'm upset with her.  She keeps things exciting around here for sure, and we all love to do anything we can to get a smile/hug/kiss/giggle from our adorable little sweetheart.  

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

This is my life.

Emma.  Climbing on EVERYTHING.  Always covered in marker because her siblings don't understand the words:  "PUT THEM UP HIGH WHEN YOU'RE DONE USING THEM!"
Constantly moving.  Wearing backwards pajamas every day because she REFUSES to keep her clothes on unless I trap her in them.  Except shoes.  She must have shoes on at all times.  No need for them to match.
Only holds still for a few seconds to count with Mommy.  One...two...free...
GREASY hair even after a hot bath due to last night's VASELINE experience.  (I didn't even know I owned Vaseline, but Emma and Savanna sure found it.)  We currently have long doorknob handles that don't work with child locks.  Now that Emma can climb out of her bed, the little girls have been taking little field trips when we think they're sleeping.  I was hoping that the grease would somehow dissipate, but apparently not.  Gonna get serious today with corn starch, Dawn, and anything else I can think of.  Wish me luck.   
Every day is an adventure around here.
Update:
Clean hair. (Thank you Dawn!)  Just a little fuzzy from her twirling her pony as she drifts off to sleep.  Life is good.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Carter is 11!

My not-so-little Carter-Cutie had his 11th Birthday!  (FOREVER ago, but better late than never, right?)
 
He opted for a Harry Potter themed friend party this year,  and it was LOTS of fun!  I know absolutely nothing about Harry Potter, but you can find ANYTHING on Pinterest...
Easiest. Cake. EVER!
Although it was actually kind of annoying for me to mess it up to match Ingrid's cake.
 
Wands and Golden eggs filled with jelly beans.
Carter, leading the singing to his Birthday song -
Honeydukes Candy Shop 
Science experiments
We did several, but this is the only one that I remembered to take a picture of.
 
We also had mandarin orange cake over at the Stewart's to celebrate, but I keep forgetting to get the pitures from Bob!  (My camera was "lost in the move" at that time.)
 
Carter also graduated from boy scouts this year, and although I'm not gonna cry on my pillow every night because I don't get to attend pack meeting or build a pinewood derby car for another couple of years, I AM sad that my Carter-cutie is so OLD!
 

 So happy that he was able to earn his arrow of light even amongst all the chaos of moving.
This was him 3 years ago, people.  THREE unbelievably short years!
Carter is such a sweet boy, and he LOVES serving us breakfast in bed.  His favorite dish to make - tortilla scramblers.
He's got a GREAT imagination, and he loves to mess around.  This is what he does after I tell him to carry all the pillows upstairs-
Food:  Anything Italian or mexican
Least Favorite Food: Anything with raw tomatoes or mushrooms, and also milk
Book: Harry Potter and Judy Blume
Movie:  Anything Marvel or Harry Potter
Color:  Black, Blue, and Orange
TV Show:  Anything that's for my age and up, like Dog with a Blog, Studio C... except NOT Jesse because it ALWAYS insults people!
Toy:  Action Figures and electronics, and my binder (that he draws pictures of action figures in.)
Hero:  Iron Man for Marvel, and Superman and Green Lantern from DC
Thing to Do:  Draw in my binder
Thing to Be When You Grow Up:  Scientist

FUNNY PHRASE: 
"Aaaaw, my back hurts so bad!  It's worse than a fireball blasting into me!  I think I have arthritis!" 

Carter is the perfect oldest child.  I sometimes think all the weight I put on him as the oldest is a little too much for him to bare, but I can always count on him to come through (with a little bit of whining, of course... HIM whining, not me...well, maybe a little bit me...)  He is a great example to all of his younger siblings, and I'm so grateful that he has such strong values and integrity at such a young age.  I love him so much, and could not have asked for a better "guinea pig" to guide me in this crazy world of motherhood. 

Friday, September 12, 2014

And The Saga Continues...

Now we have HIVES -
 On a good note,  I think his owie has gone down a little bit -