Girl time!

Wrapped up in our comfy robes at the hotel.
Emmy thought we were very fancy!
I have to agree.

The best part...

We got up super early on Saturday morning of our mini-vacation to go cheer on a friend.
She was running in the Salt Lake City Marathon.
She's my hero.

Here's Em and Jeremy with their sign. Emmy was screaming "Go Brooklyn" so LOUD!

We met our friend Amy at the race.
She made a cool sign.
Amy, you "roc"

Emmy with Brooklyn.
Emmy just pointed to the picture and said "That's my best friend."
We love ya Brooklyn! Great job!

Even more fun....

What's more fun to do in Salt Lake than ride the train (trax)?
Nothing according to Emmy.
This was her 2nd request.

Her third request was to go swimming.
We had a lot of fun swimming, jumping and splashing.

The Zoo

{ Amazing friends. Adorable babies. Lots of laughs. }

On the train {the 2nd time because I'm that nice of a mom}
with adorable Amy and Ava

The Carousel. {because that's what Em loves more than anything}

Best friends {so cute}

Cute Kitties {or is that Kiddies}

Posing outside the Giraffes {luckily she was too young to be scarred for life - don't ask}
Favorite quote of the day from Em "That is the mommy and the daddy!"

Group Photo {don't I have the cutest friends ever?}

Double Trouble {love the mischievous grin on J's face as he pulls her "tail"}

checking out the turkeys {gobble gobble}

on the way home {pure exhaustion}

I had a great time today
{wonderful friends and definitely educational}

Saturday Fun

Saturday morning we woke up to a few inches of beautiful snow outside. Emmy of course had to go play in it right away. Luckily she has a fun Daddy who froze outside while she had a blast playing in the snow.

We warmed up by going to our local bookstore for the Fancy Nancy party. The Fancy Nancy books are a family favorite. They are soooo Emmy. And a little bit of myself. Emmy has loved these books since she was a year old. They had a party where you dressed up fancy, got treats, made a few crafts, and read the new Fancy Nancy Christmas book. Emmy had so much fun!

Emmy with her Daddy enjoying fancy chocolate milk with whipped cream and a peppermint brownie.

Speaking of fancy, later that afternoon, I went to my cousin's house to help L get ready for Preference. I did her hair and had so much fun. This was her first date and she looked stunning! I love this girl to pieces! Isn't she gorgeous!

In the evening, Jeremy took me shopping for some new clothes! Yay! I've lost about 15 lbs. so far and desperately needed some new things. Gotta love new clothes, especially when they are in a much smaller size!

French fries and jumping!

We had such a fun weekend - so much so that I'm way behind on blogging! Enjoy the catch up!

On Friday I took Em to the BYU Museum of Art. Em normally loves art but wasn't quite feeling it that day. She kept saying "I don't know if I like this heart (art)" She did see one picture of Jesus and blew him a kiss. After she found Jesus though she declared that it was time to go.

We went to the BYU creamery and had a french fry tasting. We ordered a few kinds of french fries as well as multiple flavors of dipping sauces. Emmy declared fry sauce to be the winner along with the plain fries. I personally liked the garlic fries with Ranch dressing the best.

After fries we of course had to order ice cream....because that's what you do at the BYU creamery. We got a mint chocolate chip and shared it. When I say share, it's more like Mommy was allowed one bite and Emmy ate the rest. Except for the little bit that got on her nose...

Since Daddy was at work when all this fun was happening (we did take him a famous mint brownie from the creamery!) we decided we better think of something fun to do with Daddy that evening.
We went to a trampoline place and jumped for an hour.
It was fun.
And exhausting.

But mostly tons of fun.
There were lots of giggles.

Oh what do you do in the Summertime...

You play in the water!

We went to a local splash park today with friends.

So much fun!

Huge fountains to splash in!

Rocks to sit on and visit with girlfriends

You can even find your long lost twin!

(this was actually really funny - there was a little girl there similar to Em's age and they both looked so much alike. I had many people stop and ask if they were twins. This other little girl kept following Em everywhere and copying everything that Em did. It kind of freaked Em out a little! Everytime she looked at this cute little girl, she just got a puzzled look on her face and couldn't figure out what was going on!)

Five for Friday!

Wow, what a week and a half! Here's what you've been missing out on since I last blogged!

1. Last Wednesday/thursday, Jeremy and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary (a month late but we still celebrated!). Emmy stayed at her cousins house for her first overnight slumber party and had a wonderful time. I love that she is so happy wherever she goes and has no issues when Mommy and Daddy go out. As for me, I was a little teary leaving her for the first time overnight but reminded myself all night that she was having a blast and probably wasn't missing me! (I was right by the way - when we came to pick her up she was too busy to even come hug us! She loves her cousins!).

Jeremy took me to the Melting Pot for the first time. Fabulous food - I think I'm still full. The dessert was by far the best - how can you go wrong with dipping cheesecake, brownies, strawberries, pound cake and mallows into melted chocolate. You just can't. So Yumm!

That night we stayed at the Anniversary Inn. Nothing says "I love you" like sleeping surrounded by alligators, elephants and monkeys. Wow. Kinda Special. It's always good to laugh a lot!

Seriously though it was a really great getaway and much needed with the Hubs. We went shopping, ate lunch at Chipotle and then did sealings at the Draper Temple (hence why the Hubs is looking so fine sitting near his alligator.)

(the Hubs and I posing with our pet Elephant)

2. The night we got back from our little getaway, I had a message from the Bishop's secretary saying that the Bishop wanted to meet with me. That pretty much meant a new calling. A huge surprise considering I've only been teaching Gospel Doctrine for a year now ( a calling which I LOVE!). Well....I am now the YW 1st counselor!!!!!! I am so excited! I love the youth so much and I have wanted to serve in YW for awhile. I love the women that I am serving with and am so excited for all the new adventures that lie ahead.

3. Pioneer Day. We took Emmy swimming to the new community pool. Emmy is quite the fishy and she's learning how to swim pretty well. I think I'll be putting her in swim lessons this fall at our indoor pool. We had a blast swimming all morning - all of us could probably live at the swimming pool during the summer. Especially when your local pool involves water slides, lazy rivers, splash pads, flowriders, and hot tubs. Not too shabby. Later that night, Emmy and Daddy did poppers - Emmy learned they make much louder noises when you stomp on them.

4. The biggest excitement of the week started on Sunday with my little party animal kidney stones moving around. Monday morning the pain increased quite a bit and I ended up in the ER by Monday afternoon. IV drugs can be a fabulous thing. Since then it's been a week of blocked bladders, persistent stones, much throwing up, and lots of pain. Good times. However, I was finally able to eat yesterday and I'm doing better today. My body feels like it's had major surgery but Jeremy was able to go back to work today and I'm beginning to feel like a contributing member of this family once again. We're praying I pass the stone this weekend so I don't have to have surgery next week to remove the stone. Much power of positive thinking will be happening this weekend!

5. What this weekend holds - The National FSA (Families Supporting Adoption Conference) is today and tomorrow. Unfortunately because Jeremy took this entire week off to nurse his wife back to health, we weren't able to take today off to attend. But we'll be there tomorrow and I'm so excited! I love FSA and this conference. I have many friends presenting so I"m looking forward to being spiritually uplifted and taught.
Other things to look forward to - teaching my last sunday school lesson on sunday, our family fast for our birthmom, cleaning our house, and giving Emmy lots of attention and much needed kisses from her mommy!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Oh What do you do in the Summertime...

... You go to a carnival! This week was our town's little annual summer celebration. Every time we drove past the carousel Emmy begged to go ride it. We finally gave in last night and took her to the carnival. It was a lot more fun than we expected - so much so that I think we just found a new family tradition! Emmy had a blast going on several of the rides. She even rode her first little roller coaster - Daddy was so proud! Afterwards we got ice cream which Emmy not only ate all of hers but most of mine as well! Thanks for all the giggles Emmy! It was a fun night!

Good News Friday!

I love fridays! I love the anticipation of a wonderful weekend ahead, I love friday night popcorn movie night, I love knowing that when I go to bed that Jeremy won't be rushing out the door first thing in the morning - it's a wonderful day! So to celebrate that it's friday, let's share our good news! Things have been a little bleak in our house for the last couple of weeks but today feels like a new day and a chance to turn it all around. I want to hear YOUR good news too! So leave me a comment (PLEASE!) and tell me what's good about your day today!

Here's my good news Friday!

1. I'm feeling a MILLION times better! I'm out of bed and ready to PARTY!

2. Em slept in until 9am this morning! When I went into her room, she gave me a huge hug and said "love you mommy!" Best beginning of a morning. Ever.

3. I'm making these today!

4. I get to go to Target - not buying anything fancy - just a fan, some toliet bowl cleaner and maybe a new hose but hey, it's Target and Target makes me happy!

5. Em has slept in her big girl bed for almost one week now without a single problem. Way to go girlie! I'm so proud of you!

6. I went to dinner and shopping with a good friend this week. She filled my cup. Love ya Amy!

7. It has been a hard hard hard last month with adoption stuff. Emotionally draining to say the least. BUT (here's the good news part), I was reminded this week how much Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and wants us to continue onward in our adoption journey. I feel more peace and hope now.

Family, fun, food, fireworks!

We love the 4th of July at our house! I think Jeremy considers it right up there with Christmas! This year was no exception. We had a huge party with all of our family. We decked the place out! Red, white and blue streamers, pinatas, red white and blue popcorn, balloons, etc! We set up volleyball nets, horseshoes, basketball, bubbles, and slip and slides. We also had a huge water fight - everyone was drenched by the end!
Emmy woke up at 4am that morning so excited for the day to begin. She said she needed to go play with her cousins! She is very lucky to have such wonderful cousins to play with often. As always she had the time of her life!
After Em had a 4 hour nap that went until 8:30pm (wow!) we went to our town's fireworks show. This was the first time Emmy had seen fireworks and it was a huge hit! She said "Wow Mommy!" after each set went off. It was definitely a hit!
We love celebrating the 4th and we love living in this country! We are truely blessed!

Girls Camp

(not sure what is so exciting to look at )

You're probably wondering if this post is about Girls camp then why is there a picture of a bunch of guys (our fearless Priesthood brethren) ..... sadly, it's the only picture I took today because I was too busy having fun! I should have at least gotten one picture of the girls! Jeremy has been at girls camp since yesterday and I was lucky enough to be able to go up today. Emmy got to be with her favorite babysitter on the planet and I got to go be with Jeremy and the girls in our ward. It was so much fun! I was only able to spend a few hours up there but loved every second. I love being with the youth! I'm so glad Jeremy has been able to be up there this week - I can tell he's having so much fun. I got there today and he had tons of glitter in his hair - apparently the girls did makeovers complete with glitter. Love it! Emmy will think Daddy is so fancy!

Family Traditions

A look at our Family Traditions

Valentine's Day - We go all out for V-day! We wake up in the morning to the kitchen table being decked out all in red and pink hearts. We usually eat heart shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. The cupid leaves trails of valentines all over our house for us to find.

Then we exchange gifts - this year Emmy got to go to Build a Bear and make a pink monkey! We also try to do something fun as a family like the trampoline place or swimming. This year Daddy bought Mommy and Emmy roses as well!

Easter - Our new favorite Easter tradition is making Russian Easter Eggs. Because Leslie's parents live there for a short time, they send us fun egg decorating kits. Emmy loved the fun, colorful eggs this year. We also let Emmy pick out a dye kit of her own to do - this year it was Tinkerbell. We of course do the Easter Egg hunt and the Easter basket. We usually do these on Saturday so we can celebrate the true meaning of Easter on Sunday. We also gather with all of our extended family for Easter dinner.

Birthdays - We love a good party at our house! We are always looking for a good reason to throw a party and a birthday is no exception! Birthdays in our family are usually more like a week long event! We do a special Family Home Evening for the birthday person on Monday. We sing their favorite songs, have a lesson honoring them, and eat their favorite treat. On the day of their birthday the house is decorated all over. Balloons, streamers, signs, ribbons, wrapping paper, etc! Leslie grew up where Birthdays were a huge deal and Leslie has tried to carry on that tradition. This year Emmy got a special birthday surprise - Leslie's mom came into town for the birthday and made her a special Tinkerbell cake!

4th of July - All of our extended family gathers for an entire day of food, hot air balloons, water fights, and fireworks. 4th of July is often the most favorite holiday for many kids in our family. We get up super early to go watch the hot air balloons launch. Then we gather together for either breakfast or lunch and play together all day. We do relay races, water games, eat a ton of food, and the afternoon culminates with a massive water fight. Often it's hard to tell who the real kids are - the dads or the actual kids. It's definitely one of Jeremy's most favorite days! Emmy also gets a special 4th of July outfit!

Halloween - Leslie starts getting excited about Halloween at about the end of August- right when the Halloween costumes start coming out! Emmy has had some really cute costumes the last few years. The kids in our family all have a halloween party together where they dress up for each other and play lots of fun games. Daddy's favorite party of Halloween is carving pumpkins. He always does very intricate designs and has lots of fun! He also always carves a special pumpkin for Emmy that matches her costume. On the day of Halloween we go trick or treating at Daddy's office and then we go out that night with cousins to get even more candy! Emmy got quite the loot last year! We all thought she'd last 4 or 5 houses and tire out way before her cousins but she held her own and did several streets with them! She wasn't quitting for anything!

Thanksgiving - The last several years for Thanksgiving we go to Idaho to celebrate with extended family. We love spending time with all of our family and eating lots of amazing food!

Christmas - The Christmas holidays for us begin the day after Thanksgiving (no Christmas music until that friday!!!!) :) We always get a fresh Christmas tree - Emmy loves going to the Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree with her Daddy and Grandpops. This last year Emmy got to help Daddy put the lights on and decorate the tree. Daddy has a little train that goes around the bottom of the tree that is Emmy's favorite toy. Daddy and Emmy often just sit under the tree for a long time and play together.

A new favorite tradition that we've done the last couple of years is to go up to a fancy hotel in the mountains and spend the night. Daddy has his work Christmas party up there so one of the Grandparents comes with us to play with Emmy. It is a really fun hotel and we love going up and playing in the snow - it looks like a winter wonderland! It always gets us in the Christmas spirit!
We love doing many things as a family during December - service projects, baking cookies, family Christmas parties, buying Emmy her Christmas dress, lots of fun shopping, Secret Santas, Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, etc.
On Christmas morning we all wake up early (thanks Emmy!) and we meet in Emmy's room to drink hot chocolate and eat pastries. We wait for Emmy's grandparents to come over and then we read the story of the 3 Wisemen in the Bible. We talk about why we give gifts to each other and why we really celebrate Christmas. We kneel together as a family and pray. We then line up in the hall from youngest to oldest and walk out to see what Santa has left. Santa always leaves his messy footprints in our living room that show Emmy where her present is! The Reindeer often leave their paw prints as well. Christmas morning is so fun because we take it nice and slow - we open gifts one at a time and have fun playing with presents along the way.

After we open presents, we gather with all of our extended family for Christmas brunch. This was a tradition started many many years ago that all of our family still does today. The menu is always the same - ham, Christmas braid (pastry), potato casserole, other sweet rolls, scrambled eggs, cranberry juice, and hot chocolate. It's so yummm!!!!That evening, we do our Christmas stockings. Santa leaves each of us a beautifully written letter in poetry form. Often they are silly and fun but sometimes they are very sweet and make us cry! We treasure these letters from Santa - a tradition he began in our family when our parents were just small children. Our stockings then trail many little presents, all tied together with string. We open them one at a time and have fun opening little treasures. We then get to dump out our stocking where we can find many candies and either an orange or an apple (or jalepeno's if you're Daddy!). It is such a fun tradition that we all love very much!

Other Non-holiday family traditions we have are movie nights eating popcorn and m&m's, annual family vacations, Daddy-Daughter dates, having picnics in the canyon during the summer, family reunions, family game nights, and many more! We definitely love to have fun together as a family and are always looking for new traditions!