Week 51-Decor & Celebration

Watching our sweet little Em get excited about decorating the Christmas tree tugs at my heart-strings! Especially since this year we only used ornaments from mine and Coup's childhood--brought back lots of great memories!

Tradition: Help dad finish of the tree with the star topper! Pure essence of the Christmas Spirit! We loved sharing the Nativity story with out two-year old and having her get so excited about Christ's birth.

We also enjoyed sharing other Christmas traditions like 'Rudolf', 'Frosty the Snowman,' and 'The Grinch.' Em was excited to have the light-up candy cane re-appear to decorate her room. The candy cane and the Rudolf were both Couper's favorite Christmas decorations as a kid...and I think it's safe to say they are now hers as well! (side note: she now calls 'eye crusties' "Crusty the snowmans"... there was a little confusion on words at some point, haha!!)

We enjoyed other Christmas traditions with extended family throughout the month as well. Making and decorating sugar cookies with Gramma Nec was a hit!

Gramma Nec and Papa Gregg also treated us to a Utah Symphony family Christmas performance that included Santa helping conduct. Favorite conversation of the night: "Who's that?" -It's Santa, he's a nice guy that comes around at Christmas time. Want to sit on his lap and talk to him? (Wide eyed, serious response:) "NO! No lap. He a nice guy. Noo lap, no lap."

Most large, Kartchner holiday family gatherings include loud, all inclusive rounds of rock-band. Em is hooked. Clearly her favorites are singing and the drums.

We definitely filled our month with happy memories! Glad Em is so comfortable around family so she could fully enjoy it all!

Week 50-Yobs

Our little family of three had a sneaking suspicion what the gender of baby #2 would be. 

I had a dream clear back in spring before I was even pregnant, 

Couper had a strong feeling,

and Em just follows her heart.

Although it was no surprise to us, 

we were elated to have our thoughts confirmed and

be able to share with confidence that Em is going to have a 

BABY BROTHER!

Doesn't HE look adorable already!? HE definitely wasn't shy about letting us know he's all BOY!

We celebrated the fun news with lunch and treats at Gourmandise. 

These are our attempts to snap a hurried photo to spread the news quickly to family...

hence "yob" instead of "boy". Most people got the idea.

20 weeks

Em was so much fun to pick out outfits with! She's in love with her baseball outfit choice, with matching red shoes. She's seriously going to make an amazing big sister!

Week 49- Birthday Weekend

The hectic, yet looked forward to, tradition filled days of the Christmas season seemed to fill our calendar quite rapidly this year. Although we had many fun ideas and potential party plans for Miss Em's second birthday, this is what we decided on for this year:

A family retreat to Salt Lake City!

Complete with a visit to SLC LDS Temple Square Christmas Lights,

The great quality of pics you get from asking some random passerby to snap your photo with the temple and lights in the background...

a walk around City Creek; window shopping and enjoying holiday decor and fountains,

The fountains were a hit! And the adorable candy penguin ornament was our favorite.

out to eat, and swimming at our hotel,

a family movie night when we got home, and just lots and lots of attention and lovin' on our sweet Emelia. We can tell how much she loves family time when she smiles up at each of us and says, "Mommy, daddy, Emi!" Usually followed by hugs. I don't think she (or we) could have asked for a better birthday weekend celebration! Even if it was a couple of weeks early.

When we got home, we surprised her with her birthday gift all set up in her room. Dad made sure many of her 'friends' were there to greet her and join in on the surprise ;).

She's pretty in love with her rock-a-bye!

Happy Birthday our Emelia Noelle. How we love you!

Week 48- We are Thankful!

Of course we have so much to be thankful for this year!

Hopefully this 52 week challenge has captured just that.

For an FHE activity this month we made this poster of some of the things we are thankful for.

I'm thankful for Em's silliness. Although she was being a stinker while trying to capture a "good" picture with our thankful-turkey-poster, when I looked back at them, I realized I love every single one because it shows how much fun we had making it and shows many angles of Emelia's personality.

We got to spend Thanksgiving with the Thompson/Steadman clan this year. The highlights were home-made popcorn with Papa Gregg and the pie-making efforts by everyone who was willing to help. Thankfully Gramma Nec is a patient teacher! 

I'm grateful for small group settings and these fun highlights and traditions that are able to make holidays and events happy ones in Em's memory. Our large Thanksgiving Feast with Steadman extended family consisted of Em curled up in a ball on my lap, face half concealed, cautiously watching everyone out of one eye. Don't worry, she warmed up (somewhat) when it was time to go. :) I'll take the cuddles! Our baby is going to be two in a month!

Week 47- Leaves

A childhood pastime.

Em laughs SO hard, non-stop, while playing in the fall leaves.

Also, if we're on a walk she has to put forth her best effort to crunch every leaf in (and out) of her path. Yelling, "Crunch, crunch!" with each meaningful step.

We love every second of it.

Emelia has been very interested in numbers lately. She will try to count during random activities and always when about to run. Running up and down the hills while playing in the leaves is no exception. "One, two, free!" "Ready, gooooo!"


Silly selfies.

Week 46-Splash

Two of Em's favorites right now: 

The classic story: The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Disney movie: The Lion King

She is kind of obsessed with the stinky troll and is sure to help read the part where he SPLASHes into the river. She was thrilled the few times I let her practice some real life splashing!

Sigh,

"Hakuna Matata!"

A few cute common phrases you can hear coming from those sweet lips:

"Crazy Emi! Crazy Emi!" (running around like a hooligan, or shaking her head rock-star style)

"Oh, sigh, I forgot."

"I DID IT!"

"Hakuna matata." (a good theme around this house)

"Uh-oh!....I fix it."

"No like it."

"One more time?"

"High-fi sticker!"

"Thanks though." (to ...just about everything)

"Okay mom? Okay dad?" (if she thinks we're hurt or something is wrong, precious)

Week 45-First baby pictures

 Yay! Baby's heartbeat and first ultrasound!

I was so impatient to have to wait until I was 15 weeks along to hear this little one's heart and have some reassurance and reality really kick in.  I had some insecurities about starting fresh at a new doctor's office and meeting my new doctor. Happy to announce all is well and we're in good hands. ;) We weren't sure how Em would handle the doctors appointment, but she was ADORABLE! Couper held her during the ultra sound and the minute an image popped up on the screen she shouted, "There it is! I see it!" Already a proud big sister.

Hurray for cute "baby" baby bumps in those early months.

15 weeks

Week 44-Halloween

 Halloween was so, SO much fun with Em this year! We tried to incorporate traditions from our childhood and create some of our own. She was a little leery of dressing up at first. But once she got a glimpse in the mirror she was game! She has really liked the original "Winnie the Pooh" movie this fall, and we have watched it countless times! (It is not uncommon for her to be found carefully holding a pencil, intently drawing a little squiggle, with her nose 1/2 an inch from the paper, then pulling away quickly exclaiming with satisfaction, "LOOK! IT'S PIGLET!" "LOOK! TIGGER!" quite the artist we have here ;) ) 

For whatever reason, Piglet has most consistently been her go-to favorite character.

We had access two different pig costumes from family/friends and had a VERY difficult time choosing which one Em would be found trick-or-treating in Halloween night.

You can see why! Oh my cute little piggy!!!

I made sure the day was full of fun, yummy, and mostly healthy food :). When I was a kid, chili and dirt cups were a staple after a cold trick-or-treating night (along with candy sorting/barter & trade of course)!

The Bush's joined us in all of the fun, and these two little buddies were so excited to spend all night together.

Em cracked us up with her sweet innocence as a novice trick-or-treater. We did a little "practicing" 5 minutes before heading out the door.  We left one piece of candy in her bucket, hoping she would get the idea and not be scared (still our sweet shy girl). We knocked at the first door and she mumble/whispered "Trick-or-treat". The nice lady who answered complimented our little Piglet and placed a candy in her pumpkin. Em then politely said a quiet, "Thank you!" Reached into her pumpkin to pull out the candy we had given her at home and tried handing it to the lady at the door! HaHa (Guess some of our lessons on sharing and trading are starting to catch on!) Sure love this little cutie!

Stockton insisted on being in the family picture haha. Sad we don't have a pic of Cody & Kim!

Week 43-A Bump

I made this sign for Couper back in August. 

Many changes have been underway for us!

Love starting to see that bump! Although there have been many insecurities along the way these first three months, we are extremely excited to be welcoming another addition to our family next spring! Been dealing with nausea most of the day and EXTREME fatigue/lack of motivation. All seems well so far, but counting down the days until insurance kicks in so we can here little one's heart beat!

12 weeks

One of our random adventures to soak up any sun left this year. (Also helps to ignore feeling yuck!) 

We ended up at a trout farm and were the only ones there! Em thought she was so grown up feeding those fish and ducks, and walked around like she owned the place. We also landed ourselves at a fun Castle Park for lunch where the swings overlook a field of grazing horses! Pretty sure we covered many of Em's favorite things all in one morning!

Week 42- Pumpkin Patch

Emelia has truly embraced Fall and loves it as much as her parents.

With all of her discoveries and amazements of the changing seasons I was beyond excited to introduce her to a pumpkin patch! Pumpkins have of course been a fall obsession of hers, and orange has become one of her favorite colors (ie. she will only eat breakfast with an orange spoon...)

So, on a beautiful October evening we had a family outing to 

Pack's Pumpkin Patch:

(Love that she has insisted on wearing her "Cars" shoes EVERYday since they day she got them..in August!)

Wow. We love this girl.

Week 41-Fall & Fountains

Fall is such a beautiful time of year. I have always loved and appreciated it. 

We were lucky to have many weeks of warmer temperatures to explore our new area via long walks.

It was fun to have many Logan day and sleepover visitors ready to check out our new area as well. 

We always had to show off the Lagoon walking trail and some of the cool historical buildings in Farmington.

Em especially loved pointing out the buffalo and elk!

Another of our favorite outings is to Farmington station to get some fresh air. Em is intrigued with the fountains and things always end in a public dance party :).

Fall wouldn't be the same in this house (thanks to Coup) without an array of sports flashing in and out of the tube. Em can now be found chanting "Base-ball, Base-ball! SocCER, SocCER!"

Week 40-Establishing Home

Upon searching every source we have, we discovered there wasn't a single picture taken of moving weekend. I'm okay with that. Couper and I were both out of our minds with fatigue, it was dreary, and pouring rain, there was much to do. Pictures were not at the fore-front of our minds.

Em was lucky and excited to have a sleepover at Grammie and Papa Whitney's Saturday night so Coup and I (along with awesome family and friends!!! Gratitude can't be expressed enough!) could get the truck unloaded and furniture situated. Our biggest goal that weekend was to get Em's room set up so she would have a comfortable and safe place to be until the rest of the house followed suit.

Em has already collected a plethora of stuffed animals at her young age and Coup found the perfect solution to displaying them in her new space. (Along with my plethora of books, heehee.)

Grateful to say Em loves her new room and transitioned like a champ. She hardly even seemed to notice we had switched locations. Aside from asking on a daily basis to see her grandparents and aunts and uncles that lived so close in Logan! That was heartbreaking, grateful for pictures, skype, phone, and still not being that far away :).

Em slept extremely well those first few weeks and obviously made herself right at home with exploration and creativity. (And I just can't stand the cuteness of a toddler bum in skinny jeans ;) )

We all love our new area so far and are excited to become more familiar with people and places! But first, off to the post office where our new P.O. box is a little piece of heaven for this little one.

Hmm..sometimes we do hair and get dressed around here I promise.