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 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.

Week 39- A bottled up good-bye

When I get stressed, 

I often find myself reaching a breaking point....

when I decide to stress myself out even more by trying to add "enjoyable" activities to my "stressful" to-do's.

 I think deep down I know that it will blow-up in my face in the end, creating an "ultimate" breaking point....

yet it happens far too often.

One day I'll learn.

Hence, our "bottled-up good-bye."

My first attempt at "clean" strawberry jam. A future must in this fall kitchen!!

Packing, de-junking, apartment searching, moving arrangements, being nauseous & ridiculously tired, along with the day-to-day of taking care of a toddler just weren't enough for me those last few weeks in Logan, I needed something more.

When reaching that initial breaking point, in a moment of spontaneity and effort to de-stress, Emelia and I found ourselves on a lovely, hot, afternoon walk. A walk that possibly turned into 4 miles round trip. And that very randomly (no sarcasm here) passed by a fruit stand...foolish me. 

I should have known this was a ridiculous idea from the look on the fruit-stand man's face...but, I proceeded anyway, and embraced my ridiculousness. Disclaimer: No child, stroller, or fruit was harmed on this 3/4 mile journey home, but it did result in a wicked arm workout for yours truly.

The fruits of my labor. Thanks mom for helping peel when you could! 

And...the "ultimate" breaking point. This picture is the only one I got of my lovely tomatoes...taken in a moment of trying to find humor in it all while choking back tears. Happy to say that ALL of my jars sealed and everything tastes fabulous.

Yes, somehow boxes did get packed amidst it all.

Thank you amazing friends and family. I couldn't have done it without you!

There is a little too much mischief to be found among the mess of packing a home. So grateful Grammie was eager to squeeze in as much Em time as possible before we made the move. Em did a good job of being mischievous at her house instead.

Good-bye Logan home. The friends and memories made here will be in our hearts forever!

up to my EARS

Not be be CORNY but I really was up to my EARS in these sweet yellow kernels ALL weekend long!

Thank you Davey for working so hard on the farm to grow such delicious vegetables, but especially thank you for picking a trunk full of corn for me! (I figured it was right around 130 ears!)

*shuck*

(one cooler full at a time...)

*blanch*

*cool*

*cut*

(don't trust those circular knives that have handles that are supposed to be meant for this...not worth the $3.99)

*vacuum seal*

*REPEAT!*

Not too shabby.