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 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 36-Chalk Art Festival

One of the best ideas I've ever had.

...

Well, maybe not. 

But the Kartchner Chalk Art Festival turned into a big hit!

I was proud that everyone took it so seriously!

The precursor to this festival started with a few rough sketches on our front walk:

I watched some of the neighbor kids and they brought over their awesome and varied chalk art set so I got a little more ambitious (black makes all the difference). Couper saw how much fun I  we were having so one day I came down to the kitchen to find this:

(super cute, I know)

So my ambitions grew:

What else could follow except for a Chalk Art Festival to end the summer's dusty art with a bang!

Results of the Disney themed Festival:

Toy Story

Giant Chalk House (pretty sure there was some Disney mixed in there...)

Frozen

Cars 2

Peter Pan

Little Mermaid

Ichabod Crane & Timon

Winnie the Pooh & Friends

 (I didn't get a "during" photo)

Lego Ninja

Genie


We even got some participation from Down Under! However, I can't find the email with pictures so I'll have to add those later.

Happy Chalking everyone! You never know what you'll be able to create!

Week 33-Stars

We were sad to have to turn down a camping trip with cousin Annie and her family.

So the next best thing was a spontaneous trip up the canyon Friday night to take our minds away from the stressors of real life.

Couper made a stellar fire as usual. And Jen, Jake, and friend were able to join us for tin foil dinners. (Ours were a bit untraditional but were made on a dime and turned out quite delicious.)

We realized we haven't spent nearly enough time this summer building campfires and staying up late talking about non-sense waiting for the last embers to fade away. Nature truly does have a way of centering you and helping you put life's choices and events into perspective. So grateful for God's creations.

Our nature girl loved searching for/chasing bugs, playing in the dirt, and gathering rocks with Aunt "Yenni" to throw in the river. One of my favorite things of the evening was watching Uncle Jake cuddle with her by the fire and talk about the stars. She's still talking about Yenni and Jake and the fun she had. So grateful for Em's aunties and uncles that love her so much.

Week 30- Pioneer

In honor of Pioneer Day we decided to go for a family hike. 

The Wind Caves in Logan Canyon.

 

We enjoyed talking about what it would have been like to be pioneers on our hike. How we are very impressed with them and grateful they endured the hardships they do so that we could live in the beautiful area we do. We were going to dutch oven to end the evening but instead made some of our delicious, gourmet BBQ pizzas.

Week 29- Wicked

Wicked

Denise and Gregg gave us an unforgettable graduation gift! We were thrilled to attend Wicked at Captiol Theater in Salt Lake as well as stay at Little America. The free babysitting was much appreciated as well.

Couper's phone-photo-documenting:

A "quick" stop to the tantalizing downtown bakery "Gourmandise" left us with a sugar rush and smiles on our faces. We enjoyed being able to walk to dinner and the theater from our hotel. Marshalls did not disappoint.

Wicked was even more than I had anticipated.  The show was OUTSTANDING. And the voices flawless.

We were lucky enough to make it to Music and the Spoken Word at the LDS Conference Center Sunday morning. Between the music and a stroll around temple square it was a great way to start the week, turning our hearts and minds to our pioneer ancestors with Pioneer Day approaching.

Week 24- Out of staters

We are SO lucky to be able to maintain relationships with amazing friends that have moved out of state! We always have plans in the back of our heads to go visit each of them one day in there new homes...it seems that financial situations always get  in the way :/. We are lucky they all have other excuses to come back to Utah, so we are always sure to steal some of their vacation time.

Here are a few that have come to visit in the last several weeks:

Glad Chels and Miles chose to spend a few hours with us on her quick trip from Colorado! We instantly fell in love with Miles even more and can't wait until him and Em meet up again when they're a little older!

Somehow the boys always get out of taking a picture...

We were all smiling ear-to-ear when Emelia and Annabelle started venturing off together. The first of many adventures I'm sure! Never a dull moment when visiting with the Stones; glad they drove to the middle of no-where to meet up with us! Taking time away from family on their fast trip from Arizona.

Lindsay, Rory, and Riley were in town from California so naturally we had to try to round up some Ecuador friends! Although Heidi and Preston don't live too far this is always a good excuse to meet up with these life-long friends!