Merry Christmas!

Here are Emma and Aaron on Sunday before church a couple of weeks ago. There is our tree in the background which is now crunchy (it was a cut tree and we got over Thanksgiving weekend...a few weeks too early!) and we are hoping that it will last until Christmas without turning brown. We are excited that my parents will be coming out this weekend and Aaron's mom and sisters will be out a little later this month. Our good friends, the Summerills, will also be coming in from Hawaii to stay with their family. We are very excited to be here for Christmas this year!

We had spagetti for supper last week and we let Emma feed herself. She is really becomming quite independent. She always wants her own fork or spoon (and she would rather have one like ours than her plastic baby utensils). She loves tomatoes and ranch dressing and she really likes red bell peppers. She doesn't really like meat or chicken, but gobbled up salmon when we had that. Her favorite foods are fruits and vegetables (who is this kid?). I am sorry for the lack of pictures lately. She has been doing some really funny things and we have been taking more video than still pictures. Last week we had been very busy during the evening and got home kind of late. We put Emma in her pajamas and said that it was time to go "night night." She waved to us, said "ni night" and walked into her bedroom. Aaron and I just stared at each other and said "did that really just happen?" She is so fun! We can't wait for everyone to see her during Christmas! (Those who will be out here anyway!)

Emma is signing "bath" after she finished her spagetti and salad (notice her tomatoes and ranch dressing).

The Princess

I bought Emma a princess crown and she loves to wear it. She also likes wearing her beads (some that her BB gave her and some that I got for her). Lately she has been getting my ponytail holders and wearing them as bracelets. She will bring one to me and hold her arm out for me to put it on her. So I thought that I would take the whole princess thing one step further and make her a robe out of her bear blanket. She was looking at herself in the mirror, but she was also mad at me because I was trying to get her to stand still so I could take her picture. (She also has a princess wand with a big star on the top and she likes to bop me on the head with it.)

Funny story about this picture: I keep Emma's plastic bowls, spoons, and cups in this drawer and I just let her get them out and play with them whenever I am in the kitchen (or whenever she wants to play with them). Well, on this night Aaron was working on homework and I was at my desk working on nursery stuff. I started hearing things hit the trash can. I looked in the kitchen and Emma was taking things out of her drawer, one at a time, and throwing them in the trash can. I decided to just watch and see what she would do. Once she had her drawer all cleaned out, she crawled up in the drawer and sat down. It was so funny!

Here is another picture of Emma in the drawer.

Happy Halloween!

Here is Emma in her Halloween costume surrounded by our jack-o-lanterns and baby pumpkins. (She knocked my jack-o-lantern over, which is just as well because it wasn't as cute as hers and Aaron's...next year I am making Aaron carve mine too!) She had a fun time trick or treating. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Jones', Engebretsen's, our Bishop's, and Ammon and Jillian's. Emma had a fun time but was sure worn out by the end of the night!

Here is a shot of Emma from the back in her costume. It was so funny to watch her try and walk!

We had a ward playgroup Halloween party and this is Emma with some of the other kids in the ward. The little boy in the karate outfit is 8 days older than Emma (his name is Jack).

When we were carving our Halloween pumpkins, we took out all the "guts" and let Emma play with them. She had a lot of fun!

HAPPY FALL!

We took Emma to a place called Vineyard Gardens for a fun fall afternoon. This place is a garden center but they also have a pumpkin patch, corn maze, playgrounds, and animals. Emma had such a good time there. She got to see bunny rabbits, turkeys, goats, and ducks (her favorites!) After we played, we picked out some pumpkins, and loaded them into a wagon. She loved her ride with our pumpkins!

After taking our pumpkins to the car, Emma helped Sampson take the wagon back to the store.

Aaron takes Emma for a ride on the swing at the Vineyard Gardens playground.

Emma tested out the water temperature in the reflecting pool at Temple Square. (She came kind of close to falling in!)

Sampson, Aaron, Emma and I went to Temple Square since Sampson is out here visiting us. He gave Emma some pennies to throw into this fountain. She didn't really want to throw them in, but she eventually gave in and let them go.

Emma likes wallets, and Sampson left his in her reach. She opened it and went right for the goods: cash and any kind of cards she could find!

And here is the dirty look that Sampson has been greeted with since he came to visit us. Poor kid, Emma can't figure out who he is or why he is on her couch every morning when she wakes up!

This is "Emma's Cabinet." It is the cabinet where I keep all of her food and she likes to get in it and scare me. Lately she has been cleaning it out so that she can crawl inside.

There is a duck pond close to our apartment that we have been taking Emma to lately. We have been letting her feed the ducks our old bread. They come so close to us! There was one duck that would eat the bread right out of Emma's hand (and even nibble on her fingers a little bit).

This is one of the funniest pictures that I have taken of Emma. We were on our way to church playgroup and I got her all dressed up in what I thought at the time was a cute outfit. (She added the necklace herself) I thought that she looked so cute that I took her outside for pictures. She was making the funniest faces and I happened to catch this one with the camera. She looks like a little old lady saying "Look at these little helicoptor things I found on the ground. Heee! Heee! Heee! Heee!"

She looks so happy here, but earlier in the day was a different story. This was the Babies-R-Us day. I had been to Babiea-R-Us looking for the perfect sippie cup (it doesn't exist) and Emma won't really sit in the front of the cart in the seat. Yeah, I know they have straps, and I strap her in as tight as I can but she still manages to stand up in the seat. And thinking how dangerous that is, Aaron has taught her a new trick...cart surfing...where she rides in the big part of the shopping cart and hangs on to the edge and just rides while we push the cart. Well, on this particular day, the cart surfing trick was a must, and we shopped a bit, and then we got in line to check out. The line was long and the checkers were in no hurry, so I was kind of in a daze, staring off into space while Emma played with the sippie cups we were buying. All of the sudden I looked up to see Emma's feet where her head is supposed to be, and her head where her feet should be, on the outside of the cart. I had enough time to brace myself for the moment, and she hit the floor and let out the most terrible scream. She dove out of the cart and hit the floor, head first. As soon as I picked her up I could see that it was not good. She had an enormous blue knot on her little forehead and her mouth was bleeding. I ran out of the store with her (and away from the stares of everyone in the store) and to the car, where I called my mom and then my doctor's office. Aparently this is pretty common and she wound up being okay. This is her in the bathtub that night. I tried to take a picture of the bruise, but it didn't show up very well. And she obviously got over it pretty quickly...much more quickly than I did...the feelings of "bad mom" lasted for a few days.

This is my dad's glory moment. I was actually on the phone with him when all of this happened. I have a cabinet that I keep Emma's crackers and food in and it is kind of her cabinet. (I don't have any kind of locks or anything on it.) She empties it several times daily and her new favorite trick is to get inside of it and "scare" me while I am doing dishes or cooking. Well, on this morning, I guess I was taking too long with the nursery stuff and she decided to take breakfast matters into her own hands. And Cheerios must have been the food of choice. She dumped the bag out and then scooped the Cheerios toward her and then would scatter them everywhere. I was giving Dad a play-by-play commentary on the action as it happened and he was laughing so hard saying "you deserve it! Every bit of it!" Thanks for the sympathy, Dad.

The dryer picture...Somehow Aaron found out that Emma likes playing in the dryer, with adult supervision of course. I had dried a load of towels and she got in and played for so long in there. Aaron would close the door (not letting it latch) and then she would push it open and say "BAAHHH" and then pull it to and then "scare" us again! She is fearless...she wasn't scared of having the door closed and being in the dark dryer. Maybe it was because she could hear us laughing so hard while she was in there!

Here is Emma before church one Sunday. She looked so cute in her plaid dress that Erin Summerill gave her and she has her bunny from Carolyn Kunic. Funny story about the bunny...up until now I have kept the bunny up on a shelf in Emma's room because it matches her quilt and all her bedroom stuff. I didn't want to let her play with it so it would stay nice and she could have it when she was older. But I guess that things up on shelves (out of reach) have quite the appeal to a little kid. It is the only toy that she will "beg" for saying "buh...buh...". So Aaron, being the doting dad that he is, gives in to the pleadings for "buh" and Emma now sleeps with the "buh". Lesson learned: things that are "off limits" are way more enticing than those things that are within reach!

We took Emma to the Utah State Fair in Salt Lake a couple of weekends ago. The weather here had been awful (cold, rainy, snow in the mountains...blah) but we went to the fair anyway. We didn't mind the cold too much since we planned on spending most of our time in the livestock barns anyway. Emma saw all kinds of animals. She got to see (and touch) horses, cows, pigs, this friendly sheep, goats, ducks, geese, chickens and roosters. She had so much fun (and so did we!).

This was a really friendly sheep. It saw us coming and as soon as we paid any attention to it, it "stood" on the rail of the fence to meet us. Emma wasn't too sure about it so I had to pet it first to show her that it was okay. It was so soft!

We went into the building that has all the chickens, roosters, ducks and geese in it. Emma loves birds and ducks, but she was a little apprehensive when she heard all the sqwaking that they all make! (check out her sweet mullett! we are trying to let her hair grow out, and i am not too sure if i should go get it trimmed up or not.)

And here she is with some of her favorite animals, the ducks.

Emma is saying: " Ewww..this doesn't taste anything like my Papa's corn! I can't stand to eat another bite!"

This stuff is gross.

Oh, that sweet baby Emma!

While I was getting ready to go to a BYU football game, I sat Emma on my bed and gave her a book to "read." She was acting so cute that I had to grab the camera!

Emma loves to look at books!

When we got back to Utah, I went to Education Week at BYU. I was gone most of the day and Aaron kept Emma for me. She loves being outside, and Aaron was watering the lawn at our apartments, and she found the sprinklers. She had so much fun playing in them!

I just love this picture!

"All this fun is making me thirsty!"

Soon after returning to Utah, Grandma and Grandpa Hale had their 60th wedding anniversary. They celebrated by renting 2 condos in Park City for a week and inviting their children and grandchildren to come and stay with them. What does that have to do with this picture you ask? This was taken in the pool at the condos in Park City.

Emma and Aaron were having a great time playing in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa Hale's condo in Park City.

TENNESSEE: Emma's first birthday party.

TENNESSEE: Emma's first birthday! We had a little birthday party for Emma the week that we left Tennessee. We had it at my parent's lakehouse. I made Emma her very own birthday cake to demolish however she wished. As you can see, she did a pretty good job on it!

TENNESSEE: (Nursery show in Atlanta) While in the charge of my Mom and sister, we discovered that Emma likes Cheetos cheese puffs. And she likes to have one in each hand. And she likes to take a bite off one in her right hand, and then take a bite off the one in her left hand. What a funny baby!

TENNESSEE (sort of): During our last week in Tennessee, we went to the Southern Nursery Association nursery trade show. And of course, Emma came along. Here she is playing in one of the magazine racks next to our booth, showing off her new funny face.

TENNESSEE: This is what happens when you leave your mother and your 10-year old sister in charge of your kid while you go to work. This picture makes me laugh everytime I look at it. This is the hairbrush princess, Emma. Her hairbrush is her magic wand and she has a crown of feathers. I don't know how they managed to get her to leave the crown on long enough to get the picture, the kid won't wear a hairbow for anything!

TENNESSEE: We filled this tub full of warm water and daylilies, and put Emma in it to see what she would do. Hoping for a cute picture, we got this, and it will soon be making it's billboard debut somewhere along Highway 70 S near the nursery.

TENNESSEE: Here is Emma one Sunday morning before church, wearing one of my favorite dresses that she has. It is one that her Nannie gave her.

TENNESSEE: Here is Emma playing in one of her favorite play spots in her BB's house... it was a struggle to keep her OUT of the dishwasher...literally!

Here are Emma and her Aunt Kathy at Janel's wedding in June. Emma was really sick on this trip (the first time she has ever been sick). On the plane ride from Tennessee to Utah, Emma slept the whole time, which is highly unusual for her. By the time we landed in Salt Lake, she was burning hot with a fever of 104 degrees, and I was panicking! Luckily, I was able to get her in to see her doctor the next day, and it turned out that she had an ear infection. She wasn't the happiest baby on this trip, but she did a good job!

This is a better representation of the way Emma was feeling during our Utah trip for Janel's wedding.

TENNESSEE: Much to my dad's delight, Emma teethed on his homemade beef jerkey, just like my brothers and sister and I all did!

TENNESSEE: Mom and Dad have tree frogs that stick on the window of the kitchen door at night. I got a bright idea to throw the frog in the tub with Emma during her bath one night. At first she was kind of scared of it but after it jumped all around the bathtub, she decided that it was a fun toy. And that if you squeeze it really hard it makes a funny noise.... I put it back on the window before she squished it to death.