We went on a couple of walks to the Laie Temple grounds while we were in Hawaii. There on the grounds were some plumeria trees. A lot of the flowers had fallen on the ground around this particular tree, and Emma decided that she needed all of them. So, she began collecting them and filling the stroller with them!

Ah, my new favorite temple. It is located about 2 blocks from our friend's house. It is such a beautiful temple and has very pretty grounds.

According to my Google search, the Hawaiian meaning of "Hale" (pronounced a little differently than my last name) means house or building. I thought that it was funny because there are streets that are called Hale (with another name that I am not going to attempt to remember because my Hawaiin friend will probably read this at some point) and then there was this sign at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was fun to see our name everywhere!

I really thought that this was cool, because as we all know from Lilo and Stitch, Ohana means "family!"

It's me! This was right before our traditional Hawaiian dinner at the PCC. We had kahlua pork, chicken long rice, purple poi rolls, and guava cake (among other things) and delicious POG juice (Passion-Orange juice). Emma wouldn't wear any of the leis that she got that day, which is why I am doubled up on them here.

Emma and Aaron pose for a picture before our dinner at the PCC. Notice Emma's moko (Maori tattoo) on her arm!

Emma is drinking a frozen pina colada (non-alcoholic, of course) from a pineapple. She thought it was so cool to drink out of it!

While we were in Hawaii, we went to the Hukilau cafe. We had a yummy breakfast of portugese sausage, fried eggs and fried rice. In the movie "50 First Dates," there is a Hukilau cafe which was based on the cafe where we ate. SO YUMMY!

On the last day of our trip, Erin took us to this place called Turtle Beach. We got there right as some turtles were playing near the shore. After we had been there for about 15 minutes, this turtle just started coming out onto the shore! It was so neat! I couldn't believe how big it was. It came right up to the place we were standing and we were able to get some great pictures.

Here is the turtle a little closer. It was so beautiful!

I realize that putting a picture of myself in a swimsuit up for the world to see isn't the greatest idea ever, but I wanted anyone who reads this to get a sense of the hugeness of this sea turtle! I still can't believe I was so close to it!

What a little sweet heart! (For an explanation on the towel and the washcloth, read the next post.)

Lately Emma loves her bath. She plays with cups, bowls and spoons, and loves washcloths. When we turn on the water to start her bath, she goes to the cabinet and gets all her bath "toys" and starts throwing them in, one by one, till everything she wants to play with is in there. On this particular day, she was splashing water everywhere, so I got a towel and put it on the floor next to the tub. I turned my back for 5 seconds, and when I turned back around, it was in the tub with her and she was using it as a blanket. Then she wanted to use it as a coat. So, here she is with her coat, her hat (washcloth) and her water purse (a bath poof). Isn't she lovely?

This picture really belongs between the Thanksgiving Point picture and the BYU Easter Egg hunt one. But I forgot to put it in there, and I don't want to erase the other posts to put this one in order, because I am afraid that I won't be able to write all those clever things for all those other pictures again. With that being said, here is Emma's easter basket. She got candy, a bunny and a book from her Grandpa Craig and Granny Jamie, a coloring book and crayons from me, and Aaron got her the sparkly flower windmill thing (it is late and my brain isn't working too well right now) and some of those dinosaur-sponge-capsule things. Then she got a package in the mail from BB, Jefe, and Kat Kat for Easter. It had lots of Dora the Explorer things in it, like: backpack, stickers, books, magnets, door hangers, games and some Old Navy gift cards (oh no wait, those were for her mommy!)

"Easter" Sunday... I put Easter in quotation marks, because this is more like an Easter Sunday redo. We missed church on Easter because Craig was in town, his flight left during our church meetings, Aaron took him to the airport, and I wasn't about to go to church just to sit in nursery. So Emma wore her Easter dress the next Sunday. And I couldn't find any white shoes anywhere...which explains why she is wearing the black ones. No white shoes on Easter? What a crime. (Wait a minute, this picture isn't even of Easter...)

Another Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. We went with Grandma and Grandpa Jones, Ammon and Jillian and baby Grace to the Tulip Festival this year. It was beautiful as always, and would've been more beautiful if Emma had gotten a nap that day. When it was time to leave, we gave her a sippie cup of juice, put her in her car seat, and she was asleep within 30 seconds.

Aaron took Emma to the BYU Easter Egg hunt that was held on the baseball field. The BYU mascot, Cosmo the Cougar was there, and Emma was scared to death of him. First of all, she thought that he was a bear. And then she kept signing and saying scared any time he came anywhere near her. Sad part of it all was that she didn't get any eggs. Long story.

Conference weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Hale's; Grace in Emma's doll stroller; Emma's doll about to be run over by the stroller.

No, we did not have cheese and sour cream for supper. I think that we had fajitas that night and Emma got the cheese and sour cream before I could finish cleaning off the table! (Yes, she had a hair barrette in earlier that day, she just ripped it our right before supper.)

Oh my dairy princess!

Last Sunday, we had an Easter dinner and egg hunt with our good friends and neighbors, the Carlsons, who are moving to Oregon soon. My friend Hannah and their kids, Martin and Layona, are leaving this coming weekend to go on to Oregon to find an apartment with help from Hannah's parents. So, Hannah and I decided to go ahead and have a little Easter celebration for the kids. We made a ham, hashbrown casserole (funeral potatoes as they are called here---morbid name for such delicious food), salad, rolls, cupcakes, and tons of easter candy! Here is Emma opening one of her eggs.

I think the idea of the egg hunt was lost on these two. Martin and Emma stop picking up eggs to check out what kind of candy they got.

My little baby Emma is a big girl now with hair slightly long enough to put in little pig tails. I still have to hold her bangs back with a barette. I just thought that she looked like a big kid this day, in her little cargo skirt and big girl hair!

Sampson's girlfriend, Brittany, has this really cool red Jeep. She let Emma pretend to drive it, and Emma was so tiny in the Jeep that we had to take pictures! (Emma loves Brittany by the way!)

Emma is pretending to drive Brittany's Jeep. Too bad she can't even see over the dash!

There is a really fun place here called Thanksgiving Point. It has shops, restaurants, a 55-acre scenic garden and a place called Farm Country that is kind of like a petting zoo. The kids can pet and feed cows, sheep, ducks, rabbits and a whole bunch of other farm animals. Here is Emma riding a plastic sheep! A little mutton-bustin' as the call it at the rodeos here!

In this picture, Emma is mooing to try and get one of the calves a little closer so she can pet it!

A couple of weeks ago, we went on a "nature walk" in Rock Canyon. Emma was so funny-she insisted on walking the entire time. She would run off the trail if there was a cool rock or tree that she wanted to see. We stopped at this spot (so Aaron and Russell could do some exploring) and Emma found box elder bugs crawling around everywhere. She would get so excited and pick them up and laugh and squeal while she played with them. On the way back down, she again, insisted on walking all by herself. The trail was a little steep on the way down so she really had to run. She doesn't run all that well, so she was zig-zagging all over the place, back and forth down the trail. She is such a little trooper!

Emma loves Dora the Explorer, and when I found this pink plastic Dora lawn chair at K Mart, I had to buy it. When we came home, we invited her friend, Martin out (he lives next to us) to play and he brought his Spiderman chair. Emma is showing him the "hurt" on her hand (she fell down on the sidewalk) and he is checking to see if he has one, too.

At the end of Aaron's internship, he got to go to Disneyworld and he brought back this pair of mouse ears for Emma. She loves to wear them and puts them on all by herself!

The weather has been warming up and we took Emma to a park near our apartment. She loves to play outside, especially at the park! She is taking a rest from the slides here.

Okay, so I am a horrible mother and I gave my kid Peeps. But I love them, and buy a box every year around Easter and Emma wanted to try one. So I let her. She only took one bite out of it, spit it out, and carried the Peep around for the next hour. The next day she asked for a Peep again. So I gave her one. Again, she took one bite (oddly enough, from the same place-right between its eyes), spit it out, and carried it around.

While Emma and I were in Tennessee, her BB (my mom) got Em some little black boots. Emma loves boots and begged to wear them.

Since I keep my blogspot updated with pictures of Emma, I thought that I would put up and updated picture of myself. I was in Tennessee earlier this month and went out with some of my friends there. My friend, Hillari, took this picture.

Can't wait for summer!

I found this adorable swimsuit and hat on sale last night and I just couldn't resist! Emma tried them on this morning, and I had to force the swimsuit off of her, and she hasn't taken the hat off since I gave it to her. I told her the swimsuit was for later, and she started pretending like she was swimming. We can't wait for warmer weather!

We got Emma a beta fish a few weeks ago that she named "Colors." It is dark blue and has a little bit of red on it's fins. We got some pretty marbles for his bowl yesterday and Emma put them in the bowl, two at a time. When we put Colors back in his bowl, Emma cried and said "no" a lot. I think she was upset because the fish blends in with the marbles and she can't see him as well anymore. I think the fish welcomes the opportunity to hide from Emma.

Emma has recently discovered the fun of crayons and paper, crayons and the couch and crayons and her dolly's face. Mommy has discovered the magic of rubbing alcohol in removing crayons from the couch and dolly faces!

Going grocery shopping with Mommy! I think that Emma looks so cute in this picture. Notice her purse around her elbow!

Aaron always gets me a yummy treat from the BYU bookstore for Valentine's Day. This treat was chocolate, caramel and pecans. Looks like I am not the only one who likes treats!

Emma got a Valentine's package from her Jefe, BB, and Auntie Kat-Kat. It was full of fun things like Dora Valentine's cards, a bear with flowers, a purse that has a butterfly on it, and a little doggie. She was so excited when I brought the box to her, she kept saying "OPEDIT" which means, "OPEN IT!"

And she got a puppy, too!

Here is Emma wearing her sunglasses. She will bring them to me and say "eyes." She thinks that they are called eyes. She is too funny!

This is a cute picture that Grandma took after Joy Engebretsen's wedding outside the Salt Lake Temple. I love this picture and I can print off copies for anyone there in Tennessee that wants one!

Grandma Jones gave us some pictures that she has taken of us over the last few months. Here we are at the last (I think) BYU football game. It was so cold!

I really like this picture of Emma. She loved being outside and playing in the snow! I know that she is wearing a crazy combination of clothes, but there isn't much in the way of snow clothes for 18 month olds!

Here are Emma and her friend Martin showing off their mittens!

We had a snow storm yesterday and Aaron took Emma out to play in the snow. This is the first time she has ever really played in the snow!

Summer is over and Emma just can't give up her life jacket. We keep it in the top of her closet but whenever Emma sees it, she will stand at the bottom of the closet and point and say "please" till we get it down for her!

I know that Christmas is over, but I had to put this picture in. On Christmas Eve, we went to Aaron's aunt and uncle's house in Kaysville and the kids acted out the nativity while one of Aaron's uncles read the story out of the scriptures. Emma was an angel and we let the kids borrow Emma's new baby doll to play the baby Jesus. Well, Emma did not really want to share her baby doll. So, she stole the baby and ran away with it. I don't remember that part of the Christmas story....

Here is Emma on the couch with her Peru llama and her bunny hat from Nannie.