Emmett's 4th Birthday

Emmett had the best birthday so far. He understood it was his special day and he was happy all day. We hired Jerry (the snow sculptor) in Springville to come and make Emmett a bull for his birthday. Jerry lives on canyon road and makes snow sculptors for the community in his front yard. He's very talented and we really enjoy his talent. He came by twice and fixed it because our house is south facing and it melted pretty quickly.

Happy Birthday Emmett!

Birthday Boy

Emmett loved opening his presents. When he opened the barn form Emily and Max he said, "NO WAY". It was adorable. After he opened the plastic animals from Grandma Jude and Nana he walked up to Nana and said with his arms stretched open,"would you like a hug?"

Max, Austin, Cody, Emmett, Nathan, Kole, Hunter, Adah, Brinley, and Carly

 We had a birthday party for all of the cousins his age, and two friends. He loved all the attention being on him and loved his party. We played a birthday game, had dinner, opened presents, and had cake and ice-cream.

Birthday Boy

Em & Max

Family Pic 2/11/2013

We love our Birthday Boy

Savannah Thorpe and Maxine Bona made Emmett's cake. He wanted a warthog cake. He sure loves his animals.  Bonafied Goodies is awesome! Not only did the cake look awesome, but it tasted great too!

Blowing Out Candles

Birthday Stash. He got a barn, gun, puzzles, 9 plastic animals, books, movie, art supplies, and a laughing cow.

 Emmett was so happy and he's such a great kid. I love him so much! I'm proud of him and how smart he is. He's also very obedient. He listens to us very well and has a tender heart. I always think about the day he was born, and how I would relive that day over and over. I love being his mom!

Emmett

Emmett is such an obedient and loving kid. Rather then bursting into tears everytime he doesn't get his way, I can see his eyes fill up with tears and he fights his emotions and tries not to cry. It is absolutely adorable and makes me smile each time he does it. He usually does what I ask him to do (after the 3rd time asking). He's always willing to hug and kiss me, and he tells me all the time that he loves me. Emmett idolizes his dad and wants to be just like him. I love this little boy!

 Emmett 3 months

Adah 18 Months

Adah is 18 months old

22.2 lbs 17%

33" tall 83%

I love this baby girl so much. She is so busy and very smart. She gets into everything, and I spend most of my days following her around and picking up her messes. She's still a very light sleeper but yet a good sleeper. She goes to bed at 8:00pm and sleeps until 8:00am. She wakes up about half the nights for a bottle and diaper change around 5-6am and goes back to sleep. She also takes a 2 hour nap around noon. She always wakes up happy and  ready to go! I love that about her. Her favorite foods are: bananas, peaches n cream oatmeal, toast, pears, pancakes with strawberry jam, cheese, tortilla and cheese, marshmallows, and gold fish crackers. She has 3 bottles a day about 8oz each time. She knows how to sign: please, drink, more, baby, and book. She can say the following words: mommy, daddy, doggie, cat, cow, ball, shoe, nose, please, thank you, uh-oh, bunny, pooh-bear, drink, cheese, baba, binky, baby, book, blanket. She knows where her ears, nose, feet, hands, bum, eyes, mouth, and hair are. Her and Emmett like to run around while I vacuum and they are playing really well together. She loves to look at books, push her baby in her stroller, and help mom with house chores. She loves to dance with her dad in the kitchen.  She has little to no interest in tv. She runs on her tippy toes and it's the cutest thing! She looks like she might tip over at any minute, but gets around pretty quick. She loves her blankets and binky. She always is asking for them and carrys a blanket everywhere she goes. She also loves stuffed animals!

I love to shop for Adah and dressing her is my hobby. You practice your whole kid life dressing your dolls and being a pretend mom, and she's my real doll. I love being a mom. My life revolves around my kids and I eat up everything they do.  Bret loves them as much as I do and we could talk about our kids for hours.

Dad & Adah Oct 2012

I was getting ready to put Adah down for a nap and Ememtt asked to hold her, which he never does and she would normally never let him do. He was watching a tv show and I got the two of them comfortable and he held her until she feel asleep. Adah still likes to rub her blanket on her nose, and then she'll rub her blanket on your nose. That's what she's trying to do to Emmett in this picture. I love seeing my kids play together.  

Adah had to get her ear tubes put in again. One fell out and I wanted to get them fixed before the end of the year since we'd already met our deductible for her. She has had 6 ear infections since Jan, poor baby. 4 of those were before she got tubes put in last April. I just love these pictures of her in her hospital gown. We had to wait about 2 hours before Dr. Parsons was ready for her 15 min surgery. We walked the halls most of the time and there wasn't one person that didn't walk past her and smile, or say how cute she looked. She was the cutest little patient.

September 2012

Check out my little cowboy. He's so awesome. I love everything about Emmett. He's become so independent lately. It's been nice, but I love to baby him. Mostly because he lets me baby him. Adah at times wants nothing to do with me, and she's pretty sure she can survive on this planet without my help. Emmett loves to hug and kiss me and I just eat it up. My kids are awesome!

Coed Softball. Nate brought us candy necklaces on his treat day but didn't tell us we had to string our own necklaces. We were the league champs this year and we took 2nd in tournament. I tried to upload our team picture but my phone is being gay. (no offense to any gays) ;) We had the greatest team this year and we made some awesome friends. I'm so sad it's over!

Oh my goodness. They're cute!

Adah bugs

She is so in love with her dad. They're dancing again to her favorite song. "Springsteen" by eric church

I was going through old pictures tonight and found this one of Emmett. I miss all that red hair.  He's almost a year in this picture.

Adah 2 months old. She loved her dad then too.

Aug 2012

Payson Coed Softball.

I love playing softball and glad Bret and I can play together. Me and my sisters play on Wednesday night in Salem and then our spouses play with us on Thursday nights.  We love all the people we play with, and we have a really good team this year.

Emmett's first day of pre-school. He's going to Lynda Hall's school again. She got a new long horned cow and that's been pretty exciting for Emmett. It's the perfect school for him. He goes twice a week now and it's nice for everybody. Emmett likes getting out of the house.

Handsome guy! Emmett and Dad were saying prayers tongiht and Emmett usually says that he's thankful for all his animals, toys, etc... Tonight Bret was saying the first part of sentence and Emmett was saying the end...such as.. We are thankful for the Tem.....and Emmett would say Temple. Bret had helped him say about 5 church related thigns and then he thought about Angel Moroni. Emmett knows who he is but Bret said, " we're thankful for captain ____" and Emmett said, "HOOK" and acted stoked and sure he got that one right. If Bret would have said Angel rather then Captain, Emmett would have got it right.

Cousin fun

Carly & Emmett.

She picks up this stool and moves it around herself. Yikes!

Adah 16 Months

Our baby girl is 16 months old now. She is the so so busy but also very happy. She has finally let me hold her for more then 10 seconds and has actually started laying her head on my shoulder. It makes me so happy. She is very smart and has started talking a lot more lately. Here are the words she can say: mama, dada, ball, dog, roof, cow, moo, bunny, nose, one, two, three, NO, uh-oh, blankie, binky, baba. She can also sign: more, all done, drink, please, and book. She loves to be outside, loves dogs(she gets all giggly when she sees one...it's adorable) She thinks I am her property and gets jealous/mad if I hold Emmett. She loves to sit on my lap. Her and Emmett are starting to play a little better together, but he still takes toys from her and tortures her at times.  He won't let anybody else take toys from her though! Funny how that works.

Somebody had some mad bed head after their nap.



busy girl

Getting ready to go swimming

This is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Emmett liked to hold Adah, and she wraps her legs around him and smiles the whole time. I have to help him because they both get laughing and Emmett usually tips over. He also gives her piggy back rides (which he calls an antelope ride???) and she does the same thing, wraps her legs around him and holds on for dear life.



She is so cute when she sleeps. She's a fantastic sleeper lately. We put her to bed at 8:30pm and she sleeps until 7:00am. I give her a bottle, change her and she goes back to bed until 9-9:30am. She's done this all summer and I love it. We have to be quiet in the mornings because she is a light sleeper if she hears sounds. She naps from 12:30-2:30 everyday.





Adah kept stealing Grandpa Calvin's hat and thought she was so funny. I love pictures like this. Grandpa Calvin is a terrific grandpa! I wish my Dad was around for me to have pictures with him and my kids.



Adah and her dad have a really special bond. He has always had a way to calm her down as a baby and he's been so sweet and patient with her. Earlier this summer Bret would turn on our iPod and those two would dance in the kitchen together to "Springsteen" by Eric Church. I washed our iPod again(opps) and so we didn't have one for about 3-4 weeks. I bought a new one and Bret turned on their song the other night, and she immediately put her arms around his neck. It was very cute and special for him. She was so happy and wouldn't let go of him as you can see in the pictures.

Holstein & 2012 Canning

Our first pet! We bought Emmett a rabbit and he wanted a black and white, so he could name it Holstein. This kid loves
cows! I think he thinks anything that is black and white is a "holstein". He's a farmer at heart..just like his dad.

Dad built a great cage!

Our Holstein



Cowboy and I made 26 jars of peach jam. It looks beautiful
and tastes great too. We have three peach tress and we
were overloaded with fruit.



I have a new canning buddy and that person is...I bet you can't guess.....Bret Erickson. Who would have guessed such a manly man loved to can. We have bottled maybe 80 quarts of pears and 24 pints of chili sauce. This is a picture of our chili sauce in the making. It's delicious.

Here is our finished chili sauce and you can see some of our pears in the back ground. Lee Haupt from my ward taught me how to can my pears and only asked that I help somebody else in the future. Done and Done! I helped Bret and my sister in law Natalie. Lee was really sweet to help me and she said she'd teach me to make bread this winter.