Jude

My mom is really sick right now. She's currently in ICU with Encephalitis, meningitis, and pneumonia. Sounds awful because it is awful. She was working in her yard last weekend and felt really dizzy and light-headed. She ended up having my grandma take her to the ER and she was anemic and needed a blood transfusion. They kept her over night and she's been diagnosed with the above viral infections and just developed pneumonia today. The doctors expect her to make a full recovery but didn't take away from the seriousness of her situation. She will likely have a long road to recovery. Luckily it doesn't take something like this to make me reflect on how much I love my mom. I already know how much I love and need her. I think about her every call, call her everyday (several times a day), text her, email her, and see her most days. She is a best friend to me and somebody I can always count on. We are having a fast for her tomorrow, and please keep her in your prayers.

P.S. She wants to be called Jude rather then Judy. This just started a few weeks ago :)

Before The Blog

I started my blog when Emmett was 1 and I wanted to add some of my favorite pictures of him from his first year photo shoots. These were taken at 7 months by my friend/co-worker Cortney Boice.

Here are some of my favorites from his 1 year pictures

There are so many more pictures I want to add but I refuse to play catch up on my blog. If I must add more pictures they will be added to this post :)

Baby Halle

Jill had her baby Sunday April 18th. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl until we arrived to see her. I thought it was a girl all along, and then the last two weeks I changed to boy! Always follow your gut instincts. She is absolutely beautiful. I forget how little babies are, probably because I still think Emmett is a baby and he's not. They named her Halle Erickson. She has lots of dark hair and looks a lot like Carly's baby pictures.

I just love her. I've visited her every day since she was born...maybe I've out worn my welcome or maybe I'm baby hungry. Hmm... Emmett is a handful lately. I need more time! He sure loved Halle though. He kept saying "baby" and he'd make the sign for baby. He'd look at her and then start giggling, it was so CUTE! He must have thought she was funny because he laughed at her for a several minutes. Maybe he remembered her from heaven.

Speaking of Emmett I wanted to document all of his progress. So unless you're family/grandma/favorite aunt(Emily, Natalie, Jill...you three all claim to be the favorite) you can skip this part:

Emmett says the following words:
mommy

daddy

ball

bye-bye

please

more

bird

deer

thank you

pooh bear (We call his Winnie The Pooh stuffed animal "Pooh Bear" and he says it but sometimes he mixes up the words and says "Bear Pooh". So cute!!

Jesus

Grandpa

cracker

baby

book

"NO"

shoe

two

three

push

He knows what the following animals say: Dog, Cat, Horse, Chicken, Duck, Cow

He knows how to sign: More, Drink, All Done, Please, Book, Baby

Here are some pictures of our latest adventures

Notice the matching purses!

Brinley & Austin came over to play. Emmett loves them.

Did I mention we love puzzles. Puzzles are my secret talent, I should be entered into competitions to make some extra cash. Is there such a thing, competitive puzzling???

New Babysitter & New Job

Emmett is at the new babysitter's house today for his 2nd time. Last week Collett watched him a half day, and he spent the first hour at the front door waiting for me or Bret to come get him. Collett had to feed him breakfast at the door and I can just see him sitting there thinking, "Don't worry about me, I'm sure my mom will be here soon". Poor guy! Collett is just wonderful and I'm so thankful for her help. I just hope Emmett adjusts to her quickly for his sake and for hers. I also want to thank Jill for watching Emmett the past year. I am going to re-pay you one day. You saved me a lot of worry, as I trust you with Emmett more then I trust myself :)

Bret got a new job working for Little Giant Ladder and he starts next Monday. He'll be traveling a lot but we are both excited about the new opportunity. We are also very thankful for his last job at Helton Automotive. He really enjoyed working there and learned a lot about cars. He would have loved to stay but needed more growth/career to provide for our family. Thank you Paul for the job!

Random Pictures

Look who's walking....

I love watching babies learn to walk. They use their whole body to help them balance, and they are out of control. He won't venture off on his own yet. He will walk from the couch to me, but doesn't dare take off unless the distance is short. So conservative!!!!

Here are a few more recent favorite pictures:

Brushing our teeth sporting the faux hawk

Watching some TV. He loves watching people sing and dance. "Dancing With The Stars" was a hit last night.

Helping Dad feed the horses

I just love this him!!

Ohhh and I cut bangs. What do you think?

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures back this week. I think they turned out pretty good. Emmett was kind of shy, and didn't show his happy personality. He has actually been giving a "mean" look which you can spot in one the pictures below.

Emmett is finally starting to do an army crawl. I thought he was going to skip it all together. He is basically running with his walker, and I'm starting to see him get brave enough to let go of the walker and take a few steps without holding on to anything. He loves to be outside. Now that the weather is warmer I am starting to run with him in the stroller. He's happy the whole time unlike last summer. He loves animals, especially dogs and he says "woof" everytime he sees one.

Bret took Emmett to Minersville with him last weekend, and I spent the weekend with Emily. Oh she is so much fun. She thinks I'm so funny, which I'm really not but we get laughing together and it nevers stops. I ran 8 miles Saturday morning and then we spent the day shopping. It was fun until her feet started swelling and her back started to ache. The joys of pregnancy. Jill is having her baby on April 18th and Em will still have another 3 months before her baby comes. Poor Emily :( I can't wait to find out what Jill's baby is. Everybody thinks it's a girl and my mom even started making pink quilts. I think Jude has jumped the gun on that one. Don't they look so cute together???

P.S. Thank you Bonnie and the Albrecht Family for helping with Emmett while Bret worked on the farm. Karma, I'm really sorry Emmett hates you. I'll have a talk with him....the kid is a terrible judge of character. Everybody loves Karma!

Sunday

I am so happy today is Sunday and I have no plans, no place to go (except church of course), and its suppose to be warm weather! Bret is still sleeping because we take turns on the weekend getting up when Emmett wakes up. I get up 80% of the time and Bret...well he tries. I don't mind though because I'm usually less tired then he is. He works hard. He just got back last night from a two day horse back riding trip with my mom and a few friends. Who takes their mother-in-law on an overnight campout in March? He's a good man...good man!

I love this picture of him. He looks so manly, because he is so manly! That is his horse Memphis that my mom gave us for our wedding. She gave us a new horse and his parents gave us a cow. Were we born in the 1800's? We actually are very grateful for both animals. Bret has trained Memphis and she's a great horse. I even dare get on her. Our cow also give us about $400 each year when we sell her calf. Always a nice bonus! Anyways, I spent the weekend with Emily which is always fun. We went up to watch Jen run her first half marathon. Jen did great and finished under 2 hours. She didn't know we were coming, so it was fun to surprise her. Emmett was extra clingy to me this weekend. It always makes me miss Bret when he acts this way. He helps a lot!

What cute boys!