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!

Accident

On Saturday morning we had our family pictures taken by Haley Ann Warner. It was a mini shoot (20 minutes) and I can't wait to get our pictures back. It was kind of cold and Emmett didn't really show his personality :( I hope they turn out good. We ran some errands and then went home to hook up our new TV. Bret had moved the baby gate to the stairs since he was going to be going up and down a few times. I didn't know he moved the gate and I gave Emmett his walker to cruise around. I'm sure you can tell where this story is going. It makes my stomach sick to even think about it, let alone write it out. I was standing about 15 feet from Emmett and looked over and saw he was at the top of the stairs. It all happened so quickly as I ran and dove for my baby. He was already falling as I reached for his leg. I could hear Bret yell, "GRAB HIM". I did. I had his leg for a split second, but it slipped out of my hand. There I was at the top of my stairs watching my baby fall. I felt so helpless. I wanted so badly to get my body in front of his to stop him. I screamed as I ran down the stairs to get him. Bret somehow nearly beat me down the stairs! Luckily his body had turned and he basically rolled on his side down 1/2 of the stairs. 13 stairs :( I picked him up and he and I both cried. We carried him upstairs and looked over his body to make sure everything looked ok. We called an after hours Pediatricians office and they told me things to watch for, and if he acted strange to bring him in. He cried for a while but we finally got him calmed down. He had a little bloody nose and what looks like a future black eye. I feel like the worst mom in the world. How could we let this happen and be so careless. Needless to say Bret put locks on certain cabinets, and lowered the mattress in his crib to prevent any future accidents/hazards. I don't want to wait until another accident happens before we finish baby proofing our home. Emmett is fine and seems to be his happy self again. He was walking around and playing within the hour. I feel so lucky and blessed that nothing serious happened to him. I've been watching him like a hawk ever since! Here is a pic of the cute little guy after his accident. (cell phone picture=not a good picture)

New Furniture

I FINALLY got new couches, well couch. The love seat is on back order until the end of the month. Today RC Willey delivered the couch, coffee table, and TV. I'll have to wait another month until my living room is complete. I've waited this long so what's a few more weeks! I'm so happy today. They're beautiful!!!






On another note... Emmett has discovered the toilet paper. I just let him destroy it, as it keeps him busy for a good 5 minutes. I suggest nobody use our blue bathroom as the toilet paper has been unrolled and re-rolled several times.




This last weekend my mom and I went to a few fabric stores to get material for Emily's baby blankets. Now that we know she's having a boy we can start our projects. Emily wrote this poem on my facebook account, " Roses are red, violets are blue. You are a good quilter, you take after Jude". I've been laughing about it for days, Emily is so funny. The girls always make fun of me for being so much like my mom, but I'm proud of it :)