Getting Settled

We are moved in, and slowly getting settled. We got moved last week with the wonderful help of Mike's family all chipping in. Now that we're here I'm not much good for unpacking, because some of it requires heavy lifting, and lets admit....energy I don't have at week 34 in my pregnancy. So alot of unpacking has to wait until Mike gets home from work at night. So little by little our new place is looking like a home.

I wish I could post some nice pictures of a Christmas tree, or decorations. But none are out. I have no desire to pull out Christmas decorations this year. I know, pretty sad. My whole family, except for Kacey, will be at this house for the holidays so I'm leaving it up to them when they arrive if they want to have a Christmas tree. :)

We are still in the process of renting out our Bountiful home. We've had a little of everything: people that are ready to sign and move in, but bail at the last minute. Or lots of casual lookers too. So, we're hoping its just a matter of time and maybe just getting past the busy holiday season.

I haven't talked about my pregnancy much on this blog. Things have been going well. I carry her really low so a lot of people think I've already dropped and expecting the baby to come next week. Nope. I still have 6 weeks left. I haven't had any complications or much to complain about during this pregnancy other than about a month ago I got a blood clot in my upper thigh. Just imagine the worst charlie horse in your life and times it by 100 and thats what if felt like. The pain lasted about 6-8 hours until the clot dissolved. I didn't even realize what it was until the pain was gone. It kindof freaked me out. The doctor seemed unconcerned though, and I've been fine ever since. Although it did make me quite paranoid about sitting for too long of time periods. I have a scheduled C-section for probably the 19th of January. I've gone back and forth on going for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) my doctor is totally open to the idea. However I figure if I don't go into labor on my own by the 19th, then this baby will be probably just be born via c-section.

Can't wait!

Deux

Emmett turned 2 on November 3. When you ask him how old he is, it sounds like he's saying the French word of "deux!" for the number two. We like to think he's just that smart. ;)

I decided to make his party Elmo themed because as I've said before, he loves Elmo.

I made this cute little Elmo shirt with fabric paint. It was the easiest thing ever and you can do pretty much any picture you want. I got the tutorial on how to make it from MADE. Mike tucked his pants into his socks so you can see the Elmo socks he's wearing (I got at Target for $1.)

For my second attempt at making a birthday cake (his first birthday was a bomb) I was happier with the way it turned out, however the writing is really ghetto so don't look too close. I also got these Sesame Street figurines at Target for $1.

Baked potatoes and chili for dinner

Emmett got some great presents from his aunts/uncles, and grandma/grandpa and great-grandma. Even though my family lives so far away, we're grateful Mike has family so close that can still come to this kindof stuff.

He had a lot of fun that night and literally bawled his little eyes out when it was time to go to bed because he wanted to stay up and play with his new toys. He was so hysterical about the idea he ended up throwing up. Now if you know Emmett, throwing up isn't a big surprise, but thats how sad he was. If mom and dad weren't so tired we probably would've just let him play to his hearts content.

2 year Portraits

I've been wanting to take some 2 year portraits of Emmett but couldn't decide where to go, or if I should pay someone ect. In the end though, we decided to take them ourselves just to see how they would turn out and we thought they turned out great! We took these up Mueller Park Canyon in Bountiful. The leaves were beautiful that day and there were tons of families taking pictures.

It was hard to get him to smile for us, but the photos where you see him almost "winking" is Emmett's version of a camera smile.

Some fun things about Emmett at 2 years old:

-He loves accessories. Hats, hoods, mittens, sunglasses, ties, watches, shoes. I've always thought that kids hated wearing this kindof stuff, but he looooves to wear them. Every Sunday for church when I get him up the first thing he says is "Tie!" Or if he's wearing his sunglasses he won't let me take them off for a long time, even when they're not needed. Or when wearing his coat, he has to have his hood on too. I love this fun trait about him.

-He's starting to put sentences together. At night if I say "Emmett its time for jammies" he'll turn to me and say "Mama! Jammies no, no!" Or one time I swatted his bum when he was getting into something naughty and he walked away saying "Mama! No bum bum" (As in, don't swat my bum, mom).

-As of this week (the day after his birthday) we took his binky away. We snipped the end off when he wasn't looking and gave it to him, and you should've seen the look of devastation on his face and in his voice when he saw that it was snipped. He was soooo sad. It was as if his best friend and biggest comfort in the world to him completely disabled and no longer working. It about broke my heart when he looked at us crying "Brooooken. Broooken". And maybe also because I realized my baby isn't a baby anymore...

-He loves Elmo. Sesame Street is the only show on TV I let him watch on a regular basis because he loves it so much. And surprisingly he's actually getting the hang of his ABC's better by watching it too.

-He's a brave little boy. He's had to have some pretty rough testing done this week on his stomach issues. (He throws up a lot on a regular basis thats been going on for about a year). One of them was getting some blood drawn. He sat on his dad's lap and when they poked him with the needle, he got a sad frown, but he never shed a tear or made a peep as they did it. And when they were done, he happily said "all done!" The nurse was like "he was better then even some adults!"

He also had to have an upper GI x-ray done, which entails him drinking 4-6 oz of barium while laying on the x-ray table and continuously drinking it as they took the pictures. The doctors warned me before they started that a lot of times they have to use a feeding tube through their nose's because kids refuse to drink enough for the x-ray. I said ok. But turns out, he was a champ and while he did cry during this procedure, he drank enough through the sippy cup that they didn't have to put a line through his nose. The doctors were surprised and we were proud. :)

We sure love this little guy and he makes our home so happy.

Halloween

We went as the Tortoise and the Hare this year (with Mike as our race official).

Aunt Kris' annual Spooky Dinner Party! Always lots of fun!

Ward trunk or treat

I think Emmett finally got the concept of trick or treating this year. He knew by saying the words "Treat" "thank you" "bye bye" and "more" as he moved along (usually in that order too) he would get more candy. He was a lot of fun this year trick or treating and made a cute little turtle!

Changes

After tossing the idea around for the last 6 months, we are saying goodbye to our beloved Bountiful, Ut and saying hello to Saratoga Springs.

My parents bought a house in Saratoga Springs, Ut about 1 year ago, but were obviously unable to live in it. So my sister and her husband moved in in March, and in the meantime we decided to remodel our kitchen thinking we were sticking around in our own house for awhile. But they unexpectedly moved to Oregon only a couple months later leaving the house vacant again.

Now my parents are about ready to sign another contract in Korea for another 1-3 years and the house was ours for the taking if we wanted it. The decision has been really hard because Mike has been 2nd counselor in the bishopric for the past 2 years which is hard for him to leave, and also because we cannot sell our house and thus forcing us to have to rent it out. (And do I even have to mention the fact that we're leaving behind our brand new kitchen?! ) However we know that this will be a good change for us, and an opportunity that will benefit our future tremendously if all works out. We will be putting our house up for rent in the next month or so, and moving at the end of November!

Goodbye Bountiful

Hello Saratoga Springs

Goodbye house

Hello house

pic taken Jan 2010

"A Tool!"

Its been a long time since I uploaded a video of Emmett. It seems like in the last 6 months he has grown up so much and is turning into a 2 year old overnight instead of my baby boy. *sniff sniff*.

Here's a funny video for those of you who like watching these things. Emmett is currently obsessed with daddy's tools, and he gets so excited everytime Mike pulls them out. In this video Mike went to the basement and brought out his drill while I recorded. In the video you'll hear him saying the word tool, however it sounds more like "a-doo"!

PS. Yes, he's wearing a bike helmet in the video too. Another thing he loves. :)

3 Lessons Learned

The 3 lessons we learned last week:

#1: Don't ever dispose of rice down your kitchen sink. Throw it away.

Our basement flooded on Wednesday night because of the clog. I've never seen a bigger mess down there before, and this wasn't the first time we've had some minor flooding because of the old drains. We had to call a plumber, and one nice, fat bill later it was fixed.

#2: Don't ever lift your kids by their wrists, forearms, elbows, biceps or anywhere on that lower extremity. Only use their armpits.

My husband, just by simply having a quick reaction to a needed moment as Emmett ran into the road, lifted him by the wrist and dislocated his elbow on Friday night. Mike felt soooo bad.

After a painful 12 hours later, the doctor fixed it for him at the Kids Instacare. (I had to wait till they opened). Its called "Nursemaids Elbow" and is very common in young children.

Lesson #3: This one was a pure accident, but if I must say I learned something it would be don't ever drive in Bountiful, on 500 South, during a busy Saturday afternoon.

Just minutes after leaving the Instacare where I took Emmett to get his arm fixed, I rear ended a large truck in front of me as I was unprepared for the very abrupt stop that it made due to some construction going on. I tried to swerve out of the way as I knew I couldn't stop in time, but I clipped her with my right front bumper. It was my very first accident and I was quite a pregnant, emotional mess to say the least. No one was hurt, but the lady who I hit in the truck called 911 and the police and firemen showed up. And then to make matters worse Mike was hiking up in the mountains and his phone was out of service so I couldn't call him for help.

The hood, bumper, and lights were damaged and was decided "undriveable" because it was leaking fluid all over the road that the fireman thought was the radiator. Luckily Mike's Aunt Sharon and Grandma who live in Bountiful came to the rescue and picked us up. I feel awful that I've gone almost 2 years without even making a scratch on my parents Subaru, and then in the final months before their done, and we buy another car of our own, I get in my first accident. But, we have our own insurance on it, and its all fixable so the next time my parents see it it will be back to normal again.

I was just glad that it wasn't worse. I know when you hear "rear ended someone" you think of the most minimal and common accident that occurs, but with me being 21 weeks pregnant, and my toddler in the backseat, it scared me to death to realize how it only takes 1 second to have your life possibly tumble into ruins and all the "what if's" that come with it.

Anyways, we had quite a week last week, and we were glad to have it over!

We love when family comes to town

We were excited to have my brother Eric, and his family come to town and spend their vacation in good ole Utah the past 2 weeks. Ever since my sister Krista moved from Provo to Oregon this past June, I've been left as the only one in my family still in Utah, with my family officially scattered all over the country/world. Yes, I know my parents do own a house in Utah County, but will they ever live in it?? We'll see...

So with them here on vacation, Emmett and I got to enjoy a little 'staycation' ourselves.

We went to the Discovery Gateway Museum

Lillie and Emmett

Emmett is currently obsessed with scooters and lawn mowers. He found both free at the same time and couldn't decide which to do. So he scooted around, while mowing at the same time.

Then he found a more manly lawn mower and gave up the pink one.

This pic is for you, Grandpa Winterton. (Might need to zoom in.)

We also enjoyed the Children's Exhibit "I Am a Child of God" going on at the Church History Museum.

They have a hospital/nursery scenario set up where the kids can dress, weigh, rock, change their babies in the nursery. It was so cute!

Eric and cute baby Henry

Lillie checking Henry's heart

They also had a bunch of other fun things for kids to do. Puzzles, coloring, dress ups, blocks, ect. all church oriented.

This is the best picture I could get of Emmett and Lillie together dressed up at the Nativity display.

Emmett holdin tight to the Iron Rod.

The kids had so much fun here (as much as the Gateway museum) and I highly recommend it for FREE fun with the kids if you're in town!

Then we went to the Zoo:

This picture of Emmett makes me laugh. He loves his sunglasses and his shirt goes perfectly with it.

I won't post all my zoo animal pictures, but I want to at least include the baby elephant. She was so cute!

We had a great time!