Fall

I love everything about the fall. I know its brief and serves as a prelude for the most miserable few months of the year. I know this because Ashlee reminds me every day, but I still love it. 

We took Emmy to "Chalk The Block". It is exactly what it sounds like. Artists come and draw these incredible pictures all over the parking lot using only chalk. They also hand out chalk to kid so they can participate to. The drawing didn't hold Emmy's attention for long but she loved the event. Her favorite part was the live music. She would head out in the middle of everyone and start dancing for a little bit before she would get shy and run back to us. She would get so excited to clap after every song. She would always look around and make sure everyone else was too. 

Defacing some art.

Ashlee and I dropped Emmy off for our first vacation since Emmy was born. We went to Vegas while Grammy watched Emmy for us. It was so nice to get away for a day. We were a little stressed dropping Emmy off. We had no idea how she would do away from us. We imagined a lot of whining and little sleeping. We were told that she was easy. We will never know.

After our little vacation in Vegas we spent the rest of the weekend in St. George. We were hoping that Emmy wouldn't get sick like she has every trip in her lifetime. We weren't able to conquer that milestone. Emmy ended up getting sick and was pretty miserable. 

Our trips to St. George are always eventful. Emmy had a night terror one night and it was about the most terrifying thing we have ever experienced. Then the next night we had the hardest time getting her to sleep. After we finally did we put a humidifier in the room thinking it would help her sleep. It may of helped her sleep except it set off the fire alarm outside the door where Emmy was sleeping. It was a couple nights of rough sleep. 

It was still a lot of fun. There is nothing Emmy loves more than cousin time. 

We spent as much time outside as we could. We took this picture on neighborhood cleanup day. Emmy had so much fun running while everyone was cleaning up. Afterwards we went to the church for dinner where she ran the entire time. The amount of energy she has is almost discouraging. 

Emmy changed her first diaper.

We took family pictures up in Salt Lake. Emmy did not cooperate at all. She spent most of the time crying. She had good reason to be crying though. It turned out she had a sinus infection, so we couldn't blame her for not being in the mood to smile.

Halloween 2013

It's that time of year again. The time when Ashlee and I put together one blog post and talk about how we are going to maintain it, and ultimately disregard it a week later. Emmy is changing so much and we just want a place to be able to look back and remember this time.  We made a deal that if Ashlee takes the pictures and videos then I will do the writing.

This week was Halloween, and while it wasn't Emmy's first Halloween is was a lot more fun than the first go around. When deciding Emmy's outfit we decided to stick with the feline theme we developed last year. 

Emmy ruining a perfectly good picture by flashing her gang association.

The night before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch that is close to our house. We went to go on a hay ride, but after about two minutes we decided it was way too cold. Instead we let Emmy test ride a few pumpkins. Her natural response to seeing a pumpkin is to try and sit on it.

For Halloween my work threw a party for all of the employees and their families. We took Emmy there to get her first taste of trick or treating. At first she was a little hesitant. We had to do some coaching before she would take candy out of a bowl. As soon as she figured it out she started having fun going from bowl to bowl grabbing candy. She would always manage to pick out the worst candy. There would be bowls full of chocolate and she would reach her hand in and somehow pull out a Jolly Rancher. 

When we got back it was time for real trick or treating. After knocking on a door Emmy had little patience waiting for person on the other side. She would knock then just proceed to try and enter the house. She managed to make her way in every house we went to.

Emmy knocking on her first door.

Emmy running around and loving it. It took us about five minutes to make it from this driveway to the doorstep. She just kept pointing at the car in the driveway and yelling "Car!". She would then take a few steps away from it, turn around and run back, and yell "Car!" again. 

Family Pictures 2012

A few months ago I won a giveaway for a studio session with the great Cassidy Miller. And boy did I get lucky. Over Thanksgiving she fit us into her busy holiday schedule and took the most perfect pictures of my little family. I couldn't be more obsessed with them. I wanted to post every single one. But, here are just a few of my favorites.

 

Thanks Cassidy. They are absolutely perfect and you are wonderful!

4 Months of Emmy

We put together a video of our first four months with Emmy. Its really amazing to see how quickly she is changing. She is literally becoming more beautiful by the day. The video also served as a reminder of just how clueless we were those difficult first months. I didn’t even know to hold a newborn -- I still don’t know if I do.

The song in the video was very prominent during Ashlee’s pregnancy. Its a well known hymn, “Come Thou Fount”, but we were actually introduced to it through the TV show Friday Night Lights. We fell in love with the song immediately and it ended up following us all throughout Ashlee’s pregnancy. We would hear it everywhere in different forms and it seemed like a really fitting song to serve as a soundtrack for our baby girl.

{Friday Phone Dump}

{This is how most of our walks end up now a days -- Emmy hates strollers}

{Her smiles make everyone else smile}

 

 {I swear I don't have her in the same outfit everyday}

 {Dinner with girlfriends}

 {Concert time}

{Josh Ritter -- The happiest performer there ever was}

 

 {Brothers}

 {BFF}

 {We love Saturday mornings}

 {Church with my girl}

 {Emmy's first trip to Happy Sumo}

 {One of my eyes and one of Nicks? -- Maybe}

 {Nick sure knows how to plant a good garden}

 {Cousin Sawyer}

 {Cousin Grace}

 {On my nightly drive I like to take pictures of sunsets}

 {Toys}

 {Toys}

{And more toys}

 {... As long as Mama or Daddy are close by}

 {Nick made me}

 {This is what I see when I wake up in the morning -- Usually about 5:30AM}

{Fire sunset}

 

 {Emmy's blessing outfit -- More to come from that beautiful day}