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Today Emmry made it to 3 big baby steps!!!

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Emmry took her first step today! It was just one, but that's all it takes! She will be running before I know it!

Crazy Hair Day

This past week has been Red Ribbon week.....(say NO to drugs week).
Well, each day they had something different the kids could do/wear. Like wear a hat, twin day, jersey day.....and today was crazy hair day.
He wanted to do a side mohawk then spike the other side. Oh, and color it. This is how it turned out.

Ahhh, isn't he so cute?!?!?!

1 year pictures

I forgot to mention that Emmry had her 1 year/cake smash pictures taken on the 10th. Emmry was horrible! She cried practically the whole time. What a stinker! I'm surprised Lorie got a couple good ones. She didn't want to stay put and would turbo crawl right back to me as soon as my hands were off her. Ugh. I was exhausted after our 3 hour photo session! I wanted to give up so many times, but Lorie was so sweet and patient. I could never be a photographer. I just don't have that kind of patience.

Onto the cake smash pictures....don't ya just love her tutu? Me too. I almost didn't get it because it was $20 and I thought that that was too expensive. But I'm glad I talked myself into it. She will probably end up wearing it for Halloween. I'm sure she will wear it when she is a little bigger and come on...she's a girl and will probably want to 'dress up' everyday....right?!?! Ok then. $20 well spent.

Just like on her actual birthday, she didn't want to get all messy with her hands. Once we gave her a spoon she was still cranky and whiny, but at least would sit there for a few seconds and poke at the cake a bit.

October so far......

It is now 6:19pm. The boys headed up North near Camp Verde a few hours ago to go scout out elk with one of Ty's friends for his hunt next month. That means it's a girls weekend!
Emmry didn't take an afternoon nap so that means she got put to bed early....really early.....like 6:04pm early....so what am I going to do all night long?
Catch up on my journaling!!!!!
I heard you..."it's about dang time!"
I know, I know, I'm waaaaaaaay overdue on my journaling!
Here are a few highlights/things to remember so far this month.....

Oct. 1-2
General Conference/Winter Grass
I love this weekend!
Listening to our prophet, being uplifted, staying in our jammies A L L D A Y long, being with my family, setting new goals, and yes, I have to throw this in.....realizing that soon we will no longer be in the triple digits and have heat warnings everyday!
Each General Conference marks a change of temperature for me here in Arizona. In Aprils Conference I dread the summers hot temperatures will soon be here before I know it. And now, in October, I get so giddy that the nights start to cool off (into the 70's) and the days start cooling off (dropping down into the 90's) and I get to wear pants and covered toed shoes!!! Yay for winter!

This is also the weekend that we usually over seed our grass and get it ready for winter grass. (Crazy, I know. We have summer grass and winter grass) So that is just what we did.

I guess the only think I don't love is that we are all crammed into the office. We don't have BYU cable TV so we have to watch Conference on the computer. So we just wash down Zeus's couch and make the best of it.

Oct. 3
Big Brother
I love to watch Tage interact with his little sister. It is so precious. Tage down right adores Emmry. And Emmry L O V E S his big brother!!!

I can't imagine our family without these two rug rats. Love them both to pieces.

Oct. 4
Nose
Lately Emmry has been scrunching up her nose breathing in and out through it making a sniffing sound.

She thinks it's hilarious and if we start to do it and ask her to do it too, she will actually do it on command. It's actually both quite funny and adorable. Love her silly personality.

Oct. 5
Drawing
Tage lost his chance to watch T.V/movie tonight. I can't remember why, probably because he was either being a smart aleck and talking back to me or not doing what I asked him to do and having to ask him a million times to do it. So, he busted out his artsy skills. He is actually very good at drawing. His Grandma Rigby gave him a step-by-step instruction drawing book with over 500 things to draw and Tage loves it! He is a bit hard on himself and doesn't think he does a good job, but I sure do!

Oct. 6
In the closetI now have my guest room closet turned into the playroom closet. Emmry loves to just sit and look at books.

She doesn't think that it's too funny when I start to shut the closet door though...

Oct. 7
Joy Ride
Cute neighbor Caroline loves to play with Emmry. This morning she took Emmry on car rides back and forth from the front door to the back door.

Emmry thought it was the funnest thing in the world and whined if Caroline stopped. Seriously Caroline loved it too though, she probably pushed her for a good 5 minutes! No joke! Then she wanted to try pulling her....

That didn't work out the best though, so she went back to pushing...

Oct. 9
Paper Plates
There are two cupboards that Emmry knows she can play in. The tupperware and the paper goods.

Although she doesn't get to play in the paper good cupboard very long because I just put the plates and napkins back and don't want them to get too dirty. (yes, I vacuum my floor and wash it, but ya never know...) But whereas the tupperware I can just throw into the dishwasher so she can play all day with those if she wants.

Oct. 10
Walking....with help
Usually when I stand Emmry up and try to get her to walk holding my hands she would just take 1-2 steps but then just want to sit down to crawl, but today she took more than just those 2 steps! She now is a little bit more patient and will walk with me for a few seconds. This means she is getting closer to walking.....aaaaaahhhh!

Oct. 12
Rain Water
It rained the other day and I put out a few buckets to save the rain water for my garden. (Hey, it's called free miracle grow!) Rain water is THE BEST for the garden and we don't get it very much here so every drop is precious!

But, it is also so precious to see the smile on this munchkins face when she is having fun playing in it.

Isn't it the neatest thing to see when children learn something, or see something for the first time and get so excited about it? I love it! I love watching Emmry enjoy the simplest things in life.

Oct. 14
Daddy/Daughter
I went out for a girls night tonight and came home to this....

.....my heart melted.

Oct. 15
Dust Devils
Today was Tages first football game! This is his 5th season of tackle football and I think that this is going to be the BEST season he has ever had!
He has been 'playing up' in division every season so far (meaning because of his weight he could play with the 'older' kids even though they allowed his age too...weird rules and difficult to explain, so I just won't).
Well, this season he is the oldest and biggest in his division. That means he ROCKS! Today he made 3 touchdowns and scored for an extra point after one touchdown! He is dominating the field, knocks the other teams players to their butts and runs lightning fast. HE IS DOING AWESOME!

This is going to be a good season...I can just feel it!
Good job and good luck Tager!
We are so proud of you and love you so much!
xoxoxoxox,
Mom and Dad

Oct. 17
Stand Up
Today Emmry went from her bum to her feet without holding onto anything! Once she stood up all the way, it only lasted a second then she was back to her toosh, but she did it! She cruises along furniture and pulls herself to anything all the time, but standing up alone.....today was her first!

Footloose

I stayed up waaaaaay past my bedtime last night and went with some friends to see the 10:00pm showing of the remake movie, Footloose.

Actually this was just a few of us. We took up a whole row of the theatre. I think there was about 20 of us girls kickin' up our feet and dancin'to the music.

It was fun to get out of the house and spend time friends. I'm glad I decided to go at the last minute!
This is what I came home too.....Ahhhhh so precious.

One month. One post.

September
Oh my, where to start...probably would be best at the beginning.....

Sept. 4th
EternityOur 1 year temple sealing anniversary! Together forever!

It was fast and testimony meeting at church. For the past 6 months or so Tage has been saying he wanted to go up to bear his testimony but always chickened out and said he would do it the next month. Well, today was the day. He asked if I would bear my testimony too he would go up. I told him he had to stand up first and go first and then I would. So he did! I followed him up there and we each shared our testimony. So proud of him. I can always tell when Tage is feeling the Spirit. I love it! I hope that he will remember those feelings and always stay close to our Heavenly Father. I found it interesting that the majority of all the testimonies were about temples and families. Our Bishop also challenged everyone to go to the temple this month and do sealings. Easy I thought, because I was planning on doing that because it not only was our sealing anniversary this month, it was our wedding anniversary too! But I'm sad to report that each Saturday it somehow got pushed to the next and then the month was over and we never made it to the temple. I have high hopes for the month of October though.

Sept. 6

OwlI have never seen this kind of creature in the almost 5 years I have lived here.....or actually, anywhere!

It's a ground owl!

I noticed some brown blob out of the corner of my eye as I passed the kitchen window. As I looked closer I realized it was an owl! I have never seen an owl like this before. Ever! I took pictures through the window and it didn't seem to care at all so I went outside, but it did care there. I didn't get too close. I wish I would have put my larger lens on my camera so I would have gotten a better picture from farther away. Bummer.

Sept. 7

Sleep and Drink
Emmry has successfully slept through the night consecutively for 7 days now! Wahoo! AND as of August 31st I am officially DONE breastfeeding. She is only eating big girl food and I just started her on whole milk. She loves it. I don't warm it at all and she drinks it out of her sippy cup like a big girl!

Oh my, I can't believe she is this big already!

Sept. 14

Tie DyeI helped out with Tages class today. The tie dyed their class T-shirts. Tages class color is green. Each 3rd grade class has a different color. they can wear their tie dyed shirt on school spirit days and on field trip days. Fun activity! They all loved it!

Sept. 17

New car seatWe put Emmry in her forward facing car seat. Up until now she has still been using her infant rear facing car seat. When we first put her in the forward facing seat she looked a bit confused, but then just kicked her feet and was smiling and jibber jabbering the whole car ride.

I was told 2 days later by the Dr. that she should still be rear facing 1-because she is only 18.8lbs (not 20lbs which is recommended. And yes, I was aware of that recommendation) and 2-she is not 15 months old (I though it was recommended at 1 year and 20lbs!) I never did switch her back to rear facing. I loved looking back at her and I think she loved looking forward so much that I didn't have the heart to turn her back around. My only excuse is that I drive a big monster truck and that I would run right over the dude that got in my way.

Sept. 18

Emmry is ONE!

My sweet angel one day old

My angel now, 365 days old.

Oh my, I'm on overload just thinking about this day!

It felt like it was just yesterday I was headed to the hospital unprepared to have her 2 WEEKS EARLY! (seriously! I packed my bag 10 minutes before I got into the car)
Thoughts are flooding through my mind. My emotions are going crazy.
I LOVE my beautiful girl. She is mine FOREVER! Life just wouldn't be complete without her!
Since we don't live close to any family or had family in town, we resorted to invite what we call our 'second family' ....The Clare family..... to Emmry's first year birthday party. The Clare's are our backdoor neighbors and friends. I have never left Emmry with anyone other than them (and even that it was a short time only) and Tage plays over at their house almost daily. We borrow items from each other, share recipes and craft ideas, and have literally thrown things over the wall to each other. I LOVE it. I LOVE how we are 'family' and are there for each other! I LOVE that our kids play so well with each other and climb the wall to each others backyards. We seriously need to make a rope ladder that we can mound to the top of the wall and throw across each side for the kids to get over easier. But then again, I like seeing them look like little lizards climbing up the wall.
Ok, love you Clare's, but back to Emmry's big day!
She went to church wearing her cute shirt that said "I'm the birthday girl." Ate a hot dog and cheese chunks for lunch (her favorite lunch menu right now) and refused to take an afternoon nap until I got mean and forced her too. (I wanted her to be happy for her birthday party later!)
After her nap we had dinner. Ugh. I can't remember what she had for dinner. That's what I get for not writing these things down sooner. Anyway, after dinner we had our little birthday bash!
Emmry had several packages mailed to her the week prior to her birthday, so she was loaded with gifts to open!
I think that Tage was more excited than Emmry! I got confused as to whos birthday it really was! Tage kept begging to open the gifts. Seriously! One time he asked before church saying, "Can we open one gift before church? You said we could." But there was a slight problem, Emmry was taking her morning nap and was asleep!! Sorry Tage, we probably should at least wait for the birthday girl to be awake and in the same room.
Each one of the Clare kids brought a small gift for Emmry. It was the cutest thing. Handmade cards for her and all of them were so giddy and so excited that Emmry was turning 1!
After presents we gave Emmry her cake while everyone else ate their cake and ice cream. She didn't want anything to do with her cake. I tried to get her to taste it and get all messy, but no. Then I gave her a spoon and she poked around with than for a couple minutes. Funny that she didn't want to get her hands all dirty.

Ok, now for the good stuff....pictures!!!!!

And for the record. Emmry's 1 year stats:

Sept. 20

Laundry

Emmry likes to help me with the laundry. Except she only likes to take the clothes OUT of the dryer, that's great when they are all dry and I want them out, but not so good the other way around. She is also good at helping me 'fold' the clean laundry (she picks it us and throws it, but that's ok, I love her help!)

Sept. 21

1st day of art class

OK, not really, but it was her first encounter with crayons! It took her awhile to figure out that they make marks on the paper (and then on the wall. How on earth do kids figure out that one so fast?!?!) But she mainly just liked to dump out the big tupperware container full of crayons and put them back in.

Beautiful picture Emmry. Your a very good artist!

Sept. 22

This is our baby gate

So far it is working. We'll see how long that lasts before Emmry figures out that if she just pushes it to the side she can b-line it up the stairs.....I'm betting it won't take long for that smart cookie. She is a super fast crawler. One time I was in the kitchen thinking she was just playing with her toys in the living room, when I didn't get a peep back out of her when I asked her if she was having fun, I went to check on her. She wasn't in the living room, or the bathroom, or the guest room, she was all the way upstairs IN her room! My heart skipped a beat for sure. And I'm sure that won't be the last time she makes it up the stairs without me right behind her, I'm just hoping that she won't tumble down!

Sept. 25

5 years

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary! I distinctly remember telling Ty 5 years ago that on our 5 year anniversary we were going to Tahiti. I'm pretty sure he said no, but in my head we were! Darn. We missed the flight. Maybe for our 10 year........but probably only in my dreams.
I'm not going to lie, the first 2, ok, 3 years were rough. But we made it through. Good days and bad days, that's life. We have each other and we have to trust one another.
I love you Ty. Thanks for not giving up on me.

Sept. 26

Clutter
I told Ty I was going to go through every room, closet, cupboard, nook and cranny in the house to de-clutter, clean and organize. This is what my guest room looked like BEFORE I started.

I know, I know, a complete mess! I seriously couldn't even see the floor and had to step on things to make my way into this room to even take this picture. No joke!
This is what Ty came home to...

....he said, "I thought you said you were de-cluttering!"....I am honey! But you must first clutter to de-clutter I told him.
Sad to say it took me a few days to clean up my clutter.

Sept. 28

Laundry Day

I have waaaaaaay too much laundry to fold today. Why don't I just make paper clothes for my family. That way we can just throw them away like a dirty plate and I will never have to do laundry again! We may not be saving trees with that method, but I will save on water! And because I live in the hottest flippin' desert in the world (yes, we are STILL over 100*. ugh.)where water in scarce, and there is hardly trees here anyway, I vote for paper clothes.
All in favor, say "I"
"I."
Thank you.
Now bring out the paper bags and duct tape! .....I got a shirt to make!

*************

Well, that's September! Next up, October. Because I'm sure by the time I get back to journaling, October will most likely be over. (Today is October 21st. Did you notice that I started this 2 weeks ago?!) I'm always feeling behind lately and my to-do list is always a mile long. I just keep reminding myself that I am a Mom.....a dang good one. And this is how a Mom's life is....I will always be one step behind. Just deal with it.