My country bumpkins

Fall twenty eleven

Halloween update...check. 
Despite being sick in all of October we decided to suck it up and still enjoy some festivities.  Here are some things we got to do.

Pumpkin Patch with Kenz and Kaylee.  Not pictured..our friends Chloe and Alli.

I just had to throw these in here.  My attempts and styling Emme's hair.  It didn't last long.

Trunk or Treat with cousin Sage.

Dress up party with some Idaho cousins.

This one makes me laugh.

Trick or Treating at Dad's work.

Just plain trick or treating. 

She loved getting to pick out her own stuff.

One Year

Our little miracle is ONE!! Well, actually she is close to 15months now, but holy cow! The time spent around her birthday had us thinking a lot about the year before. The whole experience almost feels like a dream now. Words can't express the love we have for her and for her birth family.

At her one year check up she was
30 in long or 75%
21lbs 6oz or 55%
Head was 10%

Now on to bragging and mentioning some things I want to remember.  Everywhere we go people comment how smart she is.  They always guess she is a lot older than she is.  Even her pediatrician is always amazed by her vocabulary and motor skills. She has been mimicking words from about 9 months.  None of the credit goes to us by any means.  She is just one smart cookie.  Maybe everyone feels this way about their first baby though.  Her favorite toy by far is books.  She would sit in my lap and read all day.  She has an alphabet train and she has brought me the c for car and v for van and said "car? car?".  She has also brought me the m for monkey and did her arms like a monkey and made the sound they make.   She will copy every word we give her {in fact she never stops jabbering}, but some of her favorites are: pompa (grandpa my dad), papa (Gregg's dad), baby, push, owl, dog, Grant, no no, yes, ya, cow, moo, roar for lion and dinosaur,car, ball, and of course mom and dad.  She makes the sound of many animals and sometimes only needs to hear it once.  I can ask her to find something in one of her books and she will flip to the right page and point to it.  She's even figured out how to push the button on my iPhone and slide to unlock it.  Along with having such a busy mind makes for a busy kid.  She never slows down except to read books and still puts everything in her mouth and I mean EVERYTHING.  Even in an empty room she will find something to do.  Whether it be pulling off dry wall or finding the tiniest speck to taste.  Luckily she sleeps like a champ and loves to go nye nye (night night). That is a big help so Gregg and I can refresh for the next day.  My favorite thing is how cuddly she is.  She gives the best loves and kisses around.  I never mind having drool smeared on my face if that means I get a smooch from her.  I will admit that we snuggle her a lot and give her maybe too many squeezes, but we just can't resist her.  Gregg even made up the phrase, "I've got the squeezies."  Meaning when Emme does something cute and you grit your teeth because you want to squeeze her so bad.  And yes, just looking at these pictures gives me the squeezies.  We love that emme memmer moo of ours. 

My favorite picture.  No fancy bows, background, or clothes needed.  Just Emme in her purest form.

Birthday Under The Sea

On Emmer's real birthday we both took the day off so we could take her to The Living Planet Aquarium.  Gregg's dad has an aquarium and it's the first thing she runs to every time we visit them.  She normally calls fish "Pi", but occasionally will say "Fi".  So we thought it would be fun for her to see the BIG aquariums.  She loved it and not once did she get bored.  Looks like we have a winter activity for her to get some energy out. 

Can You Tell Me How To Get, How To Get To....

 Ses"Emme" Street?
       -Brought to you by the Letter E and Number 1

We do first birthday's big around here, so for Emme's third and final birthday party we spent it at our house. We decorated Ses"emme" to the max although I only took pictures of some of it for some reason. It's always more stressful to be the host and I don't always get to take the pictures I want. We had a blast though and everything turned out great.

The dessert area.

Emme's birth aunt drew this picture.  Talk about amazing!

Big Bird, Elmo, and Cookie Monster showed the way to the party.

Thanks to Gregg's cousin for making her cake.  For the record I did do most of Elmo.  :)

These are my beloved cousins whom I lived with for a while when I first moved to Utah.  Emme is making what we call "turtle face".  She makes it when she feels awkward.  She made it a lot at her party because of all the attention she was getting.  So funny.

Turtle Face

Total Pro at this cake stuff now.

I love K's face as she's laughing at Emme.

PAPER!!!!

Cue turtle face.  I didn't realize how many times she did it until I did this post.