And I thought she never would...

Those of you who spent any time with Emery and I in the last 6 months probably heard me joke at some point that Emery doesn't speak English. She just didn't seem like that verbal of a kid... until we moved to Cedar City. Suddenly, she figured it out. She went from saying about 10 words to now, 6 weeks later, 100! She surprises me every day with a new word that she apparently knows. It's so fun to watch her grow up and get so smart. She's learning letter sounds too - she knows A, B, D, F, H, L, M, P, R, S, T, W and Z. She loves the ABC song and it's funny to listen to her try and sing it. Her favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus", though. She tries to sing the "round and round" and "up and down" parts of the song and does the actions and always sings the last word in the verse - "town". Too cute. And here are Em's words (and a couple of pics) for journaling sake! (I think I'll stop keeping track next week when she's hits her 18 month mark - it could clearly get ridiculous after that...)

silly girl, cheesy smile

why Emery doesn't like baths with mom - daddy's way more fun

Jesus, fish, down, up, mom, dad, yes, no, dog, duck, what's that?, I don't know, whoa, whoops, uh-oh, where'd it go?, this, those, glasses, dirt, rock, ball, grandma, grandpa, amen, delicious, please, more, bird, bug, yeah!, bath, bubbles, book, egg, pops (corn pops), kix (the cereal), hat, thanks, eyes, mouth, knees, nose, ears, book, toothbrush, brush, hi, buh-bye, poop, bloop (her baby brother), boo, umm..., Miles (her cousin), Abe (her cousin), Russ (her buddy), Jack (her buddy), Mag (my bff), Bek (my bff), Max (from the Max and Ruby book at Grandma's house), out, all done, milk, bike, ni-night, necklace, push, wipes, blocks, hot, bus, snacks, shoe, grass, bounce, pants, ouch, sit, seat, house, keys, sock, yuck

we heart williamses

We planned on climbing in St. George on Saturday (read on the adventure blog for more info on that), but ended up making it a temple trip and a hang out with the Williams' day. We sure miss our friends in Provo and it was great to hang out with Brian and Andrea.... and all of their fun friends who let us crash their party. We had a blast! See pictures from the tiny narrows below. Emery was scared and my belly was too big so we opted out.

nice self shot in the narrows

Andrea wasn't thrilled by the narrows - but she did it like a champ!!

visit to Grandma and Grandpa's

Last week we went to Las Vegas so Aaron could participate in a Deloitte externship. Em and I had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and especially Amy and cousin Miles who drove in as well. Emery has found her new best friend. She LOVES Miles. She can say his name and she's still taking about him now that we're home. I'm so glad Amy and I's accidental pregnancy timing worked out so well for these two cute little buddies.

in Grandpa's biking do-rag

Em too

Cutest naked, happy baby ever. Em loves playing in the water in Grandma's backyard.

Adam and Eve in the garden... with Grandma. Thanks to Miles' hand for shielding Emery.

they were having way too much fun to look up at the camera

playing with the duck whistle with Grandpa

And we went climbing in Red Rock. Click here for pics on the adventure blog.

what's in my tummy??

1st time it was a girl

(20 week belly shot with em)

this time it's a...

(again, no - it isn't twins! ha!)

BOY!!!

We were pretty convinced it was a girl, but boy were we wrong! We are thrilled!! Aaron said he's tired of arguing about girl names anyway and it's time for a new gender. Ha. We knew he was a boy as soon as we saw his profile (which was before we saw his little boy parts) - so different from his big sister!! He kind of has a little jutting out cave man jaw. So cute. Didn't get an ear shot like last time, so maybe his won't be big like his mom and sister. And start tossing boy names our direction. This is going to be a hard one.

boney, scronny little bum

cute little profile

so shy

sucking his thumb

isn't he so cute already? we love him!!!

the adventure blog!!!

We started an adventure blog to track all of our fun adventures in Cedar City. We feel so lucky to be so close to so many fun things that we decided we'd better take advantage of them while we are here. I'm hoping this will help me journal too, since that seems to be a struggle for me. Click on the pic on our side bar to visit it! We'll update it regularly. And email us if you want to come adventure with us! We'd love to have you.

"The Palace"

So we've had some confusion from our further away friends as to what we'll be doing in Cedar City. We moved to Cedar City for Aaron to attend SUU for 8 months and complete his MA in Accounting. He'll be done in the end of December, so it is a short stay, but we're loving it already.

One of the things we love about it most - our new apartment!! I fondly refer to it as "The Palace". It is amazing. Here are a few pictures and the things I love about it:

• my huge kitchen counter
• I have a pantry
• I have a dishwasher!
• no stairs
• close laundry (again with no stairs between)
• our little porch where we have some veggies growing
• the big hallway Emery can run down
• Em has her own "big girl room"
• we have our own room
  
• a bathroom we can all comfortably occupy at once
• "the nook" - a small area that isn't a bedroom, but easily stores the sewing machine and lots of boxes I don't plan on unpacking at all while we're here - and they're completely out of sight!!!!
• Wal-Mart, Smiths and Albertsons are all less than 5 minutes away, and so is school for Aaron

from the front door - looking left - "the command center"

from the front door - looking right

the huge counter top - oh yeah, and the rest of the kitchen :)

happy, naked Emery playing in the rocks right outside our front door

whitney lewis photography

my friend whitney is an amazing photographer. she took these pics of em week before last (except for the ones at the duck pond with her in the hat - she took those sometime before christmas). she's such a funny girl - she's such a focused adventurer it was impossible to get her to smile. little turkey. whitney took her on a walk while i packed - thanks again, whitney! luckily her scowl is pretty cute. check out her website - it's on my sidebar too. www.whitneylewisphotography.com