Christmas week in review

We got to spend 9 days with my family over Christmas this year! It was so much fun! Here's a quick list of what we did and pics below:

• surprised my parents by coming 2 days early
• hiked Sloan Canyon and to the top of a peak we named "Sheep Poop Peak" - I'm sure you can imagine why
• went to my parent's Ward Christmas program and saw some friends I hadn't seen in forever
• ate yummy Cuban food ala Jer (my bro) with the whole fam including Gma and Gpa Wimmer
• found out my brother Matt, Amy and Miles (2 weeks younger than Em) are moving west, just 2 hours from Vegas. YAHOO!!!
• did our sibling gift exchange and cousin gift exchange (Matt and Amy got us new BPA free Nalgenes out of concern for our health and Ems got a cute shirt and pink sparkly shoes from Abe)
• Aaron climbed at the Craft boulders
• went to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve with Matt, Amy and Miles
• ate at Macayo - the family tradition
• my dad - an awesome cook - treated us to his bacon fried rice, two different stir fries and homemade granola. so good.
• made funeral potatoes, spinach salad, creamed corn and 4 pies for Christmas Eve dinner
• got a new camera for Christmas - it's water proof and even has a "food" setting. rad. thanks mom and dad!
• em got blocks and cool ABC fridge magnets - thanks gma and gpa!
• helped Mel make "terds" for Christmas morning breakfast - my dad named them that. they are little round balls that sort of taste like pancakes but you can fill them with stuff.
• got my dad to play a game of settlers of catan with us (yes this is a miracle if you know my dad). he even liked it!
• went birthday shopping at Target, Nordstrom's Rack and Trader Joe's (whole wheat pasta, quick Indian food and lots of other yummy things I'm too cheap to buy myself)
• saw the nutcracker ballet
• Aaron surprised me by throwing me a surprise bday party. it was so fun to see my friends.
  celebrated Em's birthday with mine so the fam could see her dig in to her own cupcake. adorable - but it meant a sugar high 3 1/2 hours past her bedtime
• saw 3 movies. we took Em to 1 of them. bad idea. (my favorite was The Tale of Despereaux - so cute and taught kids such good morals!)
• bought a baby backpack last minute on craigslist for $35. the lady had never used it. sweet deal.
• took Em on a hike to goldstrike hotsprings in the above mentioned pack. she took and nap and almost froze solid all in a few hours time.
• ate at In-n-Out Burger
• stopped in Cedar City to go to Church on the way home and met a nice guy who is helping give Aaron the low down on grad school at SUU (since we may end up there)

dad and i at the top of sheep poop peak

the whole crew at the top (except Aaron who is taking the pic)

the two prettiest red heads i know with me at my bday party

linds, lewis and i at my bday party

clay and i at my party - i've know him since 6th grade band (where we played percussion)

the whole party crew (without family)

hiking to goldstrike hotsprings

em loved her pack...

enough to take a nap even

pretty present

picking her nose

cute cousins, em and miles

just relaxing

4 generations - way cool

bry and amber - so cute!

December 29th - a day to celebrate life

Yesterday was Emery's 1st birthday - I won't be posting pictures because we haven't had a celebration yet (except for a mini one in Vegas, but I think I'll post them all together), but I will post them when we have them! I can't believe she is one whole year old. It really is crazy to think she's been here for that long. She is my big girl now and that makes me happy and sad at the same time.

We also celebrated another life yesterday - Aaron's "Grammy". She died on the 23rd and we celebrated her life through funeral services yesterday. We're thankful for the Gospel perspective that makes such a day one of rejoicing and memory rather than one of sorrow. She taught us so much and we will always remember Grammy for the strong,determined, mannered, sweet woman that she was.

And on a funeral note, Aaron and I were driving to the graveside portion of the day and I told him I don't want a viewing at my funeral. And he told me, "Too bad - If you die before me we are definitely having a viewing. And I want one at my funeral too. I want to be viewed." You want to be viewed, Aaron? Haha. (And since it was Emery's birthday and we kept making birthday suit jokes all day, he also said he'd like to go out the same way he came in - in his birthday suit. Just FYI that you may want to pass on Aaron's viewing if you're still around when he's gone.)

smart emery

so up until recently i, probably not so kindly, refered to my sweet girl as "slow". she crawled slow, i couldn't get her to clap for forever, etc. so i would joke that she is slow. she has proved me wrong in the last few weeks and has mastered so many things she was only sort of understanding and has learned quite a few new things as well. i can't believe she's 1 in a few weeks. i love being her mom more than anything and i feel like we're having so much fun lately just playing and loving each other. we were having so much fun tonight that i got her all wound up and she went to bed 2 hours late. whoops! at least she got to go to brian todd's birthday, though!

the smarty pants' new tricks:

• mastered clapping
• mastered waving bye bye (most of the time)
• has mimicked the sign for "more"
• she "talks" - like we should know what she is saying, mimicking the intonation in our voices
• she "reads" books to herself outloud
• says mama and dada
• can walk holding on to just one of our hands
• tells us when she's ready for a nap or bed by finding and cuddling her blankey on the floor (she's been doing this for a while). the last few days she's actually crawled to her crib a couple of times when she was ready for bed, too.
• loves to unroll the toilet paper in the bathroom.
• figured out she can climb up on things to get to something out of reach.
• stack toys by size
• tries to put on any clothes that are on the floor - it's hilarious
• loves to have anyone chase her - especially mommy around the bed when i'm trying to change her diaper. she laughs HYSTERICALLY!!! it's so cute.
• only wants to read Fancy Nancy at bed time and gets mad if we read anything else
• points to various pictures of Jesus in the Ensign when you ask "where's Jesus?"
• does "how big is emery?" (see video)

so cute in dad's beanie

so big!

what mom?

how big is emery?

where's jesus?

Thanksgiving weekend

It was our year to be with Aaron's family for Thanksgiving and it was a blast! All 6 of Aaron's siblings and their families were in town and we ate and talked and played and just enjoyed spending time together. It was wonderful! I'm so thankful to have a family-in-law that I love so much! One of the highlights of the weekend for me was watching Emery play with her cousins. She LOVES other kids and just played all day with her older cousins and loved it!

the whole crew

aaron and his sibs

the domestic divas in front of the feast we created! (lindsey, mom and i)

all of the pies were delicious. see that beautiful one on the far left. yep, i made that. we'll call it beginner's luck!

emery wanted to hold railay. he wasn't sure what to think about it, but she loved it!

em playing in the sand thingy at the dinosaur museum at thanksgiving point

us at thanksgiving point

one of the cute family pics we took (thanks mom for taking them and amy for making em smile so cute!). if i show them all now what would you look forward to in our family news year's letter?

the cutest girl ever in the leaves

T-H-A-N-K-F-U-L

Turkey injected with brine, my dad’s stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, peach melba pie and my Aunt Ellen’s pumpkin pie bars

Huggable, kissable, squishable little “Squirrel”, my best little buddy
Aaron, a man so dedicated and faithful to his family and humble in so many ways

Nature and the joy it brings me, even if I don’t enjoy it as much as I’d like
Kisses – the romantic kind and the sloppy, wet, open-mouthed attempt from my little Em
Family, both the one I was born into and the one I inherited when I married Aaron
Understanding through the Spirit – of the scriptures, of trials and of life in general
Lord’s goodness to us this year and always

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I tag anyone reading this! What are you thankful for?

em is officially a climber. watch! (it looks like i'm holding her up, but i'm not! she's just hanging!)

cute face and a tiny dancer. she's so funny when she dances!

sick em

my poor girly was acting a little cranky yesterday and i attributed it to this 2 naps to 1 nap transition she's trying to pull... until she went to bed early and then woke up an hour later unconsolable with a temperature of about 102!! poor baby! she was just so sad and sick... it was so sad. except for one part - SHE CUDDLED ME!!! she never cuddles. i feel really bad saying it was wonderful (because she was only cuddly because she was sick), but she's feeling a little bit better now so i guess it's okay! here's how it went...

poor sick squirrely girl

mommy - sad for her girl but loves being cuddled

video - after having some baby tylenol, a blessing from daddy and ben (thanks again ben!) and cuddling with mom for a little bit. you'd never even know she had a temperature over 100!

then she crashed again for the night and was pretty much up and down all night, wouldn't sleep unless she was on top of me and was a flaming ball of heat all night! she's sleeping a lot and not eating as much as usual today, but i think she's going to be fine!

and just for fun... captain hook's biggest fear - the dread pirate emery!

and this is the funny girl the other morning. she didn't want mommy or daddy to bug her yet. she wanted blankey, froggy and to sit in the corner of her crib. so independent. :) does anyone else love that face as much as i do? argh!!!!!

okay i'm done now! :)

10 month birthday, halloween and funny sleeper

happy 10 month birthday, em! you learned all sorts of new tricks from grandma and grandpa (that mommy's been trying to get you to do for forever!) when they came last weekend. you give kisses, wave bye bye (only for grandma i think - we can't get her to do it again), play peakaboo with your blankey or your hands and dance!! its so cute! i'm also suspecting that you know that i'm "mamama" and daddy is "dadada". i can't believe you're growing up so fast.

here are some 10 month pictures (a week late) in nothing but leggings and big girl pig tails, some pictures of our little tinkerbell and some of emery's funniest sleeping moments.

emery attack (those are my legs...)

peakaboo tink

it's almost nap time...

bum in the air sleeping...

sleeping on her legs...

prima donna sleeper...

Congratulations, President Obama

I didn't vote for Barrack Obama, but I was less than surprised to see him win last night. I voted mostly happily (with some exceptions) for John McCain, but just a few thoughts on the election from a now-Obama supporter.

Despite the issues with which President-elect Obama and I disagree, I will support him as I have President Bush. I will have hope in his leadership, I will keep him in my prayers. I honestly hope he is everything that McCain supporters (me included) claimed he isn't for the last 2 years. I hope he continues to inspire people. Though many of his policies do not inspire me, the way he inspired so many Americans to get involved in our political process does.

I honestly got warm fuzzies last night listening to his acceptance speech. I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a citizen of a country that has come so far. Being a student and lover of the study of early American slavery, politics, etc. it is beautiful to watch the transformation that has brought this country to where it stands now - a place in which all Americans can live the American dream. Maybe even closer to a country in which we really judge each other not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

Congratulations, President Obama. Our democracy has spoken. You have my support.