we have PLANS!!!

As many of you know, our plans for the future have been kind of up in the air for a while. Well, guess what??? We have PLANS!! Yahoo!


We are happy to announce that we will be moving to Las Vegas in December and that Aaron will be working for Deloitte! We're thrilled and I'm so proud of Aaron for his hard work in getting this job. He totally deserves it and will do great. We feel very blessed to be able to move near family, too, even in a state with 13.6% unemployment. He doesn't start until September (2010) so we'll be doing something else between now and then. On to the next mystery (and adventure)!

While we were in LV for interviews last week, Van got to meet some of his cousins and aunts and uncles. So fun!

Van with Auntie Mel

The kids with Abe and Jacob. Van loved sitting with Abe (who is 5).

On a side note - here's Emery singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABCs. I really can't believe how big she's getting. :( She's such a sweet girl.




And last, but not least, here's Van getting smushed by dad. Smushy kisses are a must for being part of the Wilkinson family. :)


Van is also a month old and we blessed him yesterday! More to come!

chubba bubba and zion national park

van had his 2 week check up last week. he is a big boy.


here are the stats:

9lb 3 oz - 75th percentile (one pound up from birthweight - if he sticks to that growth rate he'll be 10 lbs at 3 weeks old - yikes)
22 inches - 80th percentile


some comparison: emery was 6 lbs 10 oz at 2 weeks. she weighed a little over 10 pounds at 2 months. this is a big baby compared to what we're used to around here.

what i'm learning as his mom: how to calm a fussy baby, how to teach a baby the difference between night and day, how to get a baby to sleep, how to nurse a piggy and how to change a diaper without getting peed on (no, being emery's mom taught be none of the above)

he is definitely adorable and we love having him around!

practicing some finger strength training exercises with dad

he was a very good boy for our 1st family adventure. aaron decided last minute to take the day off and take his family to zion national park. it is only an hour from our house and we were obviously going to be way bummed if we didn't make it there before we leave cedar city next month. emery was a good girl too and loved hiking and our picnic. she wasn't sure about the tunnel though...next time you go to zion, PLEASE do it in the fall - GORGEOUS!!!

and to not neglect my cute daughter - she is such a good girl and i'm so lucky to be her mom. have you ever seen a cuter, happier girl? she makes me so happy.

baby announcement

i love having talented friends! thanks, jeanie, for designing this beautiful announcement (click to make it bigger). i wish we were rich and you could all get a copy in your mail. :) for more of jeanie's fabulous designs visit her at thepapernut.com and jeanieandjewell.blogspot.com.

more Van

Thanks for all of your comments! We really appreciate everyone's love and support this week - in Cedar City and via our blog. :)

We got home Wednesday and are loving life as a family of 4. Van is a good eater and is a great sleeper during the day and is learning to be a good one at night. He'll figure it out. I'm feeling great - his exit from his warm, watery wonderland (my tummy) was much less traumatic than Emery's was, so it's hard for me to believe I even had a baby. (I'll save the masses the labor and delivery details - call me if you're dying to hear!) He's a sweet, beautiful baby and we're soooo excited he's finally here. Emery loves him too and is being a good helper! Here are some more pictures since we shorted you the first time.

just minutes old, holding mommy's finger

big, mad boy before his bath

first family picture (emery missing of course)

all clean and studly

emery meeting him through the nursery window (they have lots of restrictions at the hospital because of swine flu concerns, so she didn't really meet him until we got home)

squished, ready to go home face

loves for mommy

emery meeting her little bro

she likes to lay next to him on the couch and give him extra blankets

1st picture smile (click picture to see his cute smile better) with Grandpa Wilkinson. either he really likes Grandpa Wilkinson or he was pooping his pants! :)

save the best for last - we love that little man face

Proclamation to the World

Joy to the world, Van Aaron Wilkinson is born!

Here are the details about Van:
Born 11:02 am
Weight: 8lbs 3oz
Height: 21.5in
Hair: Light brown hair (lots)
Problems: Too cute!!!!!

Here are the details about Britt:
Status: Hot
How she did in labor: She was a champ! Pushed the baby out within 3 contractions
How she is now: Ready to run a marathon.

Here are the details about Emery:
Status: Full of sugar from hanging out with Gram and Pa
Reaction to baby: More concerned about Pa being behind the glass in the nursery than the baby or Mom

Here are the details about Aaron:
Status: One happy Dad!!!

We are in the hospital

It's 3:30 in the morning and I (Aaron) am posting for the first time since Emery was born. Why? Because we are in the hospital waiting for baby Wilk #2 to come out. Of course, it takes Britt being incapacitated for me to post something. More updates to come....

4 years

4 years ago today, this is what we were doing:

no, not looking like little kids dressing up in wedding attire - getting married, silly! we look so young, huh? (and our hair is lots cooler!)

4 years, 1.99999999 kids later we're at least 4 times happier than we were that day.


i'm thankful for my "small town orem man" - my simple, family-loving, God-fearing, hard-working, fun-loving husband. thanks for being my best friend. let's make it at least for more. forever more, that is.

it wouldn't let me embed the video, but here's the link! (alan jackson's "small town southern man")
http://www.cmt.com/videos/alan-jackson/197568/small-town-southern-man.jhtml?id=505846

overdue

while trying to pull some files, specifically some old pictures, off of my old computer and onto a flash drive yesterday, the computer gave me this message.

aaron and i almost peed our pants laughing. hilarious. i didn't think my belly was that big, but if even the computer is noticing we're running out of space i may have been wrong. i'm still feeling good and pretty comfortable (most of the time) so i guess baby boy is okay to stay for a while longer. here's the finish line shot!

a fabulous shopping week

1st - no baby. :(

2nd - look how many pairs of shoes i bought emery today.

yes, that's 7 pairs. and what would possess me to do such a thing? all 7 pairs (sizes 6-8 - her current and next 2 sizes) were $1 each. $1!!!! have i mentioned i live less than 1 block from DI?? have i mentioned they have BRAND NEW stuff sometimes (from Wal-Mart usually)? love it.

another reason i love Cedar City - the lack of couponing frenzy. i've had a struggle with the food prices coming from the land of cheap food (Provo) and not getting newspaper coupons anymore, but yesterday morning made up for it. i got 18 boxes of pasta (mostly whole wheat even) for $0.20 each and 18 boxes of quaker granola bars for $0.50 each. best part - i was the only one in the store at 8:30am. everything i wanted was there. there were no lines. no one else even seemed to want my cheap pasta and granola bars. thank goodness for internet coupons and ignorance. :) not that i don't want to share the beautiful deals... but it was pretty nice to seem to be the only one in the know.

Happy October!!!

It's October! Reasons we're excited for October around our house:

• baby Bloop will be born this month! - if i go tonight or if I go 2 weeks over, he'll still be an October baby! and yes, he'll have a name other than Bloop, though I'm pretty sure Emery will always call him Bloop.
• our 4th Anniversary! - on the 14th! we're getting old!
• General Conference - always a reason to be excited. i love hearing from our Prophet and the other Church leaders. Emery knows the Prophet by his picture now so she'll be excited too (and she gave Elder Cook a high five at a recent regional meeting we had here so maybe she'll recognize him too - probably not. :) )
• Halloween - never my favorite holiday, but holidays are so much more fun with kids! we're hoping to carve/draw on a pumpkin and eat some festive orange treats. and emery learned what a pumpkin is and thinks they are pretty cool. now she seems to find them everywhere! (not an "orange" like she first told me as we walked into smiths a few days ago) here's emery in one of her very cute and festive shirts from auntie mel. thanks again auntie mel, power shopper!
• we'll get to see lots of family this month since baby is coming. i love any excuse to see family.
• cooler weather - currently at 11:11am, we are at a lovely 45 degrees this morning! yikes!
  
• changing colors! beautiful.
  
• fall clothes! i love wearing long sleeves, leggings, jackets, hats, etc.
• hot chocolate - i drank my first cup of the season last night. loved it.

In other Wilkinson family news:

• Emery found a katydid on our basil. we named it "Katy" and she was our pet for a few days until she started pooping in her jar. we let her go in the canyon. emery loved having her around and now when she and i go on our morning walks she always talks about katy when we pull up to the canyon. here's a picture of em and her 1st pet and her saying goodbye!
• we got to go to the Burr's cabin last week for a night to spend some time with my friend Cynthia and her husband and their cute kids. it was so much fun to see her, to catch up and to get away for a day (probably our last little getaway before baby's here and we're hanging at home for a while). thanks, Burrs, for inviting us!!!
• Emery loves bike rides with dad. It's her favorite thing in the whole world. So, we got her a helmet so she'd be extra safe. She loves her hungry caterpillar helmet.

about 1 year ago aaron and i decided to get rid of our tv. weird, we know. but we started reading out loud to each other in place of randomly flipping through the channels (usually stopping at discovery channel's survivorman, which they have since discontinued so good riddens to the tv!) we have had the opportunity to read some great books, and just finished another fun one - Endurance by Alfred Lansing, the true story of a crazy, shipwrecked Antarctic expedition from 1914-1916. do yourself a favor and put this on your to-read list. we loved it. and what should we read next? any suggestions?

okay, so i got really excited last night. i'm due 3 weeks from tomorrow! yahoo!! this cute little boy is really coming!! and clearly my tummy growth has slowed, because i'm not any bigger this time than last time at this point. weird!

this time 36 weeks + 5 days

last time 36 weeks

and emery is in such a cute phase right now. she is such a good girl and i'm so lucky to be her mom. here are a few videos of her doing two of her favorite things - counting and singing, just because she's funny.


em counting (1, 3, 4, 6, 1, 8, 1, ....)



singing "I am a child of God" - her favorite song. When we ask her what song she wants to sing before prayers in the morning she always says "God". Pretty cute.



cute girl and her daddy buddy

slot canyon and a cat encounter

About 15 minutes from our house is the tiny town of Kanarraville, UT. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. Up one of the local canyons is a beautiful slot canyon we've been meaning to hike. We hiked for about 3 1/2 hours and Emery loved going in and out of the water, ducking behind the trees and even liked climbing up and down the waterfalls... after she was done being scared. Needless to say, my hips were not happy with that much hiking and I was sorry we didn't do it sooner, but glad we didn't wait another week (since I was fine the next morning anyway!). I think Bloop may have put up more of a fuss had we waited any longer.

i know you like that my belly is in this picture. ha.

and the cat encounter.... emery got bit by a cat. twice (or maybe 3 times). what seemed like a docile neighborhood stray suddenly bit her after she and her cute little friend had been playing with it for 1/2 an hour. random. she's on antibiotics and animal control is going to pick up the cat today to quarrantine it for 10 days and make sure emery won't need rabies shots. ahh!! i really don't think she will. i think the cat had just had enough of 2 almost 2 year olds. moral of the story: i would say don't let your kid play with stray cats, but em's pediatrician said that his housecat will bite his kids if he's had enough of their playing with him. we'll go with: don't have a cat at all. i don't like cats anyway, but now i feel justified! these pics don't really show it well, but you can kind of see the little holes in her arm from the teeth. poor girl. i think she's kind of proud of her bites though. she keeps talking about it. :)

Bloop

So far, we refer to our baby boy only as "Bloop" (or "Booply" if you're Emery) (fyi - "bloop" is the sound a baby makes in utero when they try and speak while swimming in amniotic fluid - at least according to Aaron). Clearly this is not an acceptable name. Please help us by voting on the right. If you have other good suggestions, post them in the comments.

In other pregnancy news, we're almost there! 37 days! Happy day!

In other Wilkinson family news - Emery has mad style. And she went on the potty once this week. Cross your fingers for me.