picture catch up

in order - least recent to most recent.

cute Emery reading to her brother in her crib after a nap. they laid in there together for 1/2 an hour. there is nothing better than watching my kids love each other.

emery with a 103+ fever. tired mom. hungry van. what will i do when i have 3 kids? 4? 5?

Aaron's biggest chalk bag batch to date. all while finishing his masters and helping take care of a wild squirrel and a new baby. he's my hero.

Great Grandpa Wimmer bouncing Emery and singing the song he sings to all the grandkids. it's still a magical song for me when i see him do it and i'm 25. :)

family Thanksgiving hike

we loved the beach with Bekah and Russ-Russ. and yes, we were terribly far from the sand. it was just awful. :)

fun in the tub. russ is the funniest, most fun loving kid ever. oh, russell, you'd like to marry emery? of course! we'll take you!

Van and the beach winds didn't really get along. nice bubbles, buddy.

Van's 1's plane ride - cool sunset, eh?

em was a little wild on the plane ride home from the beach - thanks for coming with us to tame the wild squirrel, Grandpa

"uhhh, mom, help. are you trying to let her kill me?"


Em's super cute friend Aiden in Cedar - taught her how to dip her graham crackers in milk. love him. obviously she does too. look at her smile at him.

Em's cute little BFF Skye in Cedar - these girls were nothing but the cutest friends on the planet. Skye is adorable. and her parents are equally as wonderful. we miss them like crazy.

emery's lovely smile for her requested "green eggs and ham" breakfast. she gobbled it up.

Van's favorite nap spot while we were in Orem for Christmas - on Auntie Amy

Emery wouldn't hold still for a picture with us at the Eve Eve bonfire, so here are the rest of us.

with Grandpa at the Eve Eve bonfire

one of the angels in the Christmas Eve nativity - complete with yelling "Away in a Manger" and "Joy to the World", stomping and dancing all over the stage and finally, flashing the audience. is it just me or is her halo a little crooked?

Christmas morning shot!

"hey, it's Christmas, and i'm fat. what's it to ya?"

favorite Christmas present - huge princess stickers that mom didn't ration. she used them all in 5 minutes. :)

1st playing in the snow - with her snowman! she now asks to build snowmen in Las Vegas.

exercises with auntie amy

best 2 year old birthday party ever - a life-size Dora balloon, her family wearing Dora party hats, a Dora cake (see here), ice cream, soda, pizza. perfect.

"mom, why is my head so big? this is hard."

did i mention my son had a pony tail?...

not anymore - meet "the square German head" (term coined by his Great Grandpa Wimmer upon seeing the buzz)

emery's "fishy party" (think tea party with fish instead) with the 7 dwarfs

so sad when they turned off the neighborhood hot tub.... so they improvised. yes, Aaron is wearing a swim suit.

how Aaron found us upon returning home from work one day - being "fancy" (like Fancy Nancy). yes, Van is wearing a skirt. and leggings. and a bow.

grateful

just a few, simple things i'm grateful for today:

• music - i sang in the ward choir this morning and played piano in the primary. i love music and how much i felt the spirit today even though i missed most of sacrament meeting with poopy diapers and nursing and all of the rest of the meetings because i was in primary.
  
• soy - it's saving my dairy free life.
• a clean kitchen - it's my new favorite thing to wake up to
  
• big, healthy kids - had our 2 month (+ 3 weeks) and 2 year appointments this week. Van: 15lb5oz (95 percentile) and 25 inches (90 percentile). Emery: 28.15 lbs (78 percentile) 36 1/4 inches (95 percentile). we aren't very big people, but we sure do have big cute healthy kids and i'm thankful.
• toyota corollas - just bought our 4th one we've owned between the two of us. 1996, 109,000 miles - it's a beauty.
• sleep - i love Van's new sleeping habits. he only woke up once during the night most of the week. glory, glory, hallelujah.
  
• Aaron - my husband makes me seriously cute babies. i love this little man face.

where we've been

It's been a busy, crazy, wonderful 6 weeks (to say the LEAST). Here's where we've been and what we've been doing. Sorry there are no pictures - my computer doesn't want to read my memory card. Dang.

• spent Thanksgiving in LV with my whole Wimmer family, including my cousin Wyatt's baptism and my 1st jogs since having Van, and my 1st road bike ride. I'm hooked.
  
• sent Aaron back to Cedar to study while the kiddies and I spent a week at the beach with Grandma, my bf Bekah and Russ-Russ. Em and Russ-Russ were too cute. They're totally going to get married (their mommies hope...) And yes, I ran on the beach in 60 degree weather. I vote no snow in winter.
  
• Got a call from Aaron Saturday saying we should move the following Saturday. WHAT??
  
• Got home Monday, packed my house in 4 days.
• Got emergency help from mom when Em ended up with 103+ degree fever for 3 days while I was supposed to be packing my house to relocate my life to LV. Thanks, mom. I don't know what I'd do without you, as usual.
• moved to LV that planned Saturday with no flaws in the plan. Fastest move yet, lots of help. We'll really miss Cedar City and all of the friends we made there.
  
• went to our new ward Sunday (the ward I grew up in until we moved when I was 12 - still feels like home).
• Monday, Aaron got his paperwork and drug test done for his new job at Southwest Gas (his 8 month interim job until Deloitte this fall).
• drove to Orem that same Monday to live with mom and dad Wilk for 3 weeks so Aaron would help his dad with a project at his shop and make a few much needed bucks.
• Van and mom got sick. Boo. Mostly sad because we didn't get to see as many of our friends as we would have liked.
  
• Van made it to 2 months!
  
• Dinner with the Williamses and the Lunds. Love them. Can't wait for baby Millie (okay, that's just my vote, not her official name). She will be as beautiful and wonderful as her mom.
  
• Christmas week! Gingerbread men, cousins, sugar highs, sleepovers under the Christmas tree with Grandma, kids' nativity (Em was a seriously rowdy, flashing angel and Van was baby Jesus, of course) lots of presents and even more memories with our whole Wilkinson family. All 7 sibs and their fams made it for the event. It was magical.
• Made it through all of the holiday festivities with no tummy ache. Turn's out Van's anger issues (or colic, if you prefer), were simply a dairy intolerance. Did you know almost all Christmas treats have butter or cream?
  
• Celebrated my 25th birthday. In-N-Out (no cheese for my Van-Van) and shopping topped my cake. It's gotta be a good burger if it even tastes good without cheese.
  
• Hit my goal of running 3 miles again before the New Year. Did I mention I still detest running? Too bad it's so good for me.
  
• got to have Alisa play with us while her mommy had her baby brother. We love new baby Joseph Hyrum and his family. So glad we got to be the ones.
  
• Celebrated Emery's 2nd birthday. Dora cake (made by mom, thank you very much), life-sized Dora balloon, Dora party hats and lots of Emery's favorite people to celebrate with - Amy, Chelsey, Grandma and Pa.
  
• Aaron pulled an almost all-nighter at the shop the night before we left Orem.
• Cried when we left Orem for the last time.
• Drove to our new LV home on New Year's Eve and hit the Strip for the event. Oops. No, wait. We fell asleep at 7:30.
• Started the year right by going road biking with my dad. (Aaron and dad went mountain biking.)
• I rediscovered a new city full of cheap food. Cedar almost killed me. Filled both of my produce drawers and part of my counter for less than $12 at Sunflower Market.
  
• Aaron's started work. A working man. Wow - I thought we'd never make it. I overheard Aaron telling Emery what daddy does [for a living] and he told her "daddy makes money". That oughta go over well on Career Day in Kindergarten. On the other hand, I'm so thankful to have a husband who is so giddy over his opportunity to provide for our family.
• New bank accounts, car insurance, health insurance, new license plates, new licenses (eventually). We're all NV now.
  
• Celebrated Aaron's 27th birthday. I'm not sure why he loves BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes so much, but I just take orders in the kitchen on his bday.
  
• My daddy retired! So proud of him and Emery is thrilled that she moved here just in time for Pa to be a full-time Grandpa.
  

We're still trying to recover from sugar highs and sleep deprivation around here, but we're happy and glad to be settled in our new home... and we love 65 degree weather in January!

We love visitors, so come see us any time!

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