Christmas 2014

This year we were able to spend Christmas at my house in Seattle which was a little bittersweet for me since my parents will be moving to Newman Lake the first week in January so it was my last Christmas in Seattle.  Luckily I was able to see a bunch of my friends one last time and got to enjoy the week that we were able to spend there.  This was Emerson's first big road trip and first Christmas so we were able to experience a lot of new things with him.  We decided to leave Rexburg at midnight on the 19th so that Emerson would just sleep the whole way there which we got lucky with.  We decided to stop of at Carrie and Trevor's in Coeur d'Alene so that we could feed and change Emerson.  He decided that he wanted to wake up about 1 hour before we got there so I hopped in the back and stuck a bottle in his mouth and fed him a little bit just to hold him over until we got to Carrie and Trevor's.  The ride was pretty good other than the fact that as soon as we got into Montana we hit fog and were stuck in fog the whole way so we had to go a bit slower which was not fun for me at all but luckily Jordan was driving so I could just close my eyes and not worry about not being able to see at all.

When we got to Carrie and Trevor's, we were able to feed and change Emerson as planned and Carrie even made breakfast for us which was nice because we really didn't want to have to stop for food along the way.  We hung out there for a couple hours but then Emerson started to get grumpy so we put him to sleep in his carseat and then headed out again for the last 4 hours of our journey to Seattle.  It was raining pretty much the whole way until we hit Cle Elum and it was snowing pretty dang good the whole way up until we got through the pass so we had to go pretty slow around there too.  We finally made it home at about 4:00 and boy was I relieved to be done driving.  Driving through the night really does make the drive seem so much longer.

The next morning we went to church which was fun because I got to see lots of old friends that I hadn't seen in a couple years.  Emerson was a big hit in relief society haha.  The next day Jordan and I went to Jamba Juice and met up with a couple clogging pals and hung out for a couple hours.  Right as we were about to leave the mall, Emerson decided that he wanted to leak through his diaper and peed right on the floor outside of Petco.  Jordan said it was ok, since it was right outside of Petco, we could just blame it on somebody's dog haha.  On Tuesday, I got a bunch of friends together again which was really fun.  I hadn't seen a lot of them in about 3 or 4 years so it was great being able to catch up with everyone.  It's crazy how much people's lives have changed in the last few years but it was still fun seeing everyone.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve so we just hung around the house for pretty much the whole day.  Trevor and Carrie got to Seattle that day and after Trevor went to sleep, Carrie, Jordan, and I decided to go out to lunch and get some teriyaki.  So good!  Haven't been there in a long time.  Later that night we decorated cookies.  Carrie and Jordan's were very artistic...apparently I'm really bad at making cookies because everyone kept making fun of mine haha.  Finally it was Christmas!  We were able to skype Logan and Sierra which was really fun.  They were able to finally meet Emerson for the first time...not that he had any clue what was really going on.  We first skyped Sierra at 9:00 and then opened presents and then skyped Logan at 11:00.  Emerson got pretty spoiled this year.  He got lots of clothes and toys from his aunts and grandparents.  He was even able to open a couple presents himself although it seemed that he was more interested in just taking the wrapping paper and sticking it in his mouth.  Later that night we went to the Plowman's for dinner which was fun because we were able to see lots of family.  That night Jencen and Heidi stopped by to meet Emerson because they were out of town when everyone else came over and I was really glad that I was able to see them one last time as well.  That day, Trevor had told us that the weather was supposed to be really bad that weekend and that we should think about possibly leaving earlier.  We were supposed to leave the 27th but decided to leave the 26th.  I was upset that we had to leave the day after Christmas but I'm glad we did because when we got back to Rexburg, we hit some pretty nasty weather.  It had snowed about 1 foot or more!

Even though we had to cut our trip one day short, it was still very fun seeing everyone and I'm glad that I was able to go back and see the house that I grew up in one last time before my parents pack up and leave.  It was a great trip and I'm glad that Emerson got to see so many friends and family :)

Hanging out in his Christmas jammy's on Christmas Eve

Nice little smirk on Christmas morning

Opening presents

My mom still had the Santa outfit that both Trevor and Logan wore on Christmas when they were baby's.  It was so much fun seeing Emerson in it as well although the little hat made him look more like an elf than Santa haha.

Our Christmas sweaters this year.  Emerson's onesie said "this is my tacky Christmas sweater" haha.

3 Months Old

Today is Emerson's 3 month mark and he is changing so much everyday!  He learns so many new things each and every day and it's so fun to watch him be able to figure things out.  As of today, Emerson is 13.5 pounds!  He's getting so big that it's even getting hard for me to hold him when he's in his carseat.  Of course that could be because I'm not the strongest person in the world but I'm just going to go with he's getting really big haha.  He is now also officially in 0-3 month clothes.  We were going back and forth between 0-3 month and newborn but he definitely doesn't fit in the newborns anymore and is in all 0-3 month now.  His jammies are already starting to get too small but all of the onesies and little outfits still fit which is good.  He still eats about 6 oz. at each feeding.  Sometimes he'll only eat 4 or even want 7 but for the most part, he stays at 6 oz.  He's still pretty determined to hold his bottle.  Whenever we feed him, he puts his hands right up to the bottle but tends to wind up pushing it out of his mouth instead of holding it in there.  He's got a little ways to go before he figures that out but I'll be excited when he does have it figured out.

Emerson now actually grabs things on purpose!  When we used to lay him on his play gym, he would just kind of look at the rings and toys above him and hit them but wouldn't ever purposely grab them but he now actually grabs them and holds onto them for a while.  He's got a pretty good grip.  He's also figured out that if he gets his legs in just the right spot, he can kick the arms of the toy and it makes the whole thing shake and go crazy.  He seems to enjoy that quite a bit.  He still doesn't really respond to playing with toys but you can tell that he's starting to seem a little more interested than he was before.

Emerson is super talkative and loves to just sit there and chat with Jordan and I (especially Jordan).  It seems that Emerson has now figured out when Jordan goes to work because when he comes home, he gets super excited and starts smiling and kicking his legs and wants his daddy.  I have found a few times recently that when Jordan leaves the room, Emerson will follow him with his eyes and then will start to get a little fussy when he can't see him anymore.  And I thought he was a mommy's boy!  Not so sure about that anymore haha.  Emerson has also figured out a little game too.  Basically he wants what he doesn't have.  If I'm holding him, he cries and reaches out for Jordan so I'll hand him to Jordan but after a couple minutes, he'll start crying and reaching for me and then will be happy again when he's with me...for a couple minutes that is until he starts all over again.  Definitely working the system there haha.

Emerson is still sleeping through the night and is on a pretty normal schedule now.  He'll usually get his bath around 6:00 or 7:00 and will eat a little and then take a quick nap until around 8:30ish and then is up for a little while longer, gets his diaper changed, eats a little, and then goes to bed at about 10:30.  If he's really stubborn, he'll go to bed at 11:00 or 11:30 but not usually any later than that.  He's a fantastic sleeper!  Still sleeps 8 hours at a time but sometimes we get lucky and he'll decide that he wants to sleep for 9 or 10 hours.  He even slept for 12 hours a couple nights ago!  That was pretty impressive.  He doesn't cry when he wakes up, he just kind of sits in his crib and kicks his legs and talks to himself.  It's much nicer waking up to him talking than to him crying haha.

He is also a BIG smiler!  He loves smiling and will smile at pretty much anyone who looks at him and talks to him.  Jordan took him to the grocery store a couple days ago and apparently was stealing the hearts of all the little old ladies that spotted him.  He would just crack out big smiles at them.  What a cutie.  Whenever he wakes up in the morning or wakes up from a nap, as soon as he spots Jordan or me, he will get the biggest smile on his face and start talking to us.  It's so much fun when he talks to us.  I swear I thought I heard him say momma a couple days ago but obviously he doesn't know how to talk just yet.  He's definitely figuring out how to move his mouth though.  He likes to make the "m" sound and the "o" sound.  He has also figured out what his tongue is and chews on it a lot.  I never understood why he was doing that until I talked to my mom and she said he's probably just figured out that it's there and just plays around with it.  I thought maybe he was starting to teeth but no teeth yet.

Emerson is officially able to hold his head up as well when we give him tummy time.  At his 2 month checkup, they asked us how he was doing with that and I was disappointed to say he hadn't figured it out yet.  Well, the very next day, I laid him on his tummy and sure enough, he lifted his head right up and had no problem doing it.  Shortly after that, he was able to roll over from his tummy to his back.  Still hasn't figured out how to roll from his back to his tummy but he gets pretty close.  He gets about halfway there and then can't figure out how to get the rest of his body over but he tries.

I figured out yesterday that he loves to walk.  I picked him up and just started walking him a little bit and he had the biggest smile on his face!  He absolutely loved it!  He also loves to sit up!  We pull him up and as soon as he's sitting he gets super happy.  He can balance for a couple seconds but not any longer than that.  He's very determined to be able to get up there though and it seems like he'll be able to sit up before he rolls over with how determined he is.  It'll be exciting to see what this next month has in store!

All in all, this last month has been a fun one full of little surprises from Emerson.  We love watching him learn and figure things out.  He is a blast to play with and so much fun to be around!

Holding that head up like a champ!

Loves his baby gym

Love that smile!

He was getting all cozy before bedtime that night

That bug-eyed look gets me every time

He was refusing to smile that morning

He loves just chilling in his diaper

Those cheeks...

He loves sitting up

Waiting for dad after church

Sometimes he just stares haha

Family Pictures

Just thought I'd post some of the family pictures that we got taken of us a couple months ago thanks to Sora Lee!  They turned out great and both Jordan and I are excited to finally have some really nice looking family photos :)

Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving this year was pretty low key.  Jordan had to work on Thursday so we had our Thanksgiving early on Wednesday.  Courtney came over and had dinner with us so it was just Jordan, me, Emerson, and Courtney.  Even though it was small, we still had a good time.  This was mine and Jordan's first attempt at making a full Thanksgiving dinner and I think we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  We tried out a recipe for turkey that I found in one of my cookbooks and it actually turned out really good!  I was pleasantly surprised considering I am not the biggest fan of turkey.  Pretty short post I know but just thought I'd write a quick post just so that I can remember for myself in the future when I go back and re-read all of these posts.

Carving the turkey

Yep...that's my husband

2 Months Old

Emerson had his 2 month checkup today and is doing great!  He's definitely gone through a growth spurt the last month or so.  He's eating a lot more and is starting to definitely fatten up.  He's got a little double chin going.  During the last week or two, a lot has changed with him.  He used to eat only 4 oz. but has quickly now moved up to eating 6 oz.  We no longer use the small bottles, we have to now use the big ones.  During this last week, he has started officially sleeping through the night.  Sleeps 8 hours on the dot which is really nice for us.  He'll usually fall asleep around 12 or 12:30 and will sleep until around 8:00 or 9:00 which is perfect for me and Jordan because we are able to get a full nights rest now.

He is now starting to recognize noises and will turn his head to wherever the noise is coming from.  He definitely recognizes mine and Jordan's voices now too.  When one of us starts talking, he'll look around until he can find us and once he spots us, he'll crack out a big smile!  He's also starting to respond to some of his toys that make noises now.  He doesn't play with them just yet but he'll try to find where the noise is coming from and will hold onto things that you put in his hand.  He tries to hold onto his bottle.  Can't wait for the day when he can hold onto it himself.  Emerson seems to also be very interested in books.  A couple weeks ago, I got out a book and held it up to his face and he would focus very hard on it.  Every time I would turn the page, he would get even more focused which is great!  He's a very smart kid.

He still loves the bath and smiles every time he's in there.  He's now starting to talk to us with little coos.  He tends to be the happiest when he wakes up in the morning.  We'll take him out of his crib and lay him on the floor and he'll sit there and kick his legs like crazy and move his arms around and just smile and make tons of little noises.  It's so fun being able to talk to him and make faces at him and actually have him respond to them.

When we took him to the doctor today, he got three shots and one oral vaccine.  He did really well with the oral vaccine but wasn't too fond of the shots.  He cried pretty good for a couple minutes but was able to calm down after a little while and then was just fine after that.  He also got all his measurements taken.  He now weighs 10 lbs 8 oz. which is about a 4 pound weight gain from when he was born.  He's still pretty small, only in the 15th percentile but he's growing really well.  He is now 21.5 inches long which is about 3.5 inches longer than he was when he was born.  Still has a fairly good sized head, in the 58th percentile which is perfect for him.

All in all, Emerson is doing great and is growing so much.  He's developing at a good rate and it's so much fun to watch him learn and start to understand the things that are going on around him.

First Halloween :)

Mummy's Little Monster :)

He's really determined to hold that bottle

He LOVES laying on the floor and being able to move around freely

Starting to chunk up

One Month Old

I know I'm a few weeks late in posting about Emerson's first month but better late than never.  His first month went by so fast and I can't believe we're already going to be coming up on his second month in just a short couple weeks.  He has grown and changed so much from when we first brought him home from the hospital.  As of a couple weeks ago, he weighs 8 pounds and is still about 20 inches long.  Going from 6 pounds to 8 pounds may not seem like much but you can definitely tell that he is heavier.  He doesn't have those tiny chicken legs anymore; he's starting to get some rolls on him which is good.  He loves to take baths now.  Whenever I put him in there, he smiles and has a great time with it.  The only time he cries is when we take him out of the bath.  He's not a huge fan of me washing his hair and face but he deals with it and doesn't cry, just squirms a bit.  Every time he takes a bath, he pees haha.  He's gotten me a few times but I've gotten pretty good at predicting when he will just let it flow so I'm able to move my arm and get out of the way.  He hasn't pooped in the bath yet.  I've timed that just right but I know it's probably only a matter of time before he decides to just go ahead and release.

He's a loud eater.  He doesn't suck loud but he coos and purrs while he eats so he makes a lot of noise.  He's a pretty clean eater which is nice for me.  Every once and a while he'll have a little formula goatee but for the most part, he stays pretty clean while eating.  He's now up to eating 4 oz. at each feeding and sometimes maybe even 5.  When we first brought him home, we were lucky to get 2 oz. in him but he has definitely turned into a little porker.  He eats every 2 or 3 hours during the day so we go through a lot of formula.  He goes through a big can in a week!  As he grows, he's going to go through those cans a lot faster.  Hopefully later rather than sooner because formula is expensive!

He is fitting into his newborn clothes perfectly.  They used to be pretty big on him but now they fit just right.  He's starting to fit into some 0-3 month clothes.  They're a little big on him still but they work.  I'm excited for him to be able to wear new clothes but I'm also sad that he's already starting to grow out of his newborn clothes.  He's still in newborn diapers but we can already tell that those are starting to get a little small too so he'll be in 1 month diapers pretty quick here.

As of the beginning of October, he slept through the night for the first time.  He slept 7 hours!  He doesn't sleep through the night every night but he now usually sleeps for about 5 hours at a time so we really only get up with him once or twice a night.  He slept through the night last night so I'm hoping that it becomes a habit.  He definitely has his nights and days figured out and knows that during the night, he needs to sleep longer.  For the most part, he tends to stay up most of the day, taking naps here and there.  As soon as it gets dark, he knows it's nighttime so he starts to sleep much longer.  I'm so glad he has his nights and days figured out because if he didn't, that'd be a nightmare.  Side note, he snores and makes little cute noises in his sleep haha.

He is a smart little kid.  He has figured out how to get mine and Jordan's attention.  When he wants out of his crib or just wants Jordan and I to pay attention to him, he will grunt a lot because he knows that if he does it enough, we will probably go in and see what's wrong.  I've learned to just let him grunt because he tends to do it when we're trying to get him to go to sleep.  It's hard to leave him in his crib alone when he's awake and not wanting to be in there but I've gotten used to just letting him make some noise until he finally decides to fall asleep.  When I check on him, I have to be very sneaky because if he sees me, he starts his grunting and I just have to let him make noise all over again.

He's getting pretty good at lifting his head and trying to lift his body.  I really don't have to give him much tummy time because he gets his tummy time practice in when I'm just holding him over my shoulder.  He loves to be up looking around.  He doesn't mind laying on the ground but he definitely prefers to be sitting up so if he gets fussy, I just pick him up and put him over my shoulder and he's totally fine and just looks at all his surroundings.

He's started grabbing this too.  He tends to grab a whole chunk of my hair and pull it out.  It hurts haha.  I try to keep it behind me so he can't get to it but he always somehow manages to find it.  He does try to grab his bottle when we're feeding him.  He will sometimes grab our hands if he sees the bottle and pull it into his mouth.  I'm looking forward to the day when he can hold the bottle himself because he takes a long time to eat and sitting there with the bottle in my hand gets kind of tiring sometimes haha.

His first official outing outside of Rexburg was to Rigby when we went to the pumpkin patch.  It was kind of cold but he didn't cry at all and seemed to enjoy being out.  Can't wait to take him on more outings like that.

I would say that this pretty much wraps up his first month.  He's doing great and growing a lot.  Can't wait to see what his next months have in store for us!

Bath time :)

Gettin chubby cheeks

Sleepy boys after church

Emerson's Baby Blessing

Emerson was blessed on October 19, 2014 by Jordan and it was great!  We had a lot of friends and family come out to support us and were very happy to share in this experience with them.  It was fun having our families here this weekend and being able to just take some time to ourselves and hang out with family.  There were 3 blessings in church on Sunday so sacrament meeting was a little crazy but it was great seeing everyone and their new babies.  We were very happy to see how many people showed up to show us their support.  Thank you to all who attended :)

Emerson looked so cute in his blessing outfit

Sibling photo :)

It was great to have so many friends share in this day with us!

Pumpkin Patch

Today Jordan and I took Emerson to the pumpkin patch with a couple of our friends.  We had a lot of fun!  Even though Emerson wasn't quite sure what was going on, we still had lots of fun taking him and I think that he enjoyed himself just a bit.  We bought Emerson his own little baby pumpkin and are excited to carve something fun for him.  I'm excited to be able to take him to the pumpkin patch again next year when he understands just a bit more why we're there and what we're doing!

Just sittin on a pumpkin with dad

He was obviously thrilled to be there

Even though it was cold, we had a blast

First official family photo :)

About Jordan and I

Just a quick little background on Jordan and I.  I'm pretty sure anyone who is reading this blog already knows pretty much all of this but just in case you don't, here's a quick overview.

Jordan:
-Going into his 4th semester at BYU-Idaho and is studying geology
-Loves cars....Subarus (especially his really old one)
-Hot wheels enthusiast (you're welcome Jordan)
-Works at Walmart back in the sporting goods department (but he can tell you where pretty much everything is in the store)
-Loves yelling at the dumb kids (in his dad voice) at Walmart when they decide to run around and push each other in shopping carts.
-Oldest of 9 kids
-Born in Provo but family now lives in Monticello

Lindsey:
-Graduated in April with a major in Sociology and minor in Marriage and Family Studies
-Loves being a stay at home mom
-3rd of 6 kids
-Born in Escondido, California but raised in Bellevue, Washington
-Netflix...enough said haha

Jordan and I got married on April 18, 2013 in the Seattle temple.  It's crazy to think that we have now been married about a year and a half and already have a one month old baby.  Life is just great!  Jordan and I actually met on an online dating website (LDS Planet just in case anyone was wondering).  I always thought dating websites were stupid and was only on there because one of my friends decided to make a profile for me one day.  Jordan kept popping up as someone that I might like to get to know but I always ignored it until his profile started popping up a lot.  I decided to send him a message and after talking online for a while we decided to exchange phone numbers.  We talked for about a month or so and then met up in person when I came back up to Rexburg after Christmas break.  We started dating about a week later and dated for about 10 months (6 of which were long distance) and then got engaged at Yellowstone on September 29, 2012.  After we got married, we came right back to Rexburg for school and have been here ever since.

Looking forward to the day when Jordan will be wearing that cap and gown

Couldn't resist putting up our baby announcement 

Best wedding picture ever!

Engagement day!!!  We had a lot of viewers haha.