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