We have a three-year-old

Emma's birthday was a week ago today. She is learning and understanding so much about the world around her at this age, yet often struggles to understand her own emotions and responses. It somewhat amazes me that she has the capacity to be almost cuter than I can bare but at other times is more frustrating than I can handle. I suppose that's probably just toddlers. Or children...

I love the times she and Henry just enjoy looking at each other. It's sweet when she asks me to go help him when he starts crying and it's sort of funny the times when she runs off to go help him herself and doesn't want me to come too. She often loves finding ways to help me with her brother and is an excellent big sister.

Her speech has improved so much in the past year, and particularly in the past 6 months. She often surprises me and Bry with things that she says, and has a great memory.

She still loves being out of the house and going for walks, and loves weekends when we're all together.

For Emma's birthday weekend she enjoyed a visit from her Ama and Pap, as did we. She is one lucky little girl.

She actually blew out her candles this time! Rather than blowing "fffff".

Cheeser.

She sure loves cupcakes.

In typical kid manner, she threw the clothes aside, looking at few.

Also in typical kid manner, she wanted to open the toys right away.

She likes to hug soft things.

Henry's First Christmas

Bry got his wish and it started snowing on Sunday so we had a nice layer of white outside to enjoy. It was a beautiful white Christmas.

She pulled out a Lindt truffle first which she wasted no time in opening and getting in her mouth. Thus the bulge.
Then she pulled out an apple.

She's so funny.

Both arms in.

Looking at the snow outside.

This Christmas was brought to us by Amazon (mostly). Ha.

The aftermath. Computer was set up to video California family.

Emma was so excited to go out in the snow and have daddy build a snowman.

She wanted a picture with it but only paused for one.

Henry's first Christmas!!

We're so grateful for family sending us a plethora of gifts and feel so greatly blessed. I know I can do more to share my blessings with others and hope to get better at reaching out and giving more. Emma and Henry bring me such joy and I hope to raise them to think of others and to serve others. Emma is constantly wanting to share things with us and I love the joy and kindness she exhibits. Henry freely gives of his adorable smiles and I want him to keep spreading happiness. We are grateful for Jesus Christ and the endless bounds of His love for us. As Emma likes to sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and want to become more like Him. 

Four-month-old baby

Henry continues to grow, if somewhat slowly. He's tall (43rd percentile) and lean (<1st percentile) with a small-ish head (19th percentile); mainly, though, he is a happy and healthy baby. We will be able to start feeding him baby cereal/mush and pureed foods which we hope will help him fill out.

He finds his fingers to be very tasty and has them in his mouth most of the time he isn't eating. He frequently smiles at us although he seems to find less familiar people to be funnier than us since he'll laugh for other people who hold him but rarely laugh for us. His toes seem to fascinate to him and he grabs at them. Emma shows him her toys sometimes and he becomes very interested in them. Speaking of Emma, she has warmed up to him more in the past month or so. She continues to help with him as much as she can - grabbing a burp cloth, diaper, clothes, whatever for him. Very rarely does she say she's "busy" and doesn't help.

We're glad to have both our little ones who are filled with so much love and sweetness, and look forward to having Christmas as a family of four.

Here are a couple pictures from our ward Christmas party.

Emma is not a big fan of Santa so I talked with her ahead of time about taking a picture with him.
She told me she would "stand next to daddy" so here she is. She did it.

Our silly girl - she was okay without daddy the second time but still just standing by Santa.
Henry didn't cry for his first Santa photo! He is a friendly little guy.

Emma and Henry

Emma cracks me up. Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back.

This is Emma scooting away when I put Henry close to her.

She ended up with no where left to scoot so she decided to do this instead.


I moved Henry so their heads were closer together and they just cracked me up with their expressions.

Henry likes to watch his sister.

Two month baby boy

This post is a few weeks late. I was waiting to post until his 2-month appointment which was scheduled a few days after he hit 2 months. However, at the appointment I was thrown for a loop when I found out he had gained NO weight the past month and was <1st percentile for weight. Henry's doing well in every other area so the doctor wasn't concerned but I have had to add bottles to his schedule to make sure he's getting more calories each day. He was re-weighed two weeks after his appointment which was Monday and he'd gained 12 oz! So he's back on track but still has a lot of catching up to do.

He is a smiley, happy baby and we love having him in our family. Emma is warming up to him more and is as helpful as ever - she gets diapers, wipes and a changing mat for when I need to change him, she takes bottles when he finishes them and puts them on the kitchen counter for me, she grabs burp cloths if I need them, gets his binky for him sometimes when he's upset, turns on the music on his bouncer when he's in it, and sings songs to him when he's crying (my favorite).

He's long (70th percentile for height) and lean but doing great - just needs to pack on the pounds.

We are a family of four!

My mom took some pictures of us before she left this past Saturday so we have some of the four of us. Henry decided to come just before 3am on his due date - August 18th - and is 10 days old already. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14.9 oz and measured 20 inches long - nearly the same size as Emma when she was born but she had been a little over 8 lbs and measured slightly under 20 inches. Henry is a great little baby, and Bry and I are much improved in the baby-caring area from where we were a couple years ago.

Emma is almost smiling. It was bedtime for her, so... 

This photo turned out unintentionally humorous.
Look out for the storm trooper [sock], Henry!

This I took before our family photo attempts.

We're happy and adjusting and enjoying time with visitors who have come to help - my sister was here the week Henry came, then my mom came and now we have Bry's stepmother. We're so grateful for the help and support we're receiving.

Guesses of Baby Boy's Arrival

One week until due date! Lots of guesses. We'll see who's closest.

August 13 at 2:32pm, 6 lbs 14 oz -- Aiden (nephew)
August 15 at 4:45pm, 6 lbs 7 oz -- Sam (nephew)
August 15 at 11:30pm, 9 lbs 4 oz -- Landon (nephew)
August 16 at 3:25 pm, 8 lb 1 oz -- Becca
August 17 at 4am, 20 1/2 inches long, 7 lbs 11 oz -- Isaac
August 17 at 4:30pm, 8 lbs 5 oz -- Bry
August 17 at 8:30pm, 7 lbs 1 oz -- Patrick
August 18 at 6:53am, 7 lbs 13 oz -- Roxanne
August 18 at 8:18pm, 7 lbs 14 oz -- Me
August 19 at 3:10am, 8 lbs 3 oz -- Mom
August 19 at 4:21am, 7 lbs 14 oz -- Chris
August 19 = "Next Saturday." "Be big little boy." -- Emma
August 20 at 12:01am, 7 lbs 8 oz -- Dad
August 21 at 7pm, 8 lbs 5 oz -- Allison
August 22 at 12:21am, 8 lbs 1 oz -- Rochelle
August 22 at 12:44am, 7 lbs -- Owen (nephew)