i'm smitten

with both of them

summertime

(according to my phone...for the most part!)
we've been...

learning to sit in the bumbo

playing with friends

playing at the park

laying out by the pool

swimming for the first time

meeting our new cousin (just 2 1/2 weeks older than emma)

playing in the sandbox

stopping to smell the "flowers"

enjoying a visit from grandma and grandpa

i love being able to spend so much time outside (although i do not enjoy a house with no a/c...it's killer). we're having so much fun and we've still got 2 more months of summer fun left!

father's day

dave didn't quite get the pampering treatment he deserved on father's day. in fact, he was working pretty hard "fathering" 7 kids while we watched my sister's 5 kids for 4 days. church was at 9 am and dave ran a tight ship getting everyone breakfast [no breakfast in bed for him :( ] making sure beds were made, kids were dressed and into the car on time. in fact, they were all waiting on me (sad but true). i am quite proud of the fact that our whole gang made it to church 5 minutes early! i did try to spoil him a little and let him know how much we love and appreciate him though. he found the following goodies set up in the kitchen when he came down in the morning:

(world's best pop! the tie was colored by logan...hopefully you could tell that though:)

we were lucky enough to attend church with my dad on father's day. the youth in his ward each paid tribute to their father and it was fantastic. i was so touched by the things they shared. almost all of them talked about their father's spending time with them (and how much it meant to them) and the example their dad was as a disciple of christ and his gospel. those would be the exact things i would share about my dad. he has always been involved in my life and supportive of whatever i have done. and he has been an incredible example of a faithful priesthood leader and disciple of christ. i feel so blessed that he is my dad! we also got to have dinner at dave's parent's house. pete smoked some brisket and ribs and it was amazing (we are all benefiting from his new smoker)! i am so grateful for pete, for the wonderful son he raised, who is kind, loving and respectful, and the incredible pappy he is to our kids. he is a wonderful example of love, fun and spending time with family. he is always willing to help us in any way we need and i am so grateful to have him as my father-in-law!

and i couldn't ask for a more incredible father for my kids. dave loves logan and emma so much and the feeling is clearly mutual. logan lights up the instant dave gets home and they play practically until bedtime. when dave is around i am definitely 2nd pick (and that's ok, he is more fun). dave has taught logan all about the important things: star wars, trucks and dinosaurs, a love of chips (i've taught him a love of sweets), "booms" before bed, that kung fu panda is great movie and of course so much more. but most importantly he teaches logan about the priesthood, prayer (he is the one who helps logan pray), jesus christ, the prophet and the book of mormon. i'm so grateful my kids will be taught about the gospel from their father. i'm so grateful to have dave as my partner in parenting. i love you david!

and the few pictures i took from our adventures in parenting 7 kids. dave has made it clear that we will not be having 7 kids! the kids were wonderful and it was so fun to spend so much time with them. plus logan adores all of them and they are so good to him. i think he has gone through a little withdrawal now that he is stuck with just me (and emma) all day long. it was definitely busy and tiring and i will say that i am glad that in most cases kids come one at a time because it was hard going from 2 to 7 instantly!

dinnertime

i was taking a few pictures of emma and i hear logan call out from his high chair "smile! cheese!" it was his way of letting me know he wanted his picture taken too. i was happy to oblige him.

(the chicken nugget aftermath. it went well with the soup he had already rubbed in his hair at lunch)

emma: 2 months

i'm not quite sure how it happened, but emma is now 2 months old. time is going entirely too fast.

here are her stats:

10 pounds 2 ounces - 30th percentile

22 inches - 30th percentile

head 39 cm- 25 percentile

she smiles a lot now, especially when you say her name and talk to her and she seems to smile a lot when you tell her she's pretty (which we do a lot). her smile just lights up her whole face...especially her wide open mouth smiles! she coos, kicks her legs and waves her arms a lot, wiggles out of her swaddles (although i swear she sleeps better when swaddled), loves to be held, gets a bath every night (which she seems to tolerate), still wakes up once during the night to eat, although we are in the middle of sleep training (baby boot camp) and trying to break her of that habit (which doesn't seem to be going so well right now). she endures her brother's "tough" love, occasional head bumps and poking fingers and has us all just enamored with her!

bring on the day

monday is off to a good start. not for any particular reason, i just have the feeling it's going to be a good day. i woke up to a wonderful rain storm. our bed is right below the window and i loved listening to the rain fall and the feel the breeze blow into our room while i lay all cozy in bed. it didn't hurt either that i got to snuggle the morning away with dave and my sweet emma (a perk to dave not having to be into work until 9:30am this week. although it's going to stink not having him home until 6:30pm). i didn't get out of bed until 8:42am and then we had pancakes with homemade syrup at logans request. we've been staying at my sister's since thursday and so today is a catch up day. there are piles all over the house where we dropped bags last night when we got home late and were rushing to get the kids to bed. so today is a "get things done" kind of day and i am looking forward to it (and i probably won't make it out of my pajamas for awhile which i am also looking forward to). happy monday!

logan was here

diaper time

i love kiddos in nothing but their diapers.

and these kiddos love to be in nothing but their diapers. especially emma.

emma's blessing

in our church we don't perform infant baptism as we believe babies are innocent and sinless and don't need to be baptized until they are older and accountable for their actions. we do however give each baby a special blessing shortly after they are born. on sunday, may 22, dave gave emma a beautiful blessing.

he blessed her:

to grow strong, physically and spiritually.

with a desire to know heavenly father, his son and the truthfulness of the gospel.

to do what is right and to be an example of the gospel.

with a desire to be in the temple and marry a righteous man.

and to have the strength to stand up for what is right.

we are so grateful for these sweet blessings from our heavenly father and the wonderful spirit that was present during her blessing. we hope emma will be inspired by this blessing throughout her life.

we were so lucky to have a lot of family attend the blessing. erin, john and sophie were in town from utah and grandma and grandpa muir were in town from arizona (not to mention all our wonderful local family). we felt so much love and support. we took up 2 of the long middle pews in the chapel and let's just say our family members significantly increased the attendance at sacrament meeting in our small ward.

family of four!

a couple of things to note (so i don't forget):

emma wore the same blessing dress as her cousin sophie
the blanket she is laying on in the pictures above was made by her great grandma todd 9 years ago.
it sat in a drawer for many years waiting for me to get married and have a baby. we used it first for logan's blessing and now for emma's!
emma was blessed at the yale and monaco building
university hills ward of the denver stake
standing in the circle:
dave, papa todd, great grandpa muir, john near, mark rawlings, bishop walker, president millett

smile!

emma has started to smile recently and it makes us melt! we talk to her and say her name over and over again trying to get a smile out of her. here's a few we've caught on camera (along with some others captured during our attempts).