Emmett's Blessing

My heart is so full this morning! Oh how I loved having my family in town for Emmett's blessing on Sunday.

Friday Justin took the day off and together we got everything ready for our guests. My mom and dad flew into SeaTac in the late afternoon and we met them for dinner at BBQ Pete's in Kent (that's right Jon - be jelly!). Early the next morning we dropped Emmett off at the babysitter's house and went to the temple. I haven't been with my parents in a long time, and with my Dad's knees in bad shape, I thought it was a good way to spend quality time together without too much movement on his part. The escalators in the temple were a bonus for him that way ;) When we got home Chase and Rachel arrived shortly after with their cute almost 6-month old Hudson. We had a good time eating pizza for lunch and walking on the Nathan-Chapman trail. The leaves are red which was a huge hit with Mom! We made sure to take a picture. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and the family ended the day watching a movie on Netflix.

Thankfully our church starts at 12:30 which allowed us to take it slow and easy Sunday morning. I love that when I get together with my family we always have a good time talking. It doesn't take much to entertain us. We got to church early enough that we all got to sit together, and Justin did a great job blessing Emmett. And he looked slammin' in his new suit! Everyone came over for soup and bread after sacrament. Mom and Dad had to go shortly after that to catch their flight. The rest of the family left right when our friends the Fillmores showed up and we had a good visit with them. Their kids are so cute and totally obsessed with Emmett! It makes my heart happy.

Tomorrow Emmett will be two months old. He is a very sweet, chill baby boy. I love this sweet baby of mine. We are buddies and I love that I get to hang out with him all day ;) I am soaking up this time because I know with future kiddos it will not be the same. Yesterday I went to Target and bought him a bunch of new clothes. It's getting colder, so I got him some much-needed long sleeved onsies, socks, and a pair of shoes that are so cute I could die! For FHE we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and delivered them to people I visit teach and to the Christensen family. We showed Kari our yard makeover - she's my gardening friend who helped me decide what I wanted to plant. It's always a good time visiting with them.

Smiling at Granny!

Every morning we get up and drive Justin to his carpool or the bus. Emmett is a trooper! Burp rag placed strategically for inevitable puking.

 

You've come a long way baby!

Now I need to get to work planning the Halloween party. I'm thinking trunk-or-treat, mini-carnival, and a chili cookoff. I also need to get to work on our costumes! I love Halloween. It's totally the best holiday - so much fun!

Emmett is 7 weeks

We had a beautiful fall week last week. The sun shined all week and we had wonderful cool fall weather. Maybe if I'm lucky it will be this beautiful when my family comes for Emmett's blessing on Sunday.

Tuesday night after my MK event I met two gals from my ward for a late dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. I had never been, and I really enjoyed getting to know them better. They moved from Arizona, so we talked about how we miss the hot weather!

Wednesday I took Emmett with me to Silverdale for a double-facial. We met with Judy and her friend at a park on the water. It was a really nice visit! I should have taken a picture.

I love to wear Emmett around the house - I don't love the barf that inevitably ensues

Thursday I asked one of my young women friends to babysit Emmett last-minute so I could go out with Justin. I met him in Tacoma, and we went to Ruston Point - a new development on the water. We walked along the water with a gorgeous view of Ranier and had dinner.

Friday I was busy babysitting my niece along with taking care of Emmett. It was interesting - they had the same needs at the same time, so I'd be nursing Emmett while feeding her. Ha! I'm glad I only have a few more times babysitting her.

I helped plan a baby shower for a gal I visit teach, Sarah. My house isn't great for hosting such an event, so my friend Heather agreed to let us use her house. Between the two of us we did the food, and Sarah brought a craft for people to do. They made cute headbands and baby hair clips. Again, why didn't I take a picture?

I love to ask people who they think Emmett looks like...nobody knows! He is his own little person

Saturday Justin and I shopped in Tacoma. We got Emmett two outfits (shopping for babies is so fun!) and Justin a suit. We spent the rest of the day napping and watching college football. I would MUCH RATHER watch college football over professional football...it is way more fast-paced and the college teams take more risks. We went grocery shopping that evening. Do you know how much money you save when all you eat is oatmeal and tacos? Ha...with the occassional ribs and chick fil-a, I know ;)

this baby is so barfy!

new outfit for chilly fall days :)

Sunday I was cornered after Sacrament - I needed to meet with Brother Dent for a new calling. I was terrified they were going to call me to be primary president (because the president is moving) but thankfully no, I've been given the perfect calling for me! Ward activities! I'm in charge! And I'm so grateful because I've been saying things to Justin lately about how we never do things as a ward and it's totally lame. Plus, with the new ward boundaries, we haven't had a chance to bond as a ward and we so need that! So call me Leslie Knope as I merge two wards into one like it's Eagleton and Pawnee! While we were meeting with Brother Dent, Justin turned to me and said, "Unity concert!" ha. I'm excited...except that now I get to plan a Halloween party in t-minus one month. Yikes!

I'm looking forward to my family coming for Emmett's blessing. This little almost-two-month-old is my life and my joy! His new developments are he's now out of newborn diapers, but still wearing newborn clothes with the occasional 3 month stuff. He goes to bed at 8:00, wakes up at 2:00 to eat, and sleeps until 6:00. It has been awesome! Except last week he was crazy - he slept 8 hours straight one night, then 7 the next night, and then he was up the following two nights 2 or 3 times. Crazy baby! He makes a lot more noise lately - we love to hear his baby noises! I love his baby chatter.

I'm reading a great book called "The Collapse of Parenting." This author wrote three other books I will be reading next: Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift, and Girls on Edge. I read parts of Boys Adrift in my Education Psychology class at BYU-I. So much of what the author talks about I noticed as a teacher! Anyway - it's an interesting read.

That's it! Lots to do and to look forward to this week.

OH my sweet baby boy!

Before and After

This last weekend we bought the shrubs for our new flower beds and planted them, completing our DIY project. As you can see from the before and after, the brick pavers were always there. They were just overgrown so you didn't notice them. After we tore the grass out, we pulled out each brick to tear out the grass that had grown all throughout. We waited for the sale to buy our plants and got everything 40-50% off which saved us a couple hundred dollars! We got boxwoods for alongside the driveway, and azaleas and blue star junipers for the front. The azaleas will get up to three feet high and the junipers three feet wide. We love it and think it adds so much to the house. Kudos to Justin who did basically all the labor himself! - and kudos to me as the designer ;)

I visit teach a gal whose baby is due mid-October but she's trying to come early. I told her about all the freezer meals I made before Emmett came. I still had the shopping list, so I offered to share it with her and help her make a bunch of food to freeze before her baby comes. She sent her husband shopping and last Friday I went over to her house and helped her make a ton of food. She is having contractions all the time, and with certain activities of course they get worse. While I was over there she had to lay down a few times and rest while I continued cooking. We made 5 of the 6 meals before I needed to pick up Justin. It was quite a feat considering I had Emmett there, and she has two kids we were trying to keep track of (or just trying to keep away from Emmett ;)). 

I had lunch with Heather on Wednesday and MK brunch on Saturday with my teacher partner Casey. Emmett is such a good baby - I love that I can tote him with me everywhere I go (including to MK parties!) or if Justin is home he will take a bottle like it's no big deal. I am totally loving this stage of my baby boy. I need him to stop growing up - I'm already hungry for more baby over here!

He's found his thumb! When he loses his bink in the car, we'll hear him squawk and then hear him sucking his thumb :)

 As seen on fb, my mentor teacher from my student teaching days made Emmett a ton of adorable Star Wars baby stuff! Blanket, burp rags, and these crocheted hats and Yoda doll are hilariously cute!

 These ears look Dobby-like to me, as well as Yoda-like ;)

Ha - I love that face

He was happy until Daddy decided to hold him upside down...

Justin loves to play with Emmett!

Labor Day Weekend

So much to update!

Last Monday night Justin and I had FHE with the Christensen family. They just got back from their 10 months of traveling the world. They fed us dinner and let us pick 3 bags worth of plums off their tree. Kari loaned me her dehydrator so I could turn those plums into fruit leather - more on that later.

Emmett is now 5 weeks old, almost 6. This baby is making me fall more in love with him every day - he coos, he smiles, he giggles! He is the cutest! I love him to death! He eats very fast, so he has quite the impressive projectile vomit followed by chest-thumping hiccups. He is quite gassy, but thankfully all the vomit and gas doesn't seem to bother him. He is gaining weight just fine, so mommy isn't worried but oh baby - it makes for quite a mess after he eats!

Thursday was our four year anniversary - oh the adventures we've had in just four years! Justin worked from home that day so we could take off early to Seattle. We dropped Emmett off at the Fillmores - Kaylee is in my Sunday school class and she babysat him - and headed to a sushi restaurant. It wasn't what Justin and I expected - kind of a hole-in-the-wall joint - but it was an experience ;) We had some sushi, some sashimi, Justin had a cod dish, and I had a spread of all kinds of weird stuff that I couldn't tell you what it was. We decided to make sure we loved dessert after an interested dinner so we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory in Tukwila on the way home to have yummy dessert. Thankfully Emmett did great with his babysitter to make for an overall great evening! Sadly we did not take a picture of us for the occasion.

For the long weekend Justin began a landscaping project. The trees in our front yard have never looked very pretty, and our grass is a total joke, so we mapped out a plan to get rid of the trees and add new plants. So Justin sprayed the grass and a few days later ripped it all out - by himself! This crazy guy!! We bought additional soil to help fill in what the grass took away, and Saturday we had bark delivered. Monday morning Jon came to help and he and Justin laid the bark down in the new bed. Plants at our local nursery go on sale next week (40% off - worth waiting for), so we will buy new shrubs, trees, etc next week to fill in the empty space. Now we just need to get our grass into good shape and our place will be lookin like a million bucks!

 Phase I: kill the trees and grass

Phase II: remove the grass

Phase III: add border to separate grass and flowerbed

Phase IV: add additional topsoil

 Phase V: add bark and decorative rock

Labor Day morning Justin worked on the yard and I worked on the plums - I blended them up and put the spread on wax paper on the dehydrator shelves. That project took all morning (the plum fruit leather is still drying as I type!) The Rose family came to hang out that afternoon for the holiday. We had lunch, played games, and played at the park. It's nice having family close by that can hang out at the last minute.

Now we are in the full swing of fall: the cooler weather is here to stay, school is in session...this year is flying by! We are loving every minute :) Last but not least, here are a few favorites from Emmett's newborn session: