Rainstorms & Happiness: 2012

12/12/12

Christmas

We have been having the most fun Christmas this year! It has been so fun decorating our new house and sharing the joy with Emry! Christmas with kids is just so much fun! Even though she is still really little and won't actually enjoy Christmas this year, it still makes it more fun for us! We are so blessed to have her celebrate with us this year!

Daddy and Emry at the ward Christmas Party

Mommy and Emry at the party!

12/3/12

6 Months!

Really? Half a year old already?!?!? She is getting SO big!! Can't even believe it!!

Height: 27 inches (90%)

Weight: 17.1 Pounds (70%)

Head: 16.9 inches (50%)

*Sits up all by herself. She still topples sometimes but is pretty good at balancing herself (especially if she has a toy or something that she is concentrating on)
*Gets up on her hands and knees and tries to crawl. Sometimes it looks like she is doing yoga how she gets up on her hands and then on her feet and puts her butt in the air! So funny! Then she pulls her knees in and rocks back and forth and sometimes will "leap" forward trying to get something (I swear she is going to crawl in the next couple of weeks!)
*Laughs and Laughs. Some favorites: being tickled, being thrown in the air, kids jumping up and down (she seriously thinks it's soooo funny!), anything kids do (she loves having other kids around), mommy and daddy growling and the "I'm gonna get you!" game!
*Loves to bounce with me on the exercise ball. It's also my favorite because she clinges to me and kinda cuddles for safety! I love it!
*Doing so well at eating. She now sits in her high chair and even opens her mouth to eat (she started doing this just after 5 months). She is finally getting the hang of it. She has had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, avacado, and banana. (ok, ok, so she has had ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel sauce from various relatives...)
*Wakes up several times a night talking and crying, but always puts herself back to sleep or a binky does the trick. I don't feed her at night anymore. She goes to bed at 730 and she is up at around 7-730. I'm hoping the night waking will go away soon because it make me tired!
*Takes 2 naps a day (she isn't the greatest napper, but we are working on that!)
*Babbles all the time. She loves to say "da da da da" which makes Ryan elated (although she doesn't actually know what it means yet...)
*Graduated to size 3 diapers and is even wearing some 9 month clothes. She still fits into a lot of her 3-6 month clothes though.

12/1/12

Thanksgiving

We were blessed enough this year to have TWO thanksgiving feasts! (and yet, I didn't take any pictures at either of them... sorry).

The first Thanksgiving was with my family. My mom drove up to Utah with my Grandma and Grandpa and we all ate at my cousin Kristin's house. She made a delicious homemade dinner (seriously impressed with her cooking). We had turkey, homemade stuffing (made from homemade bread!), homemade rolls, jello, salad, creamed corn, homemade cranberry sauce, really good drinks, and I'm sure I'm missing another delicious entree. All in all it was a great meal. But more importantly, we had so much fun with all our family. I love visiting with my Grandma and Grandpa. I am so grateful for grandparents who are so involved in our lives. They LOVE the great grandkids so much and are always wanting to spend time with us. It was really fun to have them here for Thanksgiving. After dinner we had a dessert party at my cousin Jason's house. He just had a cute little boy, CJ! He was born like 2 weeks before Thanksgiving so he was still extra tiny! I forgot what it was like to have such a tiny little thing and it hasn't even been that long for me! Emry is getting so big and while I wish she would just stay my little baby forever, I'm so happy that she is healthy and growing well. We are truly so blessed!

The second Thanksgiving was equally as delicious. Ryan's family came into town on Friday night (because 3 family members had to actually work on Thanksgiving) to have Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. We had some absolutely delicious food and once again, I was stuffed! (Two Thanksgiving meals are delicious but, man, I was full by the end!) We had this meal at my house and it was so much fun to have everyone there enjoying Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for a beautiful home and wonderful in laws! It has been so much fun having another family to be a part of and we really LOVE when they come to visit us.

(Grandpa with the boy Grandkids!)

Ya, we hang out on our knees a lot lately!

Trying to crawl!!

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, but above all I am so grateful for my own little family. I feel so lucky to have married Ryan. He is such a good husband and the BEST dad to Emry. He loves her so much and seeing him with her just makes me love him more. When I married Ryan I knew it was probable that I would only have boys (which I was ok with because boys are fun!), but Heavenly Father has blessed me with two beautiful little girls who I love more than I can say. Olivia made me a mom and I will always love her sweet spirit. I miss her terribly and wish that she could be Emry's big sister and I know that one day she will get to be. Next, I was blessed with the sweetest, happiest little girl! Emry really has brought such joy to my life. Having a family is what life is all about, and having to struggle to get my little girl has made me love her even more I think. Sorry this turned into "thankfulmony" but I am truly blessed and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this wonderful life I have been given. It isn't always easy and I have had some rough times, but I have been given a wonderful life that has brought me so much joy!

I hope we can all take a second to ponder all the blessing God has given us and realize what good lives we have! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

11/2/12

5 Months!

Oh my goodness I can't believe how big my little girl is getting! She is just the smartest little thing and I love watching her grow and learn more and more! No doctor visit this month so we don't know how much she weighs but I swear she has gotten so much bigger than she was at 4 months! At 5 months she is:

*Eating solids. We have only done rice cereal and vegetables (no fruit yet). She seems to not have much interest in eating, although she tolerates it well. She doesn't really open her mouth and I have to almost force it in but she is fine with that and is just as happy as can be! She has had rice cereal, sweet potatoes, squash, peas, and avacado. We only feed her 1 or 2 times a day just to get her used to eating and for her to learn how. It's been fun (and really messy too)!
*Still wears size 2 diapers (probably could fit into size 3 but I am cheap and am sticking with the cheaper ones while I can!)
*Still wearing size 3-6 month clothes (although she is really tall and so some of the onesies are becoming a little tight!)
*Rolling from back to tummy all the time and can even get back to her back!
*She is such a happy little girl and LOVES to smile and laughs a lot! So cute!!
*Spends a lot of her time in her little jumper toy and loves it!
*Chews on EVERYTHING!
*Sleeps through the night? Ok, she still wakes up sometimes.
*She is still the cutest little girl in the whole world (yes, we are totally biased!) We just love her so much! She is such a blessing to us and she brings so much joy to our world!

11/1/12

Halloween

We had the MOST fun Halloween this year!! Having our own house and passing out candy to all the neighbors made Halloween so fun this year, but not as fun as having our cute Emry to dress up. I will confess we didn't really go all out on her costume, but she was still pretty adorable!! We had her be a cute little leopard (cutest leopard I've ever seen). She was so happy and when we would "growl" at her she would laugh and laugh! It was pretty fun! I was a baseball player and Ryan was a guy who just got home from work. haha.

My mom was in town and so Lynne, Dave, Owen, Lila, (the dinasaurs) and Jeff (the cowboy) came to have worms, eyeballs, and blood (spaghetti and meatballs) for dinner. We passed out candy to all the cute little kids that came to the house and then played games that night. It was such a fun Halloween night!
We hope you had a fun Halloween too!

10/12/12

Just to Make You Smile

That smile will just melt your heart!

California

We had the funnest time in California for Jeffy's homecoming! Lynne, me, and the kids got on Jeff's flight from Salt Lake to Long Beach, which was so much fun. He was totally surprised and he got to be a fun uncle before we went and saw everyone at the airport. I just love going to California when everyone is there because it is so much fun to have all the cousins together! Cam and Owen are just too cute together and all the older cousins were loving on Emry, it was totally adorable!! I just loved it! I wish Bri and Kell lived closer so we could play all the time. We played a lot at Grandma and Grandpa's pool, went to downtown Disney, went to the Disneyland Hotel pool (thanks to Scottie), got to see the fireworks from the Disneyland Hotel (so much fun!!), shopped, went to the beach, etc. Here are a few pictures to document the fun we had!!

Me and Jeff on his first day home! So fun to have him back!

Emry loved this little jumper thing! It was so cute to see her swing around in it! Haha! She is so adorable!

Besties!!

Hanging out at the beach! So happy to be in the warmth!!

Never seen such a cute girl!!

Just look at that smile!! She is the most adorable little thing in the world!! She is so happy to be at the beach!

Hanging out with Daddy at the beach!

All the siblings back together again! (LOVING Brian's sunglasses!!)

Daddy and Emry at the beach

Family Pictures (we added two more baby girls since our last picture here when Jeffy left on his mission)

Best we could do with all the grand kids

Happy 80th Birthday Grandpa! We had a fun BBQ and pool party for his birthday. It was so much fun to have everyone there. All the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids! What a fun family time!

Angels Game!

We met the characters at the Disneyland Hotel lobby. One perk of knowing the Disneyland Hotel Manager is having all the characters know you. We saw like 4 or 5 characters just standing in the lobby. Awesome!

Grandpa Bob with Emry

We had a fun hangout with all the cousins on my dad's side. There were 10 kids under 3 years old! It was a crazy day, but so much fun!

We had such a fun time going up to the concierge lounge of the Disneyland Hotel and watching the fireworks. They dim all the lights and play the music even, so you get to watch the fireworks, hear the music, and not deal with any crowds! It was such a fun date night for Ryan and I.

10/2/12

4 Months

Oh my goodness, how I love this little girl!! She is just adorable. The last month has been so much fun! Emry has really grown and learned so much! Here is all the fun things for this month:

Weight: 15 lbs 3 oz (70%)

Height: 25.9 inches (95%)

Head Circumference: 16.8 inches (80%)

(The doctor asked me a second time how tall my husband was because Emry is so tall. Funny to tell him again, only 5' 10" haha)

*Ryan finally got to see her laugh and she now laughs much more often (practically every day). I think she may even be a little ticklish.

*She is wearing size 3-6 clothes and size 2 diapers

*We had our first sickness, and let me tell you, it was NO fun! We got Hand Foot Mouth disease and she was totally miserable! She got sores in her mouth and it totally hurt her to eat. We had a rough couple of days, but thankfully she got over it and has gone back to being my totally happy giggly little girl!

*Because we had our first sickness, we had a bonus doctor visit and got weighed, so last week she weighed 15 lbs 7 oz with her clothes on. We have her real 4 month appointment tomorrow so we can see how much she really weighs then.

*She normally sleeps from 8PM to somewhere between 4 and 5 AM. Then she goes back to bed until about 7:40 AM. Still trying to figure out how to get her to eliminate that early early morning feeding. Hopefully one day she will go a full 11-12 hours but for now, I'm just grateful it's only the one time.

*She sleeps on her stomach all the time now. I put her on her back (arms not swaddled anymore!) and almost immediately she is on her stomach sleeping. I always find her in different places in the crib too. She scoots herself around all night! :D so cute!

*Not only does she sleep on her stomach, but she also spends most of her day on her tummy too. She still hasn't remembered how to get back onto her back so she rolls onto her tummy and then just hangs out and plays with toys. Every once in a while she tries to get on her knees, but not very often.

*She likes to read books. I read her books with her in my lap and when she sees the books, she starts talking and talking. It's adorable! Like she knows she is supposed to be reading it. Adorable!

*Started snuggling when she gets up from naps and in the morning. My very favorite part of the day!

All Smiles!!

Cute little 4 month old!! :D

9/2/12

3 Months

Can you believe it, because I really can't! It has been 3 months already! Emry is such a joy to us, we are so blessed to have her in our lives. I think that every single day. I think sometimes our trials really do help us appreciate the blessings we have in life. I think with all the hard times we have had have made me so much more appreciative for our sweet little Emry. I feel so lucky to be her mom and I hope she can always feel how much I love her. I thank Heavenly Father for her every day.

Anyway, this month has brought some changes.

*Emry started to roll over from her back to her tummy. This has made swaddling and night time a little scary since sometimes she will turn over and then get stuck. Lucky enough, she is pretty strong to get her head up and start screaming for us to come turn her back over. (She can't roll from her back to her front without her hands! haha) I think we'll have to stop swaddling her soon!

*She smiles ALL the time, but she is pretty picky about what will actually make her laugh. So far it has been me pretending to laugh, me coughing, and me actually laughing. Sadly, Ryan has yet to see her laugh in real life but we have caught it on my phone a couple of times. She is adorable! She really is just the happiest baby. We get people telling us all the time, "She is a happy baby, huh?" because she will just smile and talk to everyone. I'm convinced she is gonna be an early talker because she loves to have conversations with you.

*We had our first trip to California (see separate post for the details). It was fun and Emry did amazingly well. She had her first car ride (13 hours! phew, that was long!) and her first plane ride (we really prefer flying because it was SO much fast and I can hold her the whole time!). It was good to see every one and we can't wait to go back!

*I don't know how much she weighs but she has enough rolls for me to know that she is getting plenty to eat!

*We found out she can, indeed take bottles pretty well. In anticipation of me having to go back to work, we made sure of that! However, I really hate giving her bottles. For some reason I hate watching her get fed by the bottle. I really enjoy nursing her so I guess I'm just a little selfish in that matter....

*Graduated to size 2 diapers and to 3-6 month clothes. I am really hating putting her 0-3 month clothes away because those are her cutest ones, but I guess it's time for more shopping... haha.

*Started playing with toys. She loves to play with her toy keys and is getting really good at grabbing them and putting them in her mouth. She will also track things now with her eyes. I can't remember if she used to do this earlier, but I know she does this really well now.

*Still LOVES blanket time. Sometimes she is really fussy and all she wants is to be put down. She loves to lay on her blanket and (now) play with toys and just hang out. Maybe she will be an independent child. I better watch out for that one!

*She has started to like to sit in her bumbo now. She sits in there while I make dinner or while I eat, etc. She will just hang out and just recently she has found her toes, which she loves to grab and play with.

*Sleeps pretty well at night. She will mostly sleep through the night from 8 pm to 7 am but recently has been getting up one time at around 4 AM. We are working on that currently so I'm hoping its back to 11 hour nights again... We'll see.

How do you not just melt with that smile! Oh, she is adorable!

Another one with slightly better lighting

8/8/12

Olivia's 2nd Birthday

Wow, I cannot believe it has been 2 years since Olivia was born. It seems like just yesterday! We went and took flowers to her grave and showed Emry her big sister on her birthday. She is my precious little angel and I wish I could hold her and tell her happy birthday. We miss her a lot but we are so grateful for the gospel so that we can be with her again some day.

Gardner Girls!

8/7/12

Blessed

We blessed Emry on August 5, 2012 in the Draper 3rd Ward. It was a very special day for our family. Ryan did such a great job. I just love how much he loves our little girl and our family. Emry looked so beautiful in her cute little dress and she did such a good job during the blessing. She had the hiccups which you could hear through the microphone but no crying at all! We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives!

Grandma and Grandpa Gardner

Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker

4 Generations: Great Grandpa Gardner, Grandpa Gardner, Daddy, Emry

New House

It is official! We finally closed on our house and we couldn't be more excited! Yay to having our own place and more than 2 rooms. We absolutely fell in love with this house and neighborhood as soon as we saw it. There are like 3 parks within walking distance and all the neighbors seem so nice. We put an offer in in the middle of April and we are only now getting to move in, but it was worth the wait! We can't wait to get in there and make it our own! Yay to finally having our house!!

8/2/12

2 Months

We had our 2 month appointment today and let's just say that Emry did much better than her mamma! I was stressed all day about her having to get her first round of vaccines and I had cause to be. 3 shots!! Come on, that is just mean! She screamed louder than I've every heard and so high pitched. I was on the verge of crying. Thankfully afterward she let me feed her and she was fine. We will see how the rest of the day goes.

Weight: 13.5 lbs (90%)

Height: 23.5 inches (90%)

Head: 16.25 in (97%)

-Gives smiles out freely. She has been smiling and cooing for some time now! It is the most adorable thing ever! She is the happiest in the mornings right after breakfast. She could smile and coo for like an hour straight until it's time for another nap.

-Still wears 0-3 month clothes but could probably start to transition to 3-6 months soon. She still wears size 1 diapers as well.

-Sleeps really well at night. Most nights she will give me an 8 hour stretch and occasionally even a 10 hour stretch! Sadly, I can't go this long and I end up getting up anyway to pump. Hopefully I will adjust soon because I would love to sleep all night long!!

-Still loves her daddy!

-Still loves to be outside.

-Loves to be swaddled. Occasionally, she will even put herself to sleep if you just put her in her crib. She is such a nice little baby!

-Does NOT like tummy time anymore. In fact, she won't even roll over anymore mostly. She just cries and kicks her little legs. Maybe she won't be crawling anytime soon...

Here are some cute pictures of my chubby little girly!!

Check out those band aids!