12/29/15

Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas this year. We spent it in St George with all of Ryan's family. Let me say that it is the most fun being Santa for my kids! I love putting all the presents out the night before and making sure the tree looks perfect and everything. I was waking up at night and getting all excited for Emry to see her presents and for Wesley to semi-understand what was going on. haha. It was a fabulous Christmas!

Christmas Eve we went to the temple to see the lights. Love this little family of mine. 
 We went to see a house in St George that won the Great Christmas Light Flight show. It was so amazing and put me in the best Christmas spirit. I kept saying it felt like I was at the Disneyland of light shows. Loved it so much!
 All set up for Christmas!
 Presents. All Emry wanted was an Anna and Elsa dress. She kept saying that she will get them because she has been nice and when she was naughty, she said she was sorry. What a funny girl!
 Opening his presents!
 Opening presents
 Emry was so cute this Christmas. She kept saying, "Oh wow! Thank you so much Mommy!" and she would give me a huge hug and she was so happy and genuinely surprised. It was great!
When she came and saw all the presents and she saw her dresses, she was so excited but then she says, "Oh, I guess I only get my dresses because I didn't ask for anything else!" Haha! What a funny girl. She was excited that there was more.

 Loved pushing all the buttons!
 Yay for princess toys!
 After present naps...
 Wesley loved "baby" Christopher. He always wanted to hold him, hence the trying to pick him up...
 Cute Cousins!
This was after we got home, but I had to put this in here because he was cracking me up! He really wanted some candy so he climbed up on our table to eat the gingerbread house. He tried to get the candy off but when that failed, he just started sucking on the candy right on the house! He was cracking me up!! What a cutie funny boy!

12/28/15

St George Pre-Christmas

 It was crazy around the Gardner house during Christmas time, but we wouldn't have it any other way because we loved having all our cousins and family around. The kids had so much fun all playing together and being with Grandma and Grandpa.

They loved playing Chutes and Ladders with Grandma.
Family bowling. Emry was so excited to see all the pins get knocked down!
 Wesley playing at the bowling alley
We went on a family hike at the red rocks and Emry had a blast! (We left Wes at home with a babysitter to nap) It was the first time that Emry actually enjoyed hiking and exploring. Normally, I have to distract her so she doesn't whine so much but she had a blast hiking here. She loved exploring all the "caves" and climbing up the crack with dad. It was a blast!
 Cousins exploring!
 Cousins!
 She got a little too comfortable and loved jumping off rocks into daddy's arms! She loves her daddy!
 Being crazy...
 See that teeny tiny crack behind them? They were talking about walking up that and I couldn't even stand thinking about it so I walked around to try to hike to the top and when I got there I realized Ryan had sent EMRY up there! And then followed her up. I was like, What?!?! But they impressed me and Emry did amazing. Ryan did great too because he actually made it through (it was so tight as he walked through!).
 Ryan and Jason made it through
 The whole gang at the top
Dad and Emry at the top (on the right of Emry's head you can see the temple.) It was beautiful up there!

12/21/15

December in Picture Form

 Our ward Christmas party was an "Ugly Sweater" theme. This little girl's "ugly" sweater was pretty darn cute being worn by her!
 Me and some friends at the Ugly Sweater Christmas Party.
 Emry loved singing with the Primary kids!
 Wesley loved the desserts (Also, we realize that the sweater Ryan is wearing is an actual ugly sweater even though it doesn't look very Christmas-y)
 Decorating the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music is probably my favorite thing to do with my family! It puts you in the Christmas spirit so easily! Also, this was the first year we had a fake tree. Emry kept telling everyone who came to our house that our tree was fake and we weren't going to get a real one this year.
 Family decorating... I was proud of myself for not being too OCD and actually letting the kids decorate. It made it more special to have us all participating even if the tree didn't look "perfect"
 Hot Coco has become our very favorite thing ever so we had to have some in our Christmas PJ's after decorating the tree.
 This girl loves snow so much this year. It really dumped on us two days in a row so poor Ryan was out there shoveling early in the morning before he left for work and Emry was right there beside him. She was in heaven!!
 These cuties have been having so much fun together lately! Especially at bath time. Emry always gets Wesley laughing which sends Emry into a laughing fit! Fun kids!
 Running errands and Emry holds Wesley's hand and says, "Mom, take our picture." She just knew she was being cute!
 Dancing around the Christmas tree!
 He's the cutest
 They were watching a show and Wesley climbed right up on Emy's lap. Emry just held him there like the good big sister she is!
 We went to see Santa and Emry was excited to tell him she wanted an Anna and Elsa dress and that she had been good all year.
 Wesley was having none of it and was clinging to Ryan so tightly like he was completely terrified.
 We had this table set up for awhile after one of our family parties and this little man loved sitting at it so much. He thought he was so big!
 One of my new favorite traditions: going to see the "tree of life" at the Draper park. I love going to Temple square to see the lights but it is far and really cold to be outside for so long so this was just perfect. The trees were amazing, the kids had a blast, and we didn't all freeze our tooshies off...
 Emry and I at the "Tree of Life"


12/13/15

Dance Recital

 Emry had her first dance recital and it was adorable!! I didn't think she would do the dance up on the stage because she would get very distracted when we would practice but man, she did awesome!! It was so fun to watch her on that stage and see my little girl growing up. Love her so much!





12/7/15

18 Months: Wesley

Weight: 24.2 lbs (26%)
Height: 32 inches (38%)
Head: 19 inches (64%)

Well, we officially have a toddler now. Wesley has grown and has become such a cutie pie! I can't imagine life without our little man! He is so much fun!

*Really started talking. He will actually try to repeat the words you say. It sounds right about 50% of the time. 
*He can say a lot of words now so I won't remember all of them but some of the words he can say: Hi, bye, Grandma, Grandpa, Emry, Daddy, Mommy, Dog, work (like I will ask where Daddy is and he says, "work"), Jesus, drink, no, poo poo, potty, shoes, Elmo, book, bird, mouse,  bite, treat, snack, please, thank you, baby, eyes, mouth, more, cracker, all done, water, juice, amen,
*Loves to take a bath and splash around.
*Loves going outside but he didn't really love his first experience with snow. I don't have any snow gloves for him so the first time, I just sent him out without anything on his hands. Well he inevitably fell down and came over to me crying holding his hand up at me like, "What was that? It was freezing!!" He's gotten a little better with that one but mostly he isn't a huge fan. 
*Loves doing puzzles. He will match which animals go where and then I just have to help him actually get it in the spot. He is really good at them now. 
*Started nursery. So far, we are doing okay. He doesn't throw a fit or anything when we leave him (we just walk in there and he starts playing with toys and then we leave so he doesn't really know we are leaving). The teachers say he does really well. He has moments where he gets sad but he recovers quickly. We are glad that is going smoothly so we can have some peace and quiet for another 3 months before the next baby comes. haha.
*He will tell me when he goes poop. He knows where we keep his diapers and he will go get them for me and when I tell him to lay down, he will lay down with a diaper in his hands. Funny boy!
*Loves to bring us our shoes. If he sees shoes laying around, he will bring them to me and say, "shoes" and then he tries to put them on my feet.
* Loves to read books. He would read all day every day. 
*He loves animals so much, especially birds. In books he just flips the pages looking for pictures of birds (a lot of Emry's princess books have birds in them). 
*He is still a pretty picky eater but he will surprise us sometimes and ask for a "bite" of something we are eating and he will devour my dinner. I'm glad he is branching out. 
* He LOVES babies. I was worried he would not like his new sister when she came but he has surprised me with all the new babies in our family (Lynne's and Kelli's) because he just loves babies. He is always patting their heads and saying "baby!" over and over again. It's pretty adorable. 
*He is really learning how to say prayers. Like he will actually fold his arms and then when we are all done he says, "Amen" It's pretty adorable.
*Ryan started having him "read" the scriptures. He will say a word and Wesley will repeat it. Again, it only sounds right about 50% of the time but it's pretty adorable. I think the more we do this, the faster he will learn to talk.