Emma Dawn

I've been meaning to write a few notes on Emma for a couple of weeks. This sweet little girl makes me laugh every day. Emma has begun to put things down her shirt as if it was a pouch. And since more often than not she is wearing a snapped up shirt, the items stay there and she pulls them out to play later. I have found some awesome things in her shirt and sometimes, down the front of her diaper. Dimes, matchbox cars, felt storyboard pieces, pens, sticks, candy, you name it. Yesterday she had a long stick like thing in her shirt and I couldn't figure out what it could be. I just left it there and she came back a couple of minutes later, glowing E.T. style. What the!?! Oh! It was a flashlight down her shirt. It's even funnier when you ask her what is in her shirt and she pulls out the neck and looks in... and then says, "Oh!"

Emma is learning so many words, I can't keep up. Her favorites right now are buffalo, elk, deer, and of course, No! The other day, Noah wasn't doing what I had asked him to and I began to count to 5. Well, I didn't get very far... Me: ONE! Emma: (pointing at Noah), TWO! And then looking back at me for confirmation. Trying not to laugh, I said, "That's right. What comes next?" And Noah said, "Three, four, five!" Oh, kids, you've got me figured out.

Emma loves the bath and tries to barrel in with her clothes on while the water is still running. She loves the bubbles. Bathtime is a fun time with Emma. Emma is also our little country girl. I have probably mentioned this before, but I am not joking when I say her first word was 'deer." She loves horses and hats, deer and elk. And, she even has her rodeo queen wave down, definitely WITHOUT instruction from me. I can barely stay on the horse, let alone wave while riding! Check it out...

I love feeling like I am contributing to my food storgage and to our sustainability. I just want to remember this! I feel so productive right now I thought I would sit down, rest my legs and surf the net a bit. And I'm also wishing I had worn my support hose. I have been patiently waiting for 5 days for my Steam Canner to arrive. I had looked at all the stores and could not find one! I felt bad borrowing, because other people need their Steam Canners too, right? So, I broke down and purchased one from Amazon. I love Amazon! They had such a good price, and of course free shipping.

Today, my steam canner arrived and I could finally work on the potatoes and strawberries piling up in the corners of my kitchen. I put up 13 qts. of potatoes and made 7 pints of Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate. Yummy! I also had some apples about to kick it, so I made an apple pie for dessert.

Last Saturday my mom and I decided to get our garden started and planted our seeds in starter pots. They are supposed to take 2-4 weeks to sprout, but check mine out! I don't know what happened, but these little guys are on turbo speed! I swear, you can see them growing minute by minute. I have my herb pots planted too, but no sprouts yet. Now, all we need is the SNOW to stop SNOWING! Then I can get outside and plant these babies. Can't wait! Hopefully they grow outside as well as they have inside.

My Family

This picture is several weeks old, but I am testing out this new template so I thought I would post it. I am hoping for the large format that the instructions promised. We'll see when I hit PUBLISH POST!

On a note about this picture... isn't it great?? It's just a snapshot in my mom's living room, but I love that we were all there. All the kids and no prego bellies (he, he, that I know of! And I love, love, love how much we have grown! It seems such a short while ago that it was just a few of us and now there are 12 grandkids! Crazy.

The Sweetest Thing, EVER!

Although it is currently past bedtime for Noah, he is wandering around, not willing to go to sleep. I think we are done with naps, at least until summer and we are outside more. Despite being somewhat irritated, Noah is the sweetest thing I ever created. Yup. It's true. Sweetest thing ever... and five points to prove it.

1. Noah loves temples. He gets very excited whenever we see a temple driving anywhere on I-15 and he sees one. Lucky for him, on some drives, that means he gets to see six. Aren't we so lucky to live so close to the temples? He loves pictures of the temples, too. He loves the little pass along cards that are published by the church and carries them around and says, "Look, Mom! The Temple!" His enthusiasm for the temple is absolutely amazing and I have no idea where it came from. It is just as though somewhere deep inside he knows about the wonderful and special things that happen at the temple. It is very special and my words are not doing this justice at all. Now, when he sees a temple, he wants to sing, "I Love to See the Temple." Priceless.

2. Speaking of singing, my little guy loves to sing. He sings everything. This week, besides "I Love to See the Temple" his favorite songs to sing are "Rock a bye baby," "Happy Birthday to You," and "ABC's." It amazes me how many songs he knows. The other day when we were in the car he started singing along with Lady A. So funny to hear him sing, "... all alone and I need you now-ow-ow." Love it! Expect to hear more from him as he loves, loves, loves to sing.

3. Second to singing, he loves to dance. He will come into my bedroom and ask me to turn on the radio and start dancing to whatever is on. He especially loves to dance to hip-hop style stuff, on the bed with his arms flailing! I'm not an expert on hip-hop, but Jocelyn says he has some pretty good moves!

4. Loves to say, "I wuv you." And it makes me feel so loved, too. He rubs my arm and leans his head in and says so sweetly, "I wuv you, Mom." He has also been telling me lately, "Mom, I wuv Topper boy."

5. And last but not least, to prove how sweet he is... while I was getting the kids ready for church on Sunday, I put Emma (in her dress) up on the counter to comb her hair. Noah said, "Oh, look, Mom! Emma is a princess!"

So that's it. Proof that my boy is the sweetest thing ever!!

I haven't taken very many pictures lately. Not sure why. Just haven't busted out the camera. So when I did, to load pictures onto my mom's blog, I found some oldies. And some of them are pretty funny.

This is our new little dog and Noah. Noah calls him Topper, his name is Copper. Luke and Emma at Hardware Ranch.

Emma and Noah like to clean sometimes. This day, they decided to scrub my antique steamer trunk.

Rockin' the close-ups.

Nobody holds a candle to me in my red high heels.