Emmeline at 5 Months

Emmeline has really started to grow, or at least she looks like it. Finally she's gotten a little bit of chub-we've finally progressed to 3-6 month clothes. And she's getting to be a lot more fun as she interacts more and more. We just love her to pieces!

Emmeline's accomplishments to date:

Laughing: We haven't gotten her to laugh yet--to my great disappointment--but she does smile from ear to ear all the time.

Kisses: When we give Emme kisses, she will open her mouth and turn her head to try and give you a kiss--adorably messy. However this has now progressed to her trying to eat our faces (cheeks, chins, noses). It must be because she's teething, but it's hilarious how hard she tries to chew on us.

Teething: Luckily she's only had a few days that were rough so far, but I'm sure many more are ahead. One of her canines poked through for a little bit, but then it disappeared again. But pretty often she chomps on her binky, our faces, our fingers, her hands, apple slices, her clothes--pretty much anything she can get. But she doesn't like cold fruit or cold teething toys, she cries and spits it out every time I try.

Grabbing: She has started to reach and grab for things--of course they are usually things that she can't have, such as my silverware, my hair and earrings, or the computer cord. The first time she did it, it really took me by surprise. But now she grabs for everything, the church hymnal, my plate, basically whatever I'm holding or is in her line of vision. I'm hoping this is the motivation she needs to get her rolling around the room or crawling. Maybe I sound crazy, and I probably am, but once she is more mobile I feel like she'll be more independent, which I'm ready for.

She will also grab one of the spokes of her crib and hang onto it for dear life as she screams for me to come to come get her after a nap. And she often falls asleep with her fingers or toes curled around one of the spokes. Adorable!

Rolling: She can roll both directions. Though she's only rolled from back to front a handful of times. However, she hasn't figured out that she can roll to get places and she only rolls over occasionally.

Sitting: She is what you would call a supported sitter and has been for a long time, but now she's progressing to sitting up on her own. Since she was a month old she loves to stand on our laps, in fact it has been a struggle to get her to sit down, so she hasn't really had much practice until now. Right now she does the whole bent in half thing that looks extremely uncomfortable.

Solid Food: Emmeline has just started eating pureed fruits and veggies and loves it! She can't get enough, especially carrots! Unfortunately the spit up continues with solid foods :(

Clapping: Her favorite thing is clapping. All we have to do is start clapping and she will stop fussing, grin from ear to ear and coo, while doing her own version of clapping. She'll clasp both hands together and wave them up and down. Unfortunately we can't start clapping during church to calm her down :(

Escape Artist: We've used her bumbo chair for everything up until now, but we may need to invest in a high chair because she keeps trying to escape. She arches her back and throws herself backward as far as she can, it's only a matter of time before she tips it over. This makes me sad because it has been so nice to have a place where she can sit without me worrying about her.

This is probably one of the best example of her huge grin and how much she likes to stand. 

Photo shoot for her father's day card.

Sometimes she loves her food so much that she won't wait for me to wipe off her face :)

She loved to play with Eric's beard--while he had one. 

Memorial Day Memories

Memorial Day wouldn't be Memorial Day without remembering our loved ones. Nearly every Memorial Day since my family moved back West was spent in Idaho at the Lewisville and Memorial Cemeteries. This year, we visited the Ucon cemetery with Eric's family. I love that we both have family ties in Idaho, it makes living here feel more like home. 

While Eric was deployed to Iraq, his grandpa Andrus passed away on Eric's birthday, Jan 7. At the time it seemed like such a sad thing to happen on his birthday, but I wonder now if it isn't a sweet reminder of the close bond Eric and his grandpa shared. That was a hard week, I didn't know exactly how to "be there" for Eric, especially when separated by thousands of miles. I've never been very good at handling sad news. What do you say? What can you say? 

But it's at times like these that I'm grateful that we live so close that we can go and visit and remember. I'm also grateful for Memorial Day for giving us an extra opportunity to remember, because in the daily hustle and bustle it is too easy to forget. 

I've always loved cemeteries, they are so quiet and peaceful. It's a great place to think.

Afterwards, we headed over to my Grandma Harris's for a luncheon. I love our luncheons, always a fun time to chat and catch up. Another reason I love living in Idaho Falls, we can go to nearly all these family get-togethers.

Memorial Day Yard Project

With Eric being gone all but the weekends we had a hard time finding the time to rota-til a garden and do the landscaping we'd been wanting to do. But then Memorial Day came to the rescue. Eric got a 3 day weekend so we made plans to make the most of it. We informed family that we wouldn't be planning on doing much else besides working in the yard. Well they all rose to the occasion and before we knew it we had a troupe of people helping us in the yard. There's no way we could have gotten done what we did without them.

First we rented a sod cutter and cut out a section of grass for a garden plot. This turned out to be no mean feat, and a beast of a machine to handle. But we managed to get the plot and large sections of grass cut out around the house for some landscaping. We didn't plan on doing quite so much landscaping right away, but when we realized what a pain the machine was, we decided we might as well get it done.

The for a large portion of the day, my parents, Eric's parents and siblings helped us by watching Emmeline, rota-tiling the garden over and over again, prepping the soil for planting and planting flowers and shrubs around the house.

Emmeline was played and entertained with so I got to go out and help. I got so into working that hours would pass and all of a sudden I would think, "oh my goodness, I've forgotten all about Emmeline, I hope she's okay." And I would go inside and find her cooing at Annie and Andrew (Eric's siblings). It was so nice to be able to let loose a little and take care of things besides Emmeline.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures before, during or after, so here are some pictures of what it looks like 2 months later. I've added more plants since then, planted the vegetable garden and Annie helped put in the mulch when she came to visit.

I love the transformation. Our yard went from super drab to pretty fab almost over night. Though we still have many plans for the yard still in the works (a deck, sprinkler system, trees, fire pit, and lots more flowers) I'm pretty happy and impressed with ourselves.

This is the only pictures of the backyard I have from before. But it was all like that, solid grass and nothing else. 

A picture from last summer, before we bought the house. The one lasting thing the previous owners did was plant tiger lilies under the window. I'm so glad they did, they add a nice pop of color. 

We haven't really changed anything here, just planted our own annuals and planter. But next year I plan to plant some clematis, and take out some of the pavers and plant shrubs and roses next to the house. 

If you look to the right you can see the evergreen that we planted. We continued the flower bed around the corner.

Finally, this yard desperately needed more trees. So does the neighborhood. People, please plant more trees in your yards!

Pretty, pretty. 

We planted the evergreen, some perennials and a shrub here. We also added edging and mulch. It's amazing what a little mulch and edging will do. 

To the right of the picture above. Here is our little lilac bush and some dianthus. 

Full shot of the backyard. It looks so much better with some landscaping. Before it was quite shabby looking with the grass hitting the foundation. Everything is still pretty small, but I can't wait to see what everything looks like in a few years. 

Left side of the backyard

Love, love these whimsical flowers, I can't wait for them to spread. 

Our first strawberries!

Right side of the backyard. 

Different shot of the right side.  

I feel so grownup having roses. Now if I can just remember to prune and dead head them.

Full shot of the backyard. Right now there's just the garden, but we plan to plant some trees this fall and add more landscaping over time. 

I love having a garden. I have to admit, I was dubious that it would actually grow. But all but the cucumber and carrots survived. 

Emmeline's 4 Month Stats

Weight: 11.2 lbs. = 7%
Height: 24 in. = 42%
Head Circumference: 15.3 in. = 4%

We have a skinny, but moderately tall baby with a small head :) Yay, no freaky-looking baby with a huge head ;)

Emmeline at 4 Months and Surviving without Eric

Eric has been at the Police Academy for about 6 weeks now, and Emmeline and I have somehow survived fairly well on our own. To break up the monotony we try to do something with friends at least once a week.
One week my best friend from High School, Felicia Bennett and her little girl Evelyn came to visit for a day. That was so much fun to see them and chat. In fact, we got so busy chatting, that we never even left the house the whole time she was here, we just talked and talked and talked. Reminded me of our old sleepovers when we would stay up til 4 or 5 am talking. I wish I had taken pictures though, totally spaced it on that.

The next week, my old friend and roommate Andrae Monson came to visit with her little girl Naomi. That was also fun. We tried to get the two little ones to interact, but Emme is still pretty little for that and Naomi is a mover and a shaker.

The following week my friend Katie Nielson came to visit with her little boy Chad (man I guess it's my turn to go visit people). Eric and Katie's husband Justin were roommates when we were dating, so we ended up doubling a lot, and have been friends ever since. Chad was born 3 weeks after Emmeline, and its been fun to be in the same place in our lives and compare pregnancy woes and baby milestones.

 Their courtship has been planned since they were in the womb, and they must agree with the idea, because at just 4 months old they're holding hands :)

And this past week I went down to Utah to spend a week with my parents and sisters. It was nice to get out of the house, but Emmeline had a little bit of a hard time napping and sleeping in a different place.

We had a ton a fun. We went shopping with my mom at the Outlets (it's better to just wait and go shopping there, than settling for things in Idaho Falls). We saw Tori and Kevin's apartment, and had a girl's night out at Olive Garden. We saw Heather and Cam's new house and helped them weed and plant flowers in their yard. And had a BBQ for Mother's Day at my parents house with everyone. Eric came down for the weekend and we even got to on a date by ourselves. So of course we went to the Dairy keen :) And a lot of time we relaxed around my parents house and let grandma and grandpa play with Emmeline.

When we aren't visiting Utah or hanging out with friends we go for walks in the park, take random trips to the mall, and work in the yard.

Here's what else Emmeline's been up to:

• Holding and supporting a bottle if it only has an ounce or two in it

• Tried rice cereal for the first time

• Exploring and touching faces

• Still loves those hands!

• Half raises her arms when she wants to be picked up

• Likes to be sitting or standing and watching all the action. She doesn't like to be left on her back and will do the longest crunch I've ever seen to try and sit herself up

• Kicking, moving, and squealing like crazy during bath time

• Rolling over from front to back AND back to front

Proof that she can roll over.

Emmeline at 3 Months

We've been in our new house for about a month now, and we love that it is warming up outside and that we can go on walks in the neighborhood and park. And sometimes if she falls asleep, I park the stroller under a tree and read my book. Being a SAHM is such a hard life ;)

Emmeline only takes short naps at home but will take long naps in the car, which gives me a nice little break. So I tend to run superfluous errands so I can get these little breaks.(My favorite place to go is to Once Upon A Child and score adorable clothes for Emmeline--you just have to be picky and go often) She'll fall asleep pretty quickly in the car and then I can be out and about for at least 2 hours, sometimes more, and she'll still be asleep. Sometimes when I get home and put her carseat in her room she will keep sleeping for a few more hours. A few times I've even had to wake her up because it had been way too long since she had last eaten. So, naturally I take full advantage of this, naturally.

Other Accomplishments from the past month:

• Unfortunately, Emmeline has stopped sleeping completely through the night, but will at least give me a 5-hour stretch.

• Emmeline will "talk back" when you talk to her. And we've devoted hours to doing just that since she started doing it.

• She can rotate around a little bit on the floor by wiggling. It's not much, but occasionally I've come back to find her in a different direction.

• She can roll to her side.

• She is the champion of tummy time. Since day 1 she's had pretty good head control and even though I've been terribly inconsistent with tummy time she can lift her head and upper body off the ground.

• She plays with her hands A LOT.

• Though she can't support the weight, she likes to help hold the bottle in place.

• Her new favorite thing is to put her fingers through the handle on her binkie. Though this means that she also pulls it out constantly, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by mistake. She can sort of put it back in her mouth, but usually only gets the plastic corner in, and then she cries until we put it back in. So we're on constant binkie patrol, which can get quite frustrating at naptime.

During one of our trips to the park

And these last few pictures kill me. She was on a roll during this photo session.

"Pretty please... with a cherry on top!"

"When I was a young child..."

Emmeline's Baby Blessing

Because we are insane and because it made sense, we moved and had Emmeline's Baby Blessing all in the same weekend. It made for a crazy week, but it was nice to have all the help moving in and getting settled while everyone was in town for Emme's big day.

Thanks to family and borrowed trailers we didn't have to rent a uhaul, we just made several trips with the trailers. We had so many people helping that everything loaded and unloaded pretty quickly. We even managed to get almost everything unpacked and hung all the pictures in the family room. That was definitely an improvement from past moves, when it took us months to get pictures hung.

Then of course I stayed up half the night on Saturday finishing Emmeline's blessing dress, headband and blanket. People thought I was crazy but I really wanted to make her blessing dress. It was a challenge, but I was pretty happy with the results, especially being my first time sewing with satin and lining fabric.

We decided that we wanted to bless Emmeline in our old ward, rather than blessing her in our new ward on our very first Sunday.

We were so happy that so many family members were able to come and share the special day with us and Emmeline, especially those that were able to stand in the circle with Eric.

I was so nervous that Emmeline would cry through the whole blessing, but she was an angel, and the blessing was beautiful and emotional for both Eric and I.

Afterwards we headed over to my grandmother's house for a luncheon. Many thanks to her and everyone who helped put that together. It was so nice to have time to visit with everyone who came.

Emmeline Grace Rose

We waited too long to take family pictures and when we did, Emmeline was screaming. 

And somehow, we didn't get any pictures with the whole Rose family. I know we took some, but maybe they are on someone else's camera. Anyone have any?