Catching up...

Well, we've had a busy couple of months... I always think, "oh next time I'll update my blog weekly!" but...alas that may never happen.....

(written 3 weeks ago...)It is so hard to believe that Emerson is 4 months old! a third of her first year of life is over? I am enjoying her so much! I don't want her to grow up too fast! Here are a few pics of her in the past week. She is growing and changing so fast! She is smiling all of the time, she even has a little laugh (usually only if she's being tickled). She has so many rolls on her legs I've lost track... as you can see in the first picture, her cheeks aren't small either :)

She spends lots of time with a furrowed brow. If not smiling, this is the face I see most of the time. very contemplative. But as the days go by, she is smiling more and more.

Also, since my last post we "did the Puyallup" We had a great time riding rides, looking at animals, the adults thoroughly enjoyed people watching and eating fair food and lots of it!!

Here is Hudson coming down the "Giant Slide" all by himself!

Emerson tried out a few new seating options in the past month...

the johnny jump-up...which she seems to like a lot. She doesn't have a clue what she's doing, but she ends up spinning herself around so her environment keeps changing and she doesn't get bored :)
Matt gives her 'spa treatments' when he clips her fingernails or gives her a bath, he always says to her "are you enjoying your spa day?"
Hudson is enjoying school...a lot!! He wrote this up on the chalkboard one day, just because.

Here is Emerson in another new seat of hers... this is her 'bumbo' seat. She likes it, but it takes her some work to keep herself upright. Recently she is liking it better as her neck gets stronger and stronger.

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, Craven Farms in Snohomish. The kids had a ball playing in the corn and we picked out a couple of pumpkins. It's always fun to run around and try to find the perfect pumpkin...and snap a few pumpkin photos along the way...

Then came the pumpkin carving... Emerson...well, Emerson...slept right through it.

But the boys had a fun time carving and pulling the guts out.

I meticulously separated all of the seeds and as I write this I realize they never got roasted. How sad!!

And for those of you who made it ALL the way to the end of this...

Here is a video of Emerson's first giggle. Not only was it caught on video, but she has only done it one other time!! We had so much fun listening to her!! Only caught a bit on video, but well worth it! and of all the things to make her laugh... it was a cough!

Emerson is 11 weeks old!

Well, its been a busy month and a half!
We've had lots of fun and have been adjusting well to life with a little one.

She has always smiled for us in her sleep (as pictured below)...

but now we get awake smiles too! we can't get enough of them!! she was quite stingy with them at first, but is starting to give them out a bit more lately. She loves to be talked to and oogled at! She is such a good baby!! She has developed a little bit of a fussy time where she cries on and off for about an hour before bed some nights. But other than that we don't typically hear her cry. She is now sleeping 6-7 hours at night. Not too bad.
Did I mention that when she smiles she's ALL IN!! She gets her whole body into it and squinches up those little eyes... and even shows us her gums!
This is the other sweet little face we get. Docile, sweet, furrowed brow, sometimes she looks concerned, sometimes she has the look, "what on earth are you talking about??" she keeps us entertained with her faces for sure!
In July she survived the hottest day EVER recorded in Seattle! I heard 2 different temperatures here in Woodinville, 105 and 107. In my car it said 118!! Thank goodness it wasn't really that hot! Emerson is usually extrememly cold and even in the warmest of temperatures I keep her in long sleeves and pants. But for 2 days, she was happy wearing just a diaper. We finally found a way to warm her up!! 100 degrees!! And she even got to dip her teeny tiny toes in the neighbor's pool. Of course, even with a hat on it was too bright for her to open her eyes so she had no idea what was going on!
Here she was taking a nap on the ottoman in her diaper. The boys enjoyed cooling off too!! Great way to beat the heat, and spend time with their good buddies!
Hudson turned 6!! We had a 'movie' party for him. He was surrounded by all of his favorite little buddies. they played outside for a little while, then watched their movie and ate popcorn, then they went outside to open presents and eat cake just in time for it to rain!! it wasa probably 85 degrees and raining! strange weather! but the kids had fun running around and playing in the rain too!!
Here is Hudson on his birthday morning. For breakfast he wanted a Maltby Cafe cinnamon roll. As you can see, it is the size of a birthday cake!!
Here is Emerson, all dressed up in her party dress for Hudson's birthday party. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll remember any of it...she slept through the entire party!
Right after Hudson's 6th birthday, he got to visit the ER for the second time in one month! the first time he split his forehead open, just above his eyebrow. The second time, it was his chin. He says that he'll wait until he's 7 to go back, but when he's 7, the thinks he'd like to try a broken bone. then he laughs. I do not.
Emerson got a towel from her great aunt Pat that had her name embroidered on it! How cute is she wrapped up in her sweet towel? and I think that's even a smile... she likes her little towel!
the boys have continued their weekly hikes, they have only done one repeat, the rest have all been new locations and they've had a great time on each and every trip!! here are a few pics of their hikes...one of their hikes was even an overnighter! They backpacked in with their tents and everything and got to camp out in the real wildnerness!!!
here they are with packs on...with our friends the Knibbes! What a great trip they had!!
When they're not hiking, they find plenty of thing to entertain themselves with! they love to dress up with random things and make costumes out of all sorts of things!!
Another great summer activity... Camden has been cooking. He loves to cook and on one of our nice warm days, he made peanut butter ice cream sandwiches! they were absolutely delicious!!!
We took Emerson to her first Mariners game this month! She seemed to enjoy herself :) the boys and I certainly enjoyed eating kettlekorn and garlic fries(the gift that keeps on giving)!

The boys are enjoying 'playing' with their little sister. they think she's pretty cool!! Most of the time they're laughing at her funny faces and funny body movements...
Sometimes they're laughing because they've put her hood up on her hoodie and Matt makes up rap songs about stealing milk from the milk bank... and being a gangster. It makes the boys laugh so hard!!The boys each painted a tulip picture for Emerson's room. I thought it would be fun if they got to help decorate and they loved doing it! I'll post pictures of the paintings hanging in her bedroom next time.

Just playing on the floor... she loves to lay on her back and kick her legs and her arms look like she's boxing.
Here is Emerson (in the shade) but enjoying the outdoors. It was 80 so she wasn't too cold :)
Our most recent outing was a trip to the Locks in Seattle to listen to Grandpa Kenny's band, the Tempos. We had a few friends join us and had a good time. It was a beautiful day and great music!! Camden holding Emerson at the Locks.