18 months

Dear Emma,

You reached the 18 month mark on Friday.  It's hard to believe you are heading towards two!  You have been such a blessing in our lives. You are energetic, moody, snuggly and the life of the party. 

 

 

Your wispy hair is filling in with various shades of blonde, amber, and red depending on the light.  Tiny curls peeking out from the back make me smile.  You love to have your hair combed and your teeth brushed.  You don't love rinsing your hair in the bathtub or having your face washed though.

You are one loud girl.  Your squeals are full of delight and pure happiness one time and complete annoyance the next.  It's either one or the other with you.  You let us (and Mason) know how you feel the minute you feel it. 

Your vocabulary is taking off.  You are starting to put words together such as "hold me," "I too," and "up please."  You ask for "nack" (snack), "wa-wa" (water), and books among other things.  Every day you surprise us with the words you know.  You have quicky gone from calling your brother Masey to Mason (much to his delight...he kept informing you that you were saying it wrong.)

Your favorite animal is a little pink lamb which you have named "cow" because that's what Mason calls his cow.  You always ask for it when you are going to sleep.  You love to snuggle up with blankets and pillows and carry them all over the house. 

We get a kick out of how animated and outgoing you are.  You love to be with people.  You love music and are often found dancing and singing.  Being outside brings you so much joy.  You often bring us your shoes and pull us to the door repeating "out! out!" and pointing outside until we give in. 

A few more teeth have made their appearance, but we're still waiting for 5 more.  You let the whole world know what is going on with your little teeth and usually have one really bad night when they are coming in. 

You are quite the helper.  Stacking wood, hanging clothes on the drying rack, throwing things away, putting dishes away, and "helping" Mason with whatever his current building project is. 

 

 

Emma, you give us so much to be thankful for every day.  There is so much to love about you.  Some of my favorite moments are watching you play with Mason, snuggling with you in the early mornings and catching your sweet smile and that glimmer in your eyes. 

We love you sweet girl!
xoxo,
mama

building



Mason's been busy building his own bunkhouse.  This means finding every single little toy that will fit in his skidloader...then loading them onto a trailer (a big toolbox) and hauling them to the building site (the couch.) 

All the while informing us that "this is a bunkhouse but it doesn't have bunkbeds." 



first one up

This is what happens when Emma wakes up from her nap before Mason....

His football gets turned into an art project.

happy fall

We spent the last day of summer riding bikes and catching bugs.  Enjoying the small wonders of being outside.  

 

Then the kids went down for naps and my best friend and I headed off to a knitting retreat.  Two days of mind-boggling knitting techinques, chatting with new friends, and catching up on what's new in our worlds as only best friends can do. 

The house is cozy and smelling of fall as jars of applesauce boil in their water bath.  We're ready for a new season and all that comes with it.

wordless wednesday

september

Well, the month of August pretty much passed us by here on the blog.  We finally got a computer up and running again.  Our laptop was a goner, so we pieced together bits and pieces of other computers between Ryan's parents and a good friend of ours and so far we're back in business. 

 

School got off to an awesome start.  I have a wonderful class.  We have lots of new employees and families at our school and some great friendships are starting to form.  My student teacher, Lia, is amazing.  She sees things that need to be done and just does them, asks lots of intelligent questions (keeps me on my toes) and is building great relationships with the students.  I was a little nervous about having someone in my classroom all day, every day, but it's actually made my job more fun than ever, if that was even possible! 

 

Lots of progress has been made on the bunkhouse.  After church we spent the rest of the day on the property.  We had our first picnic on the front porch.  The door and windows (except two) are in.  We're dreaming of paint colors and cabinet options.  Small pockets of yellow aspen leaves were spotted.  The kids came home tired and covered in dirt.  A perfect day.  

 

The first four are from earlier in the summer.

 

 

I love this one.  Emma's learning all about using the tools from her big brother. 



This was one of those weekends where we were really only home to sleep.  Between doctor appointments and inservice at school, garage sales and football games, church and friends, the house is a little crazy, the laundry is piled up, and the kitchen floor may be a bit of a sticky mess. But we're all smiling and counting our blessings.