Week 51-Decor & Celebration

Watching our sweet little Em get excited about decorating the Christmas tree tugs at my heart-strings! Especially since this year we only used ornaments from mine and Coup's childhood--brought back lots of great memories!

Tradition: Help dad finish of the tree with the star topper! Pure essence of the Christmas Spirit! We loved sharing the Nativity story with out two-year old and having her get so excited about Christ's birth.

We also enjoyed sharing other Christmas traditions like 'Rudolf', 'Frosty the Snowman,' and 'The Grinch.' Em was excited to have the light-up candy cane re-appear to decorate her room. The candy cane and the Rudolf were both Couper's favorite Christmas decorations as a kid...and I think it's safe to say they are now hers as well! (side note: she now calls 'eye crusties' "Crusty the snowmans"... there was a little confusion on words at some point, haha!!)

We enjoyed other Christmas traditions with extended family throughout the month as well. Making and decorating sugar cookies with Gramma Nec was a hit!

Gramma Nec and Papa Gregg also treated us to a Utah Symphony family Christmas performance that included Santa helping conduct. Favorite conversation of the night: "Who's that?" -It's Santa, he's a nice guy that comes around at Christmas time. Want to sit on his lap and talk to him? (Wide eyed, serious response:) "NO! No lap. He a nice guy. Noo lap, no lap."

Most large, Kartchner holiday family gatherings include loud, all inclusive rounds of rock-band. Em is hooked. Clearly her favorites are singing and the drums.

We definitely filled our month with happy memories! Glad Em is so comfortable around family so she could fully enjoy it all!

Week 50-Yobs

Our little family of three had a sneaking suspicion what the gender of baby #2 would be. 

I had a dream clear back in spring before I was even pregnant, 

Couper had a strong feeling,

and Em just follows her heart.

Although it was no surprise to us, 

we were elated to have our thoughts confirmed and

be able to share with confidence that Em is going to have a 

BABY BROTHER!

Doesn't HE look adorable already!? HE definitely wasn't shy about letting us know he's all BOY!

We celebrated the fun news with lunch and treats at Gourmandise. 

These are our attempts to snap a hurried photo to spread the news quickly to family...

hence "yob" instead of "boy". Most people got the idea.

20 weeks

Em was so much fun to pick out outfits with! She's in love with her baseball outfit choice, with matching red shoes. She's seriously going to make an amazing big sister!

Week 49- Birthday Weekend

The hectic, yet looked forward to, tradition filled days of the Christmas season seemed to fill our calendar quite rapidly this year. Although we had many fun ideas and potential party plans for Miss Em's second birthday, this is what we decided on for this year:

A family retreat to Salt Lake City!

Complete with a visit to SLC LDS Temple Square Christmas Lights,

The great quality of pics you get from asking some random passerby to snap your photo with the temple and lights in the background...

a walk around City Creek; window shopping and enjoying holiday decor and fountains,

The fountains were a hit! And the adorable candy penguin ornament was our favorite.

out to eat, and swimming at our hotel,

a family movie night when we got home, and just lots and lots of attention and lovin' on our sweet Emelia. We can tell how much she loves family time when she smiles up at each of us and says, "Mommy, daddy, Emi!" Usually followed by hugs. I don't think she (or we) could have asked for a better birthday weekend celebration! Even if it was a couple of weeks early.

When we got home, we surprised her with her birthday gift all set up in her room. Dad made sure many of her 'friends' were there to greet her and join in on the surprise ;).

She's pretty in love with her rock-a-bye!

Happy Birthday our Emelia Noelle. How we love you!

Week 48- We are Thankful!

Of course we have so much to be thankful for this year!

Hopefully this 52 week challenge has captured just that.

For an FHE activity this month we made this poster of some of the things we are thankful for.

I'm thankful for Em's silliness. Although she was being a stinker while trying to capture a "good" picture with our thankful-turkey-poster, when I looked back at them, I realized I love every single one because it shows how much fun we had making it and shows many angles of Emelia's personality.

We got to spend Thanksgiving with the Thompson/Steadman clan this year. The highlights were home-made popcorn with Papa Gregg and the pie-making efforts by everyone who was willing to help. Thankfully Gramma Nec is a patient teacher! 

I'm grateful for small group settings and these fun highlights and traditions that are able to make holidays and events happy ones in Em's memory. Our large Thanksgiving Feast with Steadman extended family consisted of Em curled up in a ball on my lap, face half concealed, cautiously watching everyone out of one eye. Don't worry, she warmed up (somewhat) when it was time to go. :) I'll take the cuddles! Our baby is going to be two in a month!

Week 47- Leaves

A childhood pastime.

Em laughs SO hard, non-stop, while playing in the fall leaves.

Also, if we're on a walk she has to put forth her best effort to crunch every leaf in (and out) of her path. Yelling, "Crunch, crunch!" with each meaningful step.

We love every second of it.

Emelia has been very interested in numbers lately. She will try to count during random activities and always when about to run. Running up and down the hills while playing in the leaves is no exception. "One, two, free!" "Ready, gooooo!"


Silly selfies.