Christmas!!

Christmas with Jacob's family and all the nieces and nephews!

You can tell Emma is so excited about that doll!

Emma helping grandma open her present.

Emma's final gift - her dream possession!

Can you tell Emma loves Elmo??

Ok, so I have gotten some slack about my lack of updating my blog. I admit it.....I am not very good at keeping this up. But I try! So here is a quick glimpse of our Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

Here is our little Tinkerbell! (Thanks to Aunt Cassandra for letting us borrow it!) Isn't she the cutest little fairie you ever did see? We think so!

Our Vacation in New York City!

Getting on the subway
In front of the Brooklyn Bridge
Katie the teacher with the first ever early human skeleton
Taking a bike ride in Central Park
Eating yummy New York style pizza
In front of the beautiful Statue of Liberty
Emma riding the bull on Wall St.

Time Square
On top of the Empire State building
Viewing ground zero and the museum there.
Gotta have these t-shirts!
Stopping in Time Square for a photo opportunity.

We had so much fun in New York! We would recommend to anyone that this is one place you should visit in your lifetime. There are so many great and wonderful things to visit!! We love New York!

Preserving Marriage - Vote YES on Prop 8

I firmly believe that we need to unite together and vote YES on proposition 8. Here are a few facts to think about:

Having tolerance without condoning.
We can love someone while still maintaining and advocating our standards and beliefs.

Unless Proposition 8 passes, California society will soon undergo a profound change in its basic understanding of marriage and family life.
That will affect everyone in numerous ways. Over time, greater acceptance of nontraditional marriage will be demanded of all people. This could impact the ability of any religion to teach and practice its beliefs.

Proposition 8 will not hurt gays.
In California, the law provides for marriage-related benefits to be given to civil unions and domestic partnerships. Proposition 8 does not diminish these benefits.

Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt children.
If gay marriage remains legal, public schools will put it on equal footing with traditional marriage. Children will likely receive “age appropriate” information about sexual relations within heterosexual and homosexual marriages.

Failure to pass Proposition 8 will hurt churches.
The court’s decision will inevitably lead to conflicts with religious liberty and free speech rights. Society will become more and more hostile to traditional beliefs about marriage and family.

If you would like to post the prop 8 widget on your blog, or if you want more information on protecting the institution of marriage, please go to http://www.preservingmarriage.org/. Let your voice be heard!

SassyCassy Fashion!!

My sister-in-law just set up a new account on Etsy.com and she has some really cute stuff!! Check it out! www.sassycassy107.etsy.com Here are some of the things that I bought:

Happy Days at the Beach!

Emma buried in the sand
Goofy MB and Nate
Emma digging in the sand
Daddy's girl
Too cute Emma!

For Labor Day, Jacob and I took Emma and went to the beach with MB and Nathan. It was so much fun!! It started out with a fight over a parking place, and a lot of drizzle, but when the sun finally came out, it was all worth it. Emma took a few minutes to get used to the water but then she had a blast. While Jacob, MB and Nathan tried to build a fort on the sand, Emma had fun trying to "dig" in the sand with them. She was covered in sand from head to toe and, of course, in the mouth as well. What do you expect? We even put Emma in "the fort" and then buried half her body. I don't even think she noticed! All in all, it made for a very fun day. Thanks MB and Nathan!!

Nice Hair!

My daughter was blessed with a full head of hair which is extremely beautiful - most of the time. This is what my daughter looks like after she sleeps. I pray she takes after her father in this aspect!

My Wonderful Husband

Not only did my wonderful husband surprise me with a birthday party and a trip to Oklahoma for my birthday(to visit a college roomate) but he did this while I was gone!! Can you believe it?? And he also did ALL of the other pending projects we needed to do to our new house like put up chair rail, second coats of paint, finish installing the garage door opener, organize the garage by installing shelving, and a few other things. What an amazing and talented husband I have!

House Pictures

Our living room
Dining Room
Kitchen
Loft
Bedroom

For all those people who actually care what our new house looks like! You'll have to come over to see what everything else looks like!

New House!!

Ok...so its been awhile since our last blog but we have good reason. We moved to a new, huge house!!! We have so much space that we don't know what to do with all of it. I am sure we will fill it in due time but for now we have some empty rooms. Oh well. It's nice to have open space. We will post some pictures later but we wanted to at least get something posted this month!!

Stinkbug

Yesterday Jacob, Emma and I went to a wedding and then over to Jacob's sister's house (Deborah) to help her with something. It was a long day and we did not get home until 9:30, which is 3 hours past Emma's bedtime. Needless to say, she was pretty tired. So I took her out of the carseat and went and laid her in her bed and this is the position she put herself in. Thinking that it looked too uncomfortable, I tried to roll her over but she went right back to this. We like to think of her as our little stinkbug!

Reading Frenzy

Ok...so our lives pretty much revolve around Emma and how cute and funny she is.....but what can you do? Here is Emma trying to be like Mom and Dad and read the newspaper. When she was done trying that, she decided to just roll around in it. They used to be in a neat pile, then again, most things in our house were neat before she came along! Too stinkin' cute!

Gas! Gas! Gas!

Who ever thought that I would some day say that gas broke the ice in a somewhat awkward situation. So we were at a wedding reception for one of my (Jacob) high school friend's wedding reception when one of my ex-girlfriends from high school walked in. Katie had never met her before so we said hi, gave the introductions and all hugged. As we were asking the normal "what are you doing with your life" questions, I was holding Emma and throwing her in the air to make her smile for them when out rips the loudest, juciest "shart" (fart/crap) you have ever heard come from a baby (which would probably put grown men to shame). I awkwardly stared at Katie, because I wasn't sure what reaction to give, while Katie was laughing so hard she started gasping for air. That's when I forced a laugh out which, in return, made my ex start laughing and broke the ice for the remainder of the conversation. As her parents, we find it our duty to recall upon stories like this for Emma's future dates. And trust me.....we'll remember!

Do I need a reason?

Ok...do I really need a reason to post pictures of the cutest girl ever??? NO! Emma is the funniest little baby I have ever known (Gavin is the funniest toddler, though!). Here she is playing with her changing mat and then role playing as a Nephite. I love her!!

First time in the Pool

I know all mom's say this but I am pretty sure I have the cutest girl in the universe! She did really well in the pool, even when we kept dunking her! I am sure she will grow up to be a great swimmer like her daddy.

Emma's Surgery

Ok...MaryBeth yelled at me for not adding to my new blog that I finally started. So I am going to try and make up for lost time! Emma's surgery went really well!! She was sooooooo good I couldn't believe it. She couldn't eat after midnight and her surgery wasn't until nine so I was worried....but she was a trooper. After the surgery she only cried when she first woke up and then she was good! Emma was adorable in her little casts and we even wrote on them. She is now a normal, ten-toed baby!

12 Toes Down to Ten!

Ok...for all of you who are unaware, our little darling was born with 12 toes! For a long time we weren't sure where it came from (it's supposedly hereditary) but we just recently found out that a distant (and very old) relative of Jacob's had 12 toes. Everything seems to come from Jacob's side. We decided to have them removed so Emma could wear the hundreds of shoes that every girl is meant to wear. Last Thursday was the surgery and everything went fantastic! Emma did so great and we were so proud of her! We will not get to see the new, normal feet until the casts come off on Friday but she does look awfully adorable with them on. Thanks for all of the phone calls and prayers!