December Happenings

Six months between posts isn't too bad, huh?  Sorry.  Haven't been in a bloggy mood.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of our cute birthday girl turning 2.  Love that dimple!

We had our ward Christmas Party last weekend.  Emeree screamed again.  The only year she didn't have a fit was when she was 2 weeks old - and that's because she was asleep.  But I think it's cute that Ethan is covering his ears while she is screaming.

They made paper bag reindeer at the party too.

4th of July

Here are some random pics of our 4th of July.  We (actually, just Michael) spent the morning mixing and pouring cement for our back patio, then we headed to Ray and Carol's house for the afternoon and then over to Rick and Debbie's for the evening.  A busy day. 

And since I had to turn on the hose every 10 minutes for Michael, I technically helped with the cement too. :)  We lost our nozzle, so we can't leave it on.  He told me to turn it on for 13 seconds.  So, I counted and only got to like 8 before he told me to turn it off.  Here's the rest of the conversation...

Me: But I only got to 8; I was supposed to count to 13. (Yes, I do talk in semi-colon sentences - I'm just cool like that)
Michael:  That was 13
Me:  Nu-uh - how did you count
Michael:  1, 2, 3...
Me:  "mississippi-lessly"?

**Bonus points to who can guess where that quote came from.  I was proud that I thought of it on the fly.  And it made Michael smile and laugh at me since he knew exactly where I got the quote.

Anyway, back to the pics...

Buddah belly baby is happy that daddy gave her a tootsie roll pop - mom wasn't so happy.  It stained her jacket :(

 Ethan was not at all interested in going down the slip-n-slide, but he did like the spraying water and watching the girls ride down the slide.

And once Emeree saw the water, she was all about trying to drink it.

Eating watermelon on the deck

Over to Grandma and Grandpa's . . . Ethan had fun pushing Emeree up and down the hill in the wagon.

Look at her go!

 Ethan didn't like the "boom" of the fireworks, so Debbie went inside and found a solution.  Fuzzy earmuffs!  Grandma's are great like that!

Emeree's word list

I made a list of the words Ethan was speaking when he was about 18 months, so I guess I should be a good documentor and list Emeree's at the same age.

She's speaking a lot more than Ethan was at this age, and I think it has to do with being the 2nd child...she copies him and us a lot.  She'll copy almost any word we try to get her to say, but I'm only listing the words that she says on her own.

People
Mom
Dad
Dampa - that's for Grandma and Grandpa (Ethan says it that way so she copied the weird word from him)
Lorelai
Zach - Ethan's buddy from nursery and play dates
We've gotten her to say Emma and Ethan a couple times but she doesn't say them much on her own
Ehmo - Elmo
George - when she wants to watch Curious George

Food
Mik - for "milk" although I have a hard time between that and her word oak for "coat" they sound a lot the same sometimes and she gets mad if I give her the wrong one when she's asking for the other.
hot dog
chip
juice
ter - water
cheese
ceal - cereal
a-nah - banana
apple
ret - carrot

Animals
dog
woof - she usually just makes barking noises when she sees a dog instead of saying "dog"
meow - when she sees a cat

Body/clothes
head - usually pats her head and says the word over and over after she bonks it on the table since she refuses to accept that she is taller than the table and should be ducking when she walks under it
teef - when she wants to brush her teeth
hat
eye
nosh - her version of "nose"
ear
shoe
awk - sock
shirt
chin - I know, kindof a weird one for her age
boot
I-per - diaper

Random
heyo-o - this is "hello" when she carries around one of my old cell phones pressed to her ear
shovel
banka - "blanket"
right dere - saying "right there" and pointing when I ask where her pacifier went
book
a-yar - pacifier
star - i use a star cookie cutter to cut shapes out of her bread for breakfast.  she won't eat toast and won't eat bread good if I don't use a cookie cutter
raw - straw
no
mine
hep - help
boo - likes to hide and scare daddy
up - when she wants out of her high chair
done - when she doesn't want her milk anymore and throws it on the floor at the same time with no warning - so she will be on sippy cups for a while to come


I know she says a few more, but I can't think of them right now.

Take me out to the ball game!

We went to the Tacoma Rainiers Baseball game with family from the Otto side last night!  It was so much fun.  I figured we would stay as late as the kids were happy - since the game started just before bedtime would normally be.  Surprisingly, they lasted till the game ended at 10:30 - we had our fussy moments with Emeree and a fat lip and skinned knee with Ethan running through the stands, but all in all, it was a wonderful night!

Ethan played musical chairs and moved between our row, to sitting with the girls, and sitting with Grandma and Grandpa Sanders.

Emeree had fun watching the game and got caught trying to sneak other people's water. 

And right after the game, they turned out the stadium lights and put on a professional firework show!  Emeree loved it, but Ethan looked worried the whole time and kept his ears covered and had his legs locked around my thigh tightly until they ended.  But he never took his eyes off of them.

Catching Up - Easter Egg Hunts

Ethan helped me dye Easter eggs... I thought I would regret having a 3 year old help, but he was actually really careful and we both had fun. 

We did 2 Easter Egg hunts on the Saturday before Easter...

One at Edgemont Park - that one is crazy.  They section off the areas of the park for different ages and then throw plastic eggs all over the ground.  It's a free for all and lasts a couple minutes since the kids swoop them up as fast as possible.  We didn't score too many since there were a lot of kids and mine are young and not really into the "race" concept yet.

Then we headed to my Grandma's house for the real egg hunt.  It was nice weather this year so we got to do it outside for a change.  This one is way more relaxing and fun than the crazy public one.

Wayyyy behind in posting!

I realized I never even posted our Santa pictures from Christmas... better late than never.  I love how Ethan is so uninterested and focused on his candy cane while Miss Emeree is having a hissy fit.

This smile of Ethan's is my favorite!!

And I tend to use Emeree's lap to hold things while I'm carrying her in the car seat and don't have enough hands to carry everything... like library books/movies, and even a big bowl of pasta.  I love how she's peeking out from behind the bowl.  It reminds me of that one cartoon comic strip guy.

Minute to Win it Activity

Michael and I are both leaders in YM and YW at church.  Our joint activity last night was a Minute to Win it competition.  One of the games is called "Junk in the Trunk" where you strap a kleenex box on your back and jump and wiggle around to get all the ping pong balls out. . . here's a link to the game on the tv show.

After all the youth made it through this game, we strapped it on Ethan and let him try it.  He kept it on and tried for about 30 minutes.  After the first few minutes of not getting any out, he settled for running around and picking up the ones from other games and collecting them in the box.

Trying to Exercise

Michael found this plan to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row and 200 sit-ups in a row.  It's supposed to be a 6 week plan, but of course since he's Michael, he condensed it into a 3 week plan.  And of course he printed out a spreadsheet for me too.  (but my numbers are a lot lower than his - yesterday he had to do 4 sets of 45-50 sit ups each - I only had to to 4 sets of about 15 each).

And of course that means that the kids crawl all over us while trying to exercise.  We mostly try to do these when it's nap time or bed time.  It's a little easier that way :)

We don't use the "ab roller" thing normally, but it's impossible to do a sit up with a 2 year old on your chest, so we got this out of the garage so Ethan could participate.