April 2015

good at nesting blocks

Easter weekend, Emma supervised Andrew & I as we planted strawberries and blackberry bushes.  The following weekend we planted our garden.  This year we are growing sweet corn, broccoli, kale, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, & beets.  Hoping for a good harvest! We babysat Zachary one day and Kalea, Amaya, & Koa another night, so Emma had fun playing with friends.  This month Emma has begun walking with her shopping cart and walking along the couch.  She tries to put her socks and shoes on by herself.  She likes to brush her teeth. She loves to look out the window and be outside.  Whenever we are outside she points out airplanes, birds and the moon.  She still loves animals, books and music.

playing with Zachary

Easter 2015

Playing with friends

March 2015

The beginning of March, grandma & grandpa came to visit for a week.  Emma always loves having guests that she can show off for and play with!  We went for walks on the nice days grma & grpa were here, did a little shopping, went out for pizza and enjoyed some ice cream at Bridgestreet.  We were sad to say goodbye as always!   Spring came this month, so Emma has enjoyed playing out in the grass, picking up leaves and flowers and trying to eat them. She has also discovered the cat's food and has snuck a few pieces before we could stop her.  Emma is still a good eater and will eat anything, her new favorite food is peanut butter!  If she is eating something she really likes, she will shove all of it in her cheeks and make the sign for more before she swallows it. She gets excited every time I vacuum the house and chases me around as i vacuum and gets upset when i turn it off.  Emma has turned into a cuddle bug lately wanting to lay her head on our laps or her stuffed animals and snuggle. She is now crawling with her belly off the ground so she enjoys getting places faster, especially to the cats!  She is also babbling a lot and making new sounds.  She enjoys going for walks outside, loves to watch the birds and airplanes and points out everything that she sees.

Feb 2015

Reading stories on Valentines Day

Zachary's 1st Birthday Party

Loves to hit balloons

Fun in the snow 2-26-15

This month Emma turned 15 months old and now has 14 teeth.  We are getting closer and closer to having them all in! Emma loves to put things together and take things apart.  She is exploring and getting into more things in the house.  She still loves to read, play ball and chase the cats.  She bobs her head to music and does the hand motions to "twinkle twinkle little star". Emma & I went to her friend Zachary's first birthday party where she enjoyed a cupcake and loved playing with the balloons.  On Valentines Day Emma got to have fun with our good friends Reggie & Bianca while Andrew & I went out.  Ken & Arlene came to visit while I was in Colorado at the end of the month.  Emma enjoyed playing with Meme & Papa as always! We got 7 to 8 inches of snow on the 25th which is a lot for Huntsville.  Last time we had that much snow was 4 years ago when we moved into our house.  The next morning we went out to play in it with Emma who enjoyed touching the snow and eating it.

Trip to Estes Park

I got to fly out to Colorado to visit Teresa & Jesse Feb 20-25.  Thankfully Ken & Arlene came to visit during that time to help watch Emma while I was gone.  I had a great time in Estes Park despite the two snow storms I had to drive through to get to Nashville and Huntsville.  Huntsville never gets snow but decides to have two snow storms the two days I had to drive. But, due to stubbornness I made it both ways safely tacking on just an extra hour of drive time.  The first day in Estes, Teresa & I walked downtown and looked at all the shops while it snowed, snowed, snowed.  It was beautiful!  Sunday, we stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies and went swimming, roller skating, played pool, and wrested in sumo suits.  It was fun being a kid again!  We woke up the next morning to clear blue skies and a great view of the mountains.  Monday, I got a driving tour of Rocky Mountain National Park.  We snow-shoed to Alberta Falls where we enjoyed a picnic and a Stellar Jay watched us eat and then swooped in to enjoy the crumbs when we left.  Teresa & I then hiked to Bear Lake where Jesse picked us up.  We saw Elk, Deer, Coyotes, & Big Horn Sheep.  Tuesday we skiied at Loveland.  We were a little wobbly the first run, but quickly remembered how to ski.  It was a beautiful day to ski with sunny blue skies and great mountain views.  It was a great trip & I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with Teresa & Jesse & see where they live. 

Elk on side of road

YMCA of Rockies snowing

Morning at YMCA of Rockies

YMCA

Big Horn Sheep eating salt off road

Rocky Mt national park

Our friend the Steller Jay

snowshoeing

On the ski lift to the top of the mt

Top of the mt

Jan 2015

Went for a walk on the greenway close to our house where Emma loved to watch the horses

Emma is now 14 mos old. It is not as easy to get a good picture of Emma these days.  She is constantly moving or has her hands in her mouth due to more teeth on the way! I also lost a bunch of pictures of her on my old phone when I broke it, sad! Emma got tubes in her ears this month which has seemed to put her in a better mood lately.  The Dr said there was lots of fluid in both ears.  She is getting Speech and Physical Therapy to help her catch up. Her new favorite things to do are open and shut doors, dresser drawers, the entertainment center, try and touch the cats food & water, try to plug cords into the outlets.  She still loves books and wants us to read the same ones over and over again until we can't take it anymore.  We've started going to storytime at the library on Wednesdays where she enjoys listening and watching the other children. She goes to our neighbors house on Tues & Thurs where she plays with her friend Lily who is 9 mos old and her friend Maggie (the Chocolate Lab). 

Dec 2014

Emma just waiting to knock over the tower Uncle Jesse is building for her

 We drove to Lincoln for a week to celebrate Christmas with family.  Our drive to and from Lincoln were not the best as Emma was very fussy due to her molars coming through, but thank goodness for the portable DVD player which kept her chill for a while.  We were thankful for decent weather and no road delays which allowed us to make good time traveling. We enjoyed our time visiting family as always.  The trips home & time with family are so important to us considering we only get to do it twice each year. Emma loved having so many people to play with and chasing Sadie (grma & grpa's dog).  Sadie was good and tolerated Emma grabbing her face, paws, tail and stealing her toys.  Emma was more interested in Sadie's toys than her own.  2014 did not end the best as Andrew got the flu, Emma got another ear infection and has to get tubes, our washing machine needs to be replaced, and we came home to find our furnace broke needing to be replaced.  But, those are just small things that can be fixed.  God is good and takes care of us and we are very thankful for the many many blessings he pours out on our lives. 

Grma, Grpa, & Emma Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2014

Emma loved playing with Tessa!

"Watch me play this game Uncle Andrew" -Daniel

Visiting with great grandpa

All of the great grandkids at the Olson X-mas party

Emma slurping spaghetti at Olive Garden celebrating Aunt Teresa's birthday. 

November 2014

We had a lot of visitors the month of November.  Grandma & Grandpa stayed for a week & attended Emma's birthday party.  Emma enjoyed knocking down the block towers that grandpa built, playing volleyball with her balloons, and singing "twinkle twinkle little star" with grandma in front of the mirror.  Two days after grandma & grandpa left, Meme & Papa arrived and then Dustin, Heather, Tessa & Daniel.  Emma loved watching & playing with Tessa & Daniel & playing football in the backyard with everyone while Andrew carried her around.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of yummy food, went to Sci-Quest ( children's science museum) with Tessa & Daniel, toured Andrew's lab, and walked the Tinsel Trail (trail of decorated Christmas Trees around Big Springs Park).  We enjoyed having company despite Emma being sick with Roseola, two ear infections, multiple Dr visits and a trip to the ER.  We went to the tree farm with Meme & Papa and picked out our Christmas tree on a beautiful day.  Emma likes to roll under the tree and pull at the pine needles and pull the tree skirt off, so do the cats!

playing cars with grandpa

the morning grma & grpa headed home after Emma had a rough night & ear was draining

Tessa working experiments with Andrew

Emma watching a game of Checkers, she liked playing with the pieces

Mario-cart time with Andrew and Daniel

playing at Sci-Quest

We found our tree

Timber!