Let's play catch up!!!

This will be quite a long one...are you ready??

So since our last post back in May (lol) we have been VERY busy!! Not only did Grandma Gordon-Smith come visit but Grandma Bartlett and Auntie Em and Auntie L came also!! We LOVED the visitors!! It was very helpful. Going back just a bit, we moved on May the 3rd-and Emma arrived on May 8th!! And clearly I didn't have everything done before she came, so my wonderful mother and sisters came and helped us unpack and set up home! SO HELPFUL!

Once the family all left, we were all on our own! We had to try and figure out just how you take care of a baby!! They are just so fragile, and you think you will break them!! But you know what, I think we are doing pretty well! We just have an A-mazing child. We are so lucky!

Wika was off to Atlanta in mid June for work, and it was a hard week!! I was doing it truly all on my own. It was very hard for Wika to be away from little Emma though, especially because he wasn't around for her very first smile! Thank heavens for the webcam though...it captured the smile brilliantly! We were SO excited for his return...me more so than Emma. He is incredibly helpful and an amazing father! She is SO daddy's little girl!

Shortly after that we headed down to Utah...yup, we drove it. The wonderful 15 hour drive!! Long drives with infants, not so fun. The trip down we did in two days...lots of stopping (we figured out that sitting in the back with her could push her about another hour, unfortunately it was a little too late for the trip down) So we made a stop in Boise. The trip home we actually did in a day!!! woot woot...it was the whole sitting back with her!

While in Utah we were able to see Jennie and little Wade...so much fun!! I sure miss her. We blessed Emma down in SLC also, we just figured it was way easier to have the three of us go to Utah, instead of the whole fam damly come up here to BC. We had Wika's family come into town to spend this special day with us. His dad came from Russia and his brother from New York! (Thanks Simon and Richard, it was SO great to see and spend time with you) Everyone else was already Utah, thus our reason for heading down!! It was such a wonderful day, and very emotional! This little girl is such a miracle and blessing in our lives, and were are incredibly grateful to have her.

And last but not least, we were able to spend the fourth of July in the great USA!! Now don't get me wrong I love Canada, they just don't know how to celebrate their Birthday!! Canada day (July 1st) is quite boring up here...NO FIREWORKS!! So sad, we do get the day off, but that's about it! There is usually a picnic, but I guess coming from the US I expected firewors. NOW they do fireworks on Halloween-but not for the birth of their nation!?!? Who knows? Anywho, our family on the fourth have a tradition to drive up Parley's canyon and go to Dairy Keen, then drive down Provo canyon and end up at stadium of fire for the fireworks!! We had a blast just playing games, chatting and laughing together. We even did our own fireworks before the show. SO MUCH FUN! I love my family, and I LOVE being able to go home and see them!

Well there you have it...this would be a "condensed" version of the last 2 1/2 months! Sorry it is SO long, I will keep up with the updates, so they should be shorter from here on out.

I am including a little slide show of pictures from the last couple of months-we hope you enjoy!!