Everything that has happened since my last post and Christmas!!

So A LOT has happened, and I know that I am not so great at updating the blog. So here is the "quickest" recap I can give you. It's a long one full of A LOT of pictures!! Hope you enjoy.

We put up Christmas the Monday after Thanksgiving and Emma enjoyed helping daddy decorate.

This is the product of spaghetti and brownies...so cute!

One Monday evening for FHE we decided to make a gingerbread house. Here is daddy and Emma just after we put the house together...

Emma patiently waiting to "decorate" (aka eat the candy) the house

the finished product (if you look close Emma ate the snowmans head)

This is attempt #1 with Santa. This was at our ward Christmas party up in Surrey, as you can see she did ok.

Here she is excited for 2 reasons:

1. she is off Santa's lap

2. she got a present from Santa

What was her present you ask? It was a puppy!! And she LOVED her puppy

Here is attempt #2...we are now in Utah and my brother in laws work had Santa come by their office so we decided to stop by. Now by the looks of this picture she looks as though she is okay with Santa, but in reality she was sliding right off his lap and I just happened to capture a picture that made it look as though she was actually sitting on his lap!

This picture says it all....please don't make me sit on that mans lap!

Thanks for the candy cane Santa! I am sure you are a very nice man but I am going to enjoy you from over here.

So we are now heading down as a family to see the lights at Temple Square, Emma thinks she can get us there the fastest!

Emma walking hand in hand with Saydie and Sadie's mom, Syd. Too cute for words.

Family photo op. The only picture we got...SO COLD

There you have it!! That's what's been going on over here.

I can't wait to tell you about our Christmas Eve and Christmas, but that is another post. I promise not to wait another 2 months!! Please stay tuned!!

Happy New Year!

Guess who's 18 months old?

You know what that means? NURSERY!! YAY!! Today was Emma's first time in the nursery (without mom or dad in there) and she LOVED it! We are SO happy to have those beautiful 2 hours to actually learn and grow without the little munchkin!! We love you Emma and are SUPER proud of you!!

actually she is 1 week away from 18months, but it sure didn't stop us!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a WONDERFUL Halloween!! Emma got to go Trick-or-Treating AND Trunk-or-Treating!! She absolutely LOVED it, as did her daddy because he now gets to eat all the candy that she isn't allowed to eat!! Let's just say, BOTH my kids are VERY happy!!



As you can tell she was a cheerleader, not just ANY cheerleader...A UTAH CHEERLEADER!! She was so stinking cute too!! She cheered SUPER hard, and it worked. THE UTES WON!! GO UTES!

Pickin' Pumpkins

Last Monday for family night we decided to head to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins! The night before we had quite the down pour, but Monday was actually a pretty decent day! So we loaded up and headed to Abbotsford!!

OOPS, remember how it rained?? YEAH, it was SO muddy!! So we parked on the street and walked into the farm...did you know that broccoli STINKS!! It took a good 5/10 min or so to walk in and we still got our shoes nice and muddy. And of course as soon as we got there they owners showed up with the nice ''tractor train'' that brings you in and out of the farm! NICE TIMING!

Anywho, we had a lot of fun in the cold wet mud collecting our pumpkins!! Emma loved just being able to run around!!

CHEESE

On the train with daddy

playing with the goats, they later kind of bit her....she's okay though

on the train, again, with mommy


Back at the car THANK HEAVENS!!

Emma at the State Fair

We just got back from Utah where we were for 5 weeks and had a WONDERFUL time! We left Vancouver a little early so Grandma could take Emma to the State Fair before it ended. She LOVED riding the horses so here's a short clip of her on the pony ride AND a short clip of her watching her riding the horses with Rylee (her cousin) :).

I know we're a little biased since she is our kid but holy todelo shes ADORABLE! We also took family photos and as soon as we get them we will be sure to post them!

Shes Growing Up SOOOO FAST!

So we were sitting in the computer room the other day WITH the door closed when ALL of a sudden we lost Emma! Somehow she figured out how to open a DOOR!!! We just HAD to see this in action so this is Emma now opening doors AND giving us her ADORABLE "CHEEEESE" face!

She tends to "enjoy" Daddy's office and "tries" to work so we couldnt really get her to do other tricks! Stay tuned though! We have an AMAZING dancer on our hands!

'Tis the Season!!

We are SO excited for the upcoming football season!!

GO UTES!!!

it's gonna be GREAT

Emma and the Ducks

So ... if you havent heard through the grapevine yet I was recently layed off work. This seems to be both a blessing and a trial but so far things have worked out well for us.

I am working on my own businesses at home which allows us a bit more flexibility with how we spend our time :). So ... in the spirit of keeping it fun and cheap we though it would be a fun idea to take Emma to "Stanley Park" and feed the ducks!

She is easily the most adorable girl in the world but apparently feeding ducks isnt as easy as we thought it would be!

This Post is Rated PG-13

So ... I have been to Manchester quite a few times now and every time I pass this certain "car wash" it cracks me up.

My wife will attest ... my mind is generally in the gutter so I apologize in advance for this PG-13 post :).

Stanley Park, Water Park!

Another SUPER FUN AND EXCITING thing we did while my family was in town is...we went to the Stanley Park water park! We finally got a nice warm sunny day and thus we headed down to play in the water!

Bryce, Sam and Ellie were off in their own little workd so I didn't get any pictures of them...but they had a GREAT time!

Here is Emma just wondering what you guys are doin??

Grandma Bartlett can be SO mean...she thought it would be fun to make Emma run through all the water, and Emma just didn't see it coming! It was pretty funny though. The poor girl kept turning to try and escape the "rain" but wherever she turned she just kept getting wet! If I could have only gotten a picture of her face... it was like "what the heck, how do I get out of here"

seriously Grandma...

OK, OK it wasn't THAT bad!!

yup, there it is, that is pretty much the face of a one year old wondering what her Grandma just put her through

now she is starting to get used to the water...it actually was pretty cold water. She was a trooper and just LOVED the fact that she could literally run ANYWHERE!

The last fun thing we did is go to Lynn Canyon. Unfortunately the suspension bridge was closed!!! It was to re-open...are you ready for this...the day after we were there!! TYPICAL!! That was also the day my family was leaving!! (sniff sniff) So we didn't get to go across it. We could, however, hike down the Baden Powell trail to where the river was.

My hubby being the INSANE man that he is thought it would be fun to take a swim in the EXTREMELY cold water. Those would be the ONLY pictures I got that day. And I know that if I even dare post them for you all, I would be in A LOT of trouble! I love him too much to do that to him!! Sorry everyone, I know you wanted to see my SEXY hubby in his swimming suit, but he is FOR MY EYES ONLY!!

*I could send them via email if anyone wants to see!! HAHAHAHA*

Shannon Falls

On our way back to Vancouver from Whistler we stopped to see Shannon Falls! It was SO pretty!

Love, LOVE, LOVE this picture!

An attempt to get all the kids together...can you tell which child is NOT cooperating!?!? (suprise suprise)

The rest of the group headed up to get a "closer" look at the falls. By this time, Emma had had it! So we went back down and played on the grass and waited. My parents came back with me too! So these picts are her just playing!

she fell once, and I didn't want her to cry so I fell and started laughing...then it was a game and she just kept falling on purpose and then laughing!

look what I found....

yummm

Whistler, BC

While my family was in town we decided to take a day and go up to Whistlerr! The drive up to Whistler is probably one of the most spectacular drives you will EVER take! They call it "The Sea to Sky Highway" and really, that is pretty much what it was. They unfortunately do NOT have any "viewpoints" on the way up where you actually just look out onto the ocean...so you'll have to just take my word on this one! :o)

So Whistler will be the home of the Olympic Village for the 2010 Winter Olympics!! SO EXCITING!! It was so much fun to go up and see a lot of what I saw in Utah during the 2002 games!! I never thought I would be living in a city that would be hosting the Olympics again, but here I am and I am pretty excited!! It's SO close!

Here is Emma with her 2 grandpas...such a great picture! With one grandpa in the Czech Republic and one in Utah, its very rare when we get to have them both around at the same time!! Couldn't pass up this great picture!

Emma just pushing the strollers around, she was great as long as we weren't pushing her...she just HAD to walk.

Ahhhh, the infamous podium shot!! Just as I remembered it!

And then the bobsled!

Can you see Emma?

And this is what you get when you have to disturb Emma from her wonderful walk in Whistler to get a photo of her and grandpa by the great canadian moose dressed as an RCMP.

my dad at the base of Whislter mountain...it's a bike park right now!

Myself with my father-in-law, this is one of the viewpoints we stopped at on the way down to Vancouver. This is on the "sea to sky highway" (just a little glimpse of the gorgeous drive, just not of the gorgeous ocean)