Spring break

This past week was spring break for Hunter from school and Ave from preschool. Spring break is always fun because it is not too long of a break like summer can sometimes be but a nice time off from the busyness of a school schedule. We started it off by a weekend of spring cleaning and dejunking which then led to a very productive garage sale. Hunter and Ave loved talking to everyone as they came up to look and stuff and hand them a plastic bag for their purchases. As for E it was all about containment.

Then on Sunday it was over to a pretty spot in Gilbert to have some fun taking some shots of the girls in their matching tutus. It was girly heaven for mom watching them together they are so cute.Then on Wednesday it was off to Jump Street for a birthday party. I had never been there before but the kids loved it. It is pretty much a giant warehouse with trampolines and inflatables everywhere. They have a section for dodgeball and a foam pit you can jump into it is pretty sweet. That was a blast. Then Grandma Tobar came into town and we had a fun St. Patrick's day. The next day we went to the mall for a while and the kids played at the new mall play area and we took then by the pet store so we could all check out the puppies.

Ave and Eden had so much fun climbing and jumping off the equipment and running around the play place in circles. This was the first time I have actually let Emma get down and crawl around in the play place and she loved it. After about five minutes a two year old little boy came over and started talking to her and hugging her. He was adorable the shirt his dad put on him however was not. He had a shirt on that said "I dig older chicks" and then had the skin girl silhouttes on the sides. Ridiculous. Get away from my daughter buddy. I am sorry that you are only two and your dad who is over to the side sporting a similarly ridiculous shirt as well dressed you that way. He kept coming over and patting her on the back and talking to her. Emma crawled around and would just look at him and then move on to something else. A few minutes later some more babies showed up. Soon she had a couple of friends of the male persuasion in her midst. It was cute to watch how she reacted to them. We had such a nice rest of the week/weekend with mom just visiting, playing games, going to Brittany's mission homecoming and throwing Em an early Tangled birthday party even though her birthday isn't until next week. Love having the kids home. Spring break is so nice.

Wishing for a treehouse

Hunter lately can't get enough of climbing. Climbing on the wall up on a fence but particularly in trees. He loves to climb trees. He is always looking forward to going to Grandma and Grandpa Burch's house to be able to climb in their fruit trees and help collect grapefruit or lemons. He likes to get up in the tree in our front yard and climb all the way to the top as high as he can get. He tells me all the time that he dreams of getting to build a treehouse. I hope we get to some day for him. In our house right now we have such a small back yard that we really rely on the community park for climbing and play. No trees of our own yet to construct a treehouse in. Hopefully soon but until then he will climb whatever he can find. :)

Freeze this moment

Do you ever wish you could just freeze time for a little while. Not completely because there are always new and wonderful things happening and waiting to happen. Life has to progress and only continues to get more full and I get that. However I sometimes wish I could freeze a moment and then step back into it and be there again. This was one of those moments for me. The other day we were just having a nice Saturday at home as a family playing outside working on projects etc etc. I was busy running around working on projects and getting stuff done and Emma just kept crawling after me from room to room fussing for me to hold her. Determined to get stuff done I would pick her up for a second to love on her and then put her down and get back to it. She would try to play for awhile but undoubtedly would soon be hot on my trail once again. After lunch we had Hunter and Ave take a little rest time and I looked over and Emma was sitting on the floor reaching up for me. I picked her up grabbed her doll and went over and turned on the radio. I found some nice slow music and started to dance with her. She laid her little head down against my chest, I mean really snuggled in. Within minutes I felt her body relax and the full weight of her sleeping body in my arms. I kept on dancing. I could felt her chest rising and falling as she took breaths, her hair smelling sweet of baby lotion her little fist clenched with a handful of doll hair. Of course tears came, happy tears. I love this little girl so much. I kept on dancing with her until my feet and back were aching to stop. It felt so good to hold her close and nuzzle her and squeeze her. She is my cuddliest baby so far. It was such a wonderful moment. One of those where you really feel the depth of your love for this little person. I wish I could freeze this moment and I guess I can because before I laid her down I had Deke come in and take a quick picture. It is not the same as being able to be right there in the moment again but looking at it will always remind me of its sweetness.

Things I want to remember...

Here are some things about Emma that I am loving right now:

* Every morning I wake up to hearing ocean waves and then lullaby music followed by the sounds of tiny fingers pushing buttons over and over again. This is Emma in her crib turning on the different sounds of her ocean themed crib soother. Not fussing or crying for me to come get her but sitting in there with her blankie in one hand a baby doll in the other and pushing the buttons watching the little crab pop up and down and the fish swim back and forth. She will sit in there and play quietly with it until I get up and go in to get her. As soon as she hears the door she crawls over and pulls up to the side of the crib, chubby cheeks hanging over the rails. She slings her doll up on the rail next to her and smiles at me to one side of her binky. It is the sweetest wake up.

* She is so verbal. She is now saying Up, Wow, Bye-Bye, Mama, Dada trying to say Uh-Oh She has been waving hello and bye bye since she was only eight months. For about a month now when you ask her for a kiss she opens up her mouth and leans in and gives you one.

*She is definitely an emotional eater. Every mealtime no matter how much she has had or how big her budha belly has gotten when the food is gone and we tell her she is all done she cries. If anyone hands her the binky to comfort her it becomes the source of her frusteration and she will throw it over the edge of her tray dramatically. It is pretty hilarious. Also when we put in her high chair as soon as we bring the food over she spits the binky out and goes to town.

* She now takes any phone in the house play or real, holds it up to her ear and says daaah. If handed a comb or brush she rubs it back and forth on top of her head trying to brush it. She is doing so much imitating it is so cute

*She still hates loud noises including the vaccum, the shop vac, outside yard equipment, the blow dryer to name a few.

* She is often found crawling with a baby doll in each hand of course held by the hair. If handed a doll or stuffed animal she will smile at it make a cute content giggle and pull it up to her cheek and hug it. If handed multiple dolls or stuffed animals she will make sure to get every single one in her arms at the same time and hold them all.

* She is super ticklish and loves me to play "this little piggy" with her toes. She laughs so hard she can hardly breathe when Hunter hides behind the couch and then jumps out and crawls after her. She loves me to put her on my back and then crawl around the living room making horsey noises. Or to put her on my shoulders and chase Hunter and Avery around the house.

* She is super cuddly. All throughout the day she will crawl over to me and as soon as I pick her up she wraps her little arms around me in a hug and makes a sound like she is saying awwwwww. Her favorite spot with daddy is in the computer chair that rocks. All he has to do is get her blanket and snuggle her close and within a few seconds she is out on his shoulder.

* She can give quite the scowl. When something scares her or upsets her, she will furrow her eyebrows way down into a full on scowl of disapproval. It seriously cracks us up.

* She loves pictures of her family. I made her a book of pictures of her and each member of her family and she loves to look at it and point at everyone. If she sees the picture of her and Hunter and Ave that is on the desktop of the computer she will start smiling and pointing at it and making all sorts of cute noises.

* We tease that she is part marine animal because of the noises she makes. When she is happy or excited about something she makes little squeaks and sounds almost like a baby whale. Or maybe a dolphin. It is so cute.

She is so much fun. We love her so much.

Emma's first tooth

Getting first teeth in our family is quite the process. Hunter's first teeth didn't come in until he was fifteen months. We would think they were coming in and then they would go back down again. It was a horrible experience he had such a hard time. Avery got her canine teeth first so she looked like a little vampire for about two months. I didn't even know you could get those teeth first and we were very glad when her top front teeth came in. So I admit I was not looking forward to teething with Emma. You can imagine our shock then when one day she was just plain crabby and I decided to feel her gums and low and behold she had one little tooth sticking up on the bottom. Wait a minute she is only ten months and hardly even fussed about getting this thing. We were so excited! It only took about two weeks and the little bottom tooth next to it was showing as well. So here it is a picture of her first little tooth very up close since it is so tiny you really have to be close to see it. Here's to hopes of a continued smooth teething process. Yay Emma!!