Christmas 2010

Last week we were in California for Christmas. We had a great time visiting family and Emily enjoyed having lots of people around to play with. The first video below has nothing to do with Christmas but I think you'll see why I've included it. Catching Emily on video singing is not too easy so I was excited to catch this. To be honest, I am very impressed. She is starting to pick up more and more every day.

Since we were traveling we decided to open gifts sent in the mail or gifts from from ourselves for ourselves so we didn't have to haul them around. Thus Emily had two days to open Christmas gifts this year. Here are a few pictures from our house.


On Friday we (Emily and Ryan) went to Disneyland with Evy, Erick, "little" Erick and Evrick. No the "v" is not a typo for those unfamiliar. Evy gets a few free tickets every year so we were able to go with them. We had a good time even though there were lots of people there. Emily got to see her favorite princess Snow White and rode on several rides.

We left Disneyland around six and spent Christmas Eve eating tamales and having a short program at Anne's parents with all her family except Michael. Gaetano's (Marisa fiance) mom and a few other family members of his were there as well along with aunt Tina. Christmas morning was spent with just immediate family opening gifts. Thanks to all those that gave Emily and Audrey gifts along with ourselves of course. Here are a few more videos. One of Anne's gifts was a Vado HD so hopefully our videos are clearer on the blog.

As this blog seems to be all about Emily, here is a video of Audrey. She's not moving around real fast these days but is continuing to grow. She wasn't feeling to well over the break but managed to pull through ok.

Santa

We had a family in our ward take pictures for us a couple of weeks ago. It was way too cold to be outside taking pictures without coats, but I think they turned out beautiful nonetheless. It was a short and sweet session, and here are a couple of Emily.



This past Saturday, we went to breakfast with Santa for our ward primary activity. We have been reading books about Santa, and prepped her that morning to be excited about seeing Santa. When we got to the house, she was a little hesitant, but still went up on his knee with my help. She had water in her eyes, but I think it was quick enough that she didn't cry. He gave her a candy cane, and she was all better!

Thanksgiving

We decided to stay in St. George this year for Thanksgiving. A cold front came through and dropped the temperatures pretty good with lows in the low 20's. We had turkey and the works which was delicious. It was nice to have time off and not have much to worry about. Happenings since the last post - Audrey is now crawling. Granted it is not fast, she can get to where she wants to go which is good since it means she can keep herself occupied a little more.



In an effort to get outside, I decided to take Emily on another hike up the hill behind our house. I had a few videos until I realized they appear sideways since I was holding the camera wrong. So, I will keep you from getting dizzy and you'll just have to trust that she is a very good climber. No complaining :). Whenever I'd pick her up she would say "walk" which interpreted means "I want to walk instead of being carried." Here are a few pictures of our walk. The hike is nice because the views are excellent.


Lastly, we have a Christmas tree. Fake, but it'll do the job this year since Emily is still too young to really understand and anticipate Christmas. I thought I'd never do it since we never had fake trees growing up. Oh well. Maybe next year we'll get a real one.

Singing

Emily is beginning to sing for us these days. We borrowed some other Disney videos - Little Mermaid and Lady and the Tramp to add to the mix as Snow White was getting too much over and over again. Here is a video of her performance. The beginning portion comes from the Little Mermaid and the second part is Snow White. In case you haven't watched it recently, she is singing "I'm wishing ... to find me."

On her knees

Audrey has been on her knees for a while. She likes to rock back and forth. I have left her for just a few minutes on the carpet, and come back to find her on the tile floor! She will soon be crawling... She almost always sucks on her thumb when resting or just lying around.

Laughing

This is the best I have recorded.... Enjoy.

Halloween 2010

One nice things about living in Utah is that if Halloween is on Sunday, everyone knows that Trick-or-Treating will happen on Saturday. We received a nice Pig costume for Emily, so Anne decided they would be the three pigs. I hadn't been trick-or-treating since I was going myself so I was somewhat excited since I have good memories of Halloween. Anne stayed at home for the first little while to pass out candy and then she got her turn for a second round with just Emily. We live in an excellent neighborhood for trick-or-treating. Emily learned the door approach very quickly even though she didn't always time saying "trick-or-treat" perfectly. When there is candy involved, Emily learns pretty quick. This is especially nice when she is not finishing her dinner. Most people were very generous and would let her pick several pieces of candy. Emily hasn't quite grasped that scary things might not be real. At one house that had lots of decorations there was a toy that had a just a scary head and arms that crawled on the ground. Emily immediately started crying once the head moved towards her. She felt a little better when I explained it was just a toy. Here are some pictures.

Snow White

This past week and a half has been difficult, but we have really bonded! While Ryan was gone for work these past couple of weeks, we have all come down with colds. Emily has only wanted to watch movies...specifically Snow White. She barely got it for her birthday from Daddy, and I think it was the best gift ever! She wants to watch it ALL DAY long! She even sings, "I'm wishing, I'm wishing, find me today!" Audrey also enjoys watching movies... which is nice.


Nothing makes me happier than hearing Audrey stop crying while I am doing the dishes. I stop and check on her to find Emily is playing with her and making her happy!!! Yay! It begins!


Emily got to open one more gift for her birthday! A beautiful princess crown and wand from Aunt Marisa and her fiance Gaetano! Thanks!


Here is a video of Audrey to enjoy... She is now rolling over, but not on this video. I can't seem to catch it!

Emily's Birthday Party

We celebrated Emily's 2nd birthday yesterday. Anne invited several of Emily's friends over to have the party. They made ghosts, and fruit loop bracelets and then the typical cake and gifts. Here is a video and a few pictures of her party. Thanks to those that came and also those that gave gifts.

You can see the excitement for her new bike. She'll be growing into this one but definitely loves to be pushed around. If you would like to come by and provide service doing so, you would become immediate friends. Hopefully she'll grow another inch and learn to use her feet and steer.
Audrey was very helpful and stayed fairly quite sitting in her bouncer chair. I think she had plenty of new people to observe and keep herself occupied.

Anne is participating in what they call "Bountiful baskets" where you pay $15 per week for fruits and vegetables. You don't have to do it every week, but on Saturday mornings you go and pick up a basket. I have been impressed with what you get and you definitely get your monies worth. I've eaten things we don't typically buy such as artichokes, celery, cauliflower etc. Yesterday she had several pomegranates in the mix. As Grandpa Johnson loves his pomegranates, I wanted to add a picture of the Emily's first try. She loves it as you can see.

Our Little Girls

Audrey is becoming more mobile. She is almost to the point of turning over but I think it will be another week or so. Here is a video of her up and looking around. I caught a picture of her smile but she was moving so it is a little fuzzy.

Yesterday we had my work party at the local aquatic center. We were afraid Emily wasn't going to be too happy considering our last two pool adventures. We tried to ingrain in her mind beforehand how fun it would be. Luckily she was up to walking around in the shallow areas. When I tried to take her deeper, the cold water going up to her chest made her unhappy to say the least so I had to pick her up. However, we kept going back and after awhile she got used to it. She even went down the big slide with mom and dad many times. I caught a video of her coming down with mom. Too bad the video quality is lacking. Maybe Santa will be nice to us this year.

Growing Fast

Sorry for the long wait in post updates. I've been busy and Anne went to California for two weeks and didn't take many pictures. Go figure. So in an effort to do a post, I took a few pictures after church today on a chair of Emily and Audrey. Granted they are not professional (Emily in a diaper) I thought something is better than nothing. Also, as some may have noticed, if you want to see other pictures of Emily and Audrey over the last month, feel free to click on Grandma Disner's link to the right. Enjoy!



Here is Emily's classic smile. She's happy with her bread.

Here is Emily and Audrey visiting great grandpa and grandma Thorkelson.