Emma's Blessing

On Sunday, February 9th we blessed Emma at our church. These are all the family members that came:

Almost all of Taylor's family came from St. George and Las Vegas, including his Grandma and Grandpa Brown and his Grandpa Lerman from Riverside. Peter, Linda, Michelle, and Caton were in town for a wedding and they postponed their drive home to come. My Grandma and Grandpa Keysor came and all my aunts, uncles and cousins in the area came as well. We also got to Skype with my parents right before church and show them Emma in the beautiful dress they sent her. We really felt so much love and support and were glad that everyone got to be part of the day. 

When I was blessed as a baby, my parents say I cried at the top of my lungs the whole time so my dad gave me a very short blessing. As Taylor was carrying Emma up to the front she started crying and I thought, "Oh no, I hope she's not like me." But she only cried for a few seconds and stopped. Taylor gave Emma a very sweet blessing. She is very loved. We love her, our family loves her, and I know that our Heavenly Father loves her. I hope she will always remember that throughout her life.

After church we had a little lunch for the few people that were able to stay (most people had a long drive ahead or they had responsibilities in their own ward). I tried to take some pictures of Emma in her dress but she did not want to cooperate. She cried or sucked on her pacifier the whole time. I tried again the next day and the same thing happened. But magically I somehow got a few good ones without the pacifier. 

Here's our beautiful, beautiful girl.

On a funnier note:

Will wore his Batman shirt under his church clothes that day.

And if you missed it in the first picture... let me zoom in on my kiddos.

(I couldn't resist.)

Will: 10 Things

1. He loves buckles. Everything that has a buckle on it MUST be buckled. This includes car seats, baby bouncer, baby swing, high chair, backpacks, camera bag, and anything else he can find. He hasn't figured out how to unbuckle them yet (which is good for safety right?) which means I get to help him all day long.

2. He put himself to bed TWICE today! He always been a good sleeper, but this is new. First, while I was feeding Emma around 11:00am I noticed that he was not just being uncharacteristically quiet, he was silent. So I went upstairs to check on him and he was lying on the bed. When he saw me he smiled and said, "Bay" (blanket) so I put his blanket on. Then he said, "Night!" (good night) so I left the room trying not to laugh as I shut the door. And he didn't come out! Then while I was at Mutual with the youth at church, Taylor watched the kids and he said the same thing happened while he was changing Emma's diaper. Silence. So he checked on him, found him happy on the bed so he tucked him in, said prayers and Will went to sleep for the night. 

3. He likes to point out all of Emma's body parts that he knows--ears, hair, feet, toes, nose--and even if he is across the room whenever she is awake he says, "Eyes!"

4. Since Emma will be taking over the crib soon (she's been sleeping in a Pack-n-Play in our room), we recently switched Will to a twin mattress on the floor. It took a few nights of him getting up over and over again, saying, "Night!" and slamming the door again and again until he was so tired he finally went to sleep but he's made the switch to his "big boy bed" surprisingly well. Honestly, I think he just likes it because it's like having a trampoline in his bedroom.

5. He has worn his Batman shirt for... I don't know how many days in a row. Pretty much every morning he wakes up, comes into our room holding his pants and his shirt in his hands and excitedly says, "Bat-tah!" until we take off his PJs and put on his Batman shirt. He even wore it under his church shirt last Sunday because he refused to take it off.

5. Today I asked Will what he wanted for lunch and he went to the pantry and brought back a box of cake mix saying, "Cuh-keys!" (cupcakes)

6. Sometimes he'll play quietly and then out of the blue stand up and let out a loud, high-pitched scream... just for fun.

7. He doesn't like to color but he loves making me draw stuff. His most repeated request is "footah" (football). If it were up to him, I would draw footballs all day long. His other favorites are Daddy and Abby (Emma).

8. We love to read books together. His favorite book this week is called "You can be anything." It has pictures if Snoopy in a bunch of different occupations. Will likes to point out his hats, all the balls on the sports star pages, show me the page with the skateboard, and make the firetruck sound when we get to the fire fighter page.

9. He got a balance bike for his birthday (a bike with no pedals, you move it by pushing the ground with your feet). He is still figuring out how to use it but he's getting a lot faster. There are little foot rests to put your feet on once you get moving but he tries to use them when he's standing still so the bike almost falls over. But he loves it even though he hasn't gotten the hang of it yet.

10. He loves food that he can dip things in. He loves fries so he can lick the ketchup off of them. He eats quesadillas if I give him salsa to dip them in. He likes to dip pizza in marinara sauce like Taylor. And I can usually trick him into eating soup if I show him he can dip chips, bread or crackers into it.