Sand in Her Toes

We spent the weekend at the beach for our anniversary. We were considering leaving Emerson with my parents for either the night or for dinner, but as it turns out, bottles aren't her favorite thing.. so my parents just came with us for the whole weekend (if she'd stayed with them they would have brought her down and joined us then). We had fun introducing her to the beach cabin and to all of our favorite places at the beach. 

Her first time in the sand before we left

 

What is this stuff.

'I'm not sure about this...'

My dad and Blake went fishing with Blake's dad, uncle and cousin. This is their share of the haul. Blake caught the biggest fish (the massive Chinook Salmon in his left hand). They also brought in 25 crab! Can you guess what we had for dinner!? Crab! It was super tasty, and we still have some left to freeze etc.

That's a lot of crab!

We introduced her to Adelaide's (we almost named her Adelaide) and enjoyed a latte. We didn't find a cookbook that we needed, but we'll be back in September and will get one then. We're thinking we might add to our tradition and pick out a children's book every year too. 

Decaf or not, these people can make a great latte!

She fell asleep while we searched for our books. I don't know how she sleeps like that!

We also introduced her to Jack's country store, but she slept right on through it. That evening we measured her and added her height to the trim at the cabin. She wasn't the shortest or youngest mark, Blake's cousin Emma was there when she was 20 some days old!

Grandma thought she needed a bath and the bathroom sink was just the right size.

 Later that night, we snuck away and had a dessert date while grandma and grandpa babysat.

I'd like you to think that we shared that... but you just can't see Blake's

Across from the cabin, I just thought it was pretty and the light was right. 

The traditional cabin shot as we head out. It was a fantastic day!

Happily Four

We’re still working our way towards ever after, but the last four years have been incredible. I almost hesitate to say how happy I am for fear of ‘the other shoe’ dropping. Almost. Instead I’ll say it, trusting God and His plan for our lives instead of holding my breath. Life is so wonderful.

The longer Blake and I are together the more it seems we complement each other. It’s amazing to see what God can do with two people when we let Him grow and change us, albeit slowly, closer to His image. I look back at how we felt when we got married. We were on cloud nine, dizzy with love. We knew we were good together, but we had no idea what God had in store. We couldn't have imagined how He would grow and ground our love even deeper every day.

I know that we wouldn’t be where we are now if God wasn’t a part of changing and growing us. I know we would have struggle through the stresses of life, instead of flourished. I know it isn’t luck when I look at Blake and wonder how I got this lucky.

When I look at my husband’s eyes today I see the eyes of the boy I met so many years ago. They still twinkle when he smiles and flash with mischievousness when he teases. Now they also tear up when they look at me holding our daughter. He’s still the same kind, funny and rugged guy he’s always been, just with a softer heart as he seeks to honor the Lord more every day. I respect him, trust him and I’m so proud to be his wife.

In four years we’ve enjoyed so many special things together. We usually use our anniversary as an excuse to travel, first Venice, Italy and Greece; second was Australia and third was Rome, Italy and Israel. For our fourth we traverse the new world of parenthood and we are loving every minute of it. All the countries in the world can’t compete with seeing our sweet girl looking in our eyes and smiling. We have loved experiencing all that we did together, but we’re ready for this new stage and adventure of a different kind.

We continued our tradition of recreating one of our favorite wedding pictures. 

Four years

Three years

Two years
(after being up for over 30 hours returning home from Australia!)

One year

Our big day

And because I could pick just one.. here was the alternate. Emerson is a little more visible, but it isn't as close to the original.. and lets be honest, it came down to my hair.

We also took one just the two of us.

One Month!

People say it will go by fast, you know it will go by fast, but then you can't believe how fast the time goes.

This month has been a blur and somehow seems like longer than a month. I struggle to find ways to remember the little things that change in a day. It seems hard to remember her being as little as she was in the pictures and how she barley filled our lap. It's hard to remember when she didn't latch without trying and when she had to be encouraged to stay awake to eat. It's hard to remember life before her!

So much of our first month was introducing Emerson to family and sharing her. Last week I had her all to myself and started to get a little bit of an idea of what our every day to day will be like. It was so fun :). I know this is the easy part, she pretty much eats and sleeps all day, between diaper changes that is. I'm mostly soaking up the time and getting in snuggles and naps. She's only this little for a little while and you only have one kid once! 

Her first two weeks she was so predictable: hungry every three to four hours, pooped when she ate, stayed awake for about 30 minutes after eating and then slept about 3 hours. Almost like clockwork, until her little internal clock decided to go on a growth spurt and then all bets were off. She wants to eat all the time and that cuts into her sleeping time, but has started to figure out that nights are for sleeping. One thing that has stayed the same is that she doesn't like to wake up (don't know where she gets that.. ahem) and she likes to be held. She sleeps best on mom's chest, but will sleep in the co-sleeper if she's swaddled. She eats so much she throws up and she's so hard to get a burp out of! 

She absolutely slays us with her facial expressions and hand movements. Her scrunchy faces and stretches as she takes forever to open her eyes and the squeaks and grunts.. it's adorable. We have settled into our little idiosyncrasies of talking for her, labeling her faces and referring to each other as mommy and daddy. We think she's cute even when she's crying (which isn't often so far, thankfully) and we love her to pieces! 

At one month she weighs 9 pounds 11 ounces and is 22 inches long! She is just starting to grow out of newborn clothes and each time we put her in a favorite outfit we know it might be the last. However, with a closet full of cute clothes to grow in to, it's not as hard as I thought to move on. She's still on the first snap of her newborn cloth diapers, but as those thighs get chunkier and chunkier, we know the next snap will be coming soon. 

What a great month! We love her so much!

And some cell phone camera highlights of our first month:

Our first real bath... we love it (except the getting out part.. brr)

I'm a sucker and I stick the towel in the dryer for a few minutes :)

A Finnegan Frost frozen yogurt date with mom :)

I do some funny things with my hands :)

*palm face*

We call this the paparazzi hand - "No pictures please"

And this is respectfully called the "praise Jesus". 

My favorite sleeping position

My first time in the swing!

Sleeping on dad is fun too, even at the neighbor's house!

We (finally) made it to church and stayed cool in the partial shade for the outdoor service!

Oh the People We've Met!

Emerson has met so many people! Some people came to us (thanks!) and most she met when we went home for the fourth of July. Here are some of the important people in our lives..

Auntie Whitney and Lincoln drove all the way from Seattle for the day!

Uncle Jared came late one night after driving the train over for work.

Hello Uncle Jordan!

Finally Emerson and Auntie Mary meet at last!

Ada is a natural

And so is Deacon!

More-like-an-aunt-than-cousin Macey

Great Grandma and Grandpa S. Emerson is great grand number two for them.

My family (minus Blake who was behind the camera)

Dia (Aunt in Italian) Sandy

Uncle Rodney

Four generations of women on my side

Great grandma W. Emerson is her 74th grand baby (out of 75!)

Cousin Emily :)

Great Grandma D

Four generations on Blake's side

Meeting Grandpa Scott and Great Grandpa C. (not pictured) this was as close as they would get until she is bigger...