A small milestone but yet such a full five years. My heart is so full when I think about all that these past five years have held. How loved I feel and how much love I have for my sweet husband. What an amazing thing to grow together, to watch him and experience as he loves his girls and to share the journey side-by-side.
I love love. I love us. I love him. (and of course we both love her!)
This year we didn't travel far, but we did get away for a little family celebration of our five year anniversary. And what a needed retreat it was. Life has been busy. Full and fun but distracting. We really needed the time away together to unwind.
We were so blessed to be able to use Blake's boss' lake cabin in Hayden, Idaho. It was the perfect distance for a weekend getaway. We had great weather and enjoyed the water so much! As refreshing as the beach can be, my soul is fed by lakes and woods. It's where I feel at home.
In addition to time on the water we went into Coeur d'Alene for an afternoon and strolled through Art on the Green and went out to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant (a.k.a. the 'meat parade'). We enjoyed seeing all the vendors, loved dinner and just missed the sudden and fierce thunderstorm that rolled through during our meal!
What a great weekend it was! Here's the proof ;):
Getting ready to kayak!
Her first kayaking trip! I kayaked a lot in college and LOVE it, so it was fun to share this with her.
She loves the water. We call this: 'Splash and splash'
And splash she did.
She also loved floating and kicking
Our anniversary dinner (aptly timed during nap time)
Gorgeous night
Evening stroll on the dock with my loves
Checking out that owl
This girl loves her bacon and eggs!
Blake rocking the paddle board. We've been wanting to try this forever!
It was so fun!
I loved it. I went out pretty far (eek). I did get a little over-confident and tried to turn too sharp going too fast..
needless to say, I ended up falling/jumping in!
A paddle boarder in the making.
We did some floating together too.
*sigh* So refreshing! Just seeing these pictures again brings back the smell of the water and Emerson's squeal of delight. Ahh I love a good lake!
This girl! I couldn't possibly capture in words all the joy, entertainment and energy that goes on around here.
Despite her ability to walk independently, she still really enjoys and prefers to walk holding a finger. It's the first thing she asks for the minute her eyes open in the morning after saying 'hi'. She says and signs 'down' ("dow") and grabs my finger. If I don't quickly follow her she throws herself on the floor and wails. Then we toddle off downstairs and to the backdoor. She asks to be up and go out, then 'dow' again and we toddle to the nearest bed of rocks and sit an play with rocks for awhile until it starts to get too hot (or we get hungry). Our typical morning routine.. and we repeat this scenario several times a day.
Her language is exploding. As she learns words, she's also started using signs more, often pairing her verbal approximation with her sign approximation. She can do each sign fairly precisely but tends to just waive her hand for most of them. Here are some of her words:
Hi - still her favorite and most used word, usually accompanied by a wave. It means everything from a greeting to, hey look at this, I love you, and 'what? I'm not supposed to do that? let me distract you with my cuteness'.
Buh - Her generic word for absolutely everything that doesn't have a word yet. She says, 'buh' and points, saying it louder when you don't guess what she wants.
BO! - Any animal, or maybe possibility of an animal
By - Bite, this one she uses correctly, but also sometimes uses it to ask to nurse
Ma - Milk (which she kind of signs too) We call it 'mamma milk' so sometimes she says 'mam'
Dow - Down, also signed (with our made up sign) and seems to be synonymous with 'walk' (which she can't say verbally but gets her point very much across by grabbing your finger and grinning wildly.)
Bye - standard usage, however, she uses it very sparingly. Most often she just waves bye.
Baa - sheep
Meow - cat, actually this is just the noise, but she uses it consistently when she sees a cat
Mama - Mommy. She doesn't use this very often, but usually when she wakes up in the night or if she wakes up upset from a nap, and when she gets hurt, or if she finds herself alone in a room and occasionally when she wants my attention.
Da - Daddy. Sometimes, dada, often she says, 'hida' for hi dad :). She also uses it to get his attention sometimes.
Whoa! - Standard usage, whenever she is pleasantly surprised by something.
Ya - Yes. She only occasionally says this verbally, but she shakes her head yes more often.
Bu - book. It's faintly different from her generic 'buh' but even without context, I can tell when she's saying book.
She also loves to sit and read, and play with toys (even if she prefers rocks or better yet, dirt), and she's still a bit of a momma's girl and doesn't often leave my side when it's just the two of us. She completely adores our neighbor girls too and they are gracious enough to play with her and walk her around frequently.
This is a long one, but pretty cute.
As Emerson gets older and more independent, she also gets sweeter. She spends more time in our laps or snuggled up in bed, just for the sake of snuggling. She gives tons of kisses and tickles and zerberts! However. she also has sass. If you don't get up and go pretty quickly after she tells you she wants to walk, then she throws herself on the floor, folded in half and wails. Tears and all. She also protests severely with loud, high pitched cries at various instances. We find ourselves saying, 'too loud' quite often. Ahh the joys of parenting.
It is just so fun to see her learning and growing before our eyes. She weighs about the same and I didn't measure her, but she's grown a little. She still has chunky legs and wrists and those cheeks!! She has finally take to eating and I'm not trying to convince her to eat anymore, she actually asks for 'bites'. Her favorite food is sprouted beans, closely followed by toasted coconut flakes and spirulina chips.
In the car, saying hi to daddy up front
Telling us about an animal 'BO'
(bribe: kitchen timer)
"Hi daddy!"
half squawk, half laugh
Daddy is funny
Checking out the new calf
Walk, walk, walk, walk..
I'm just licking it, I promise.
I'm just tasting it, I swear.
I may have been playing in the dirt...
We've been enjoying a few afternoons at the park with some splashing in the river!
POP!
She loves these sunglasses! We're channeling a little Hepburn here ;)
A mini tea party with our neighbor
At the park again on a playdate. She LoVeD this until clean up time!
Just a random post with pictures from an evening at Blake's parents house on July 2nd. I'll eventually get the pictures from the 4th up too but this was quick, easy and cute. It was a wonderful evening - perfect weather and a nice visit!
Walking with Grandma.
Even though she can walk alone, she really likes to cruise
with another hand or two
Hi!!
This almost looks sweet but really she's crushing the flower
and about to destroy it and throw the petals
This girl. LOVES. bubbles. We unleashed the bubble loving best and once you start, good luck stopping!
Watching daddy in the pool.
Our niece, Emily, was doing some flips and jumps into the pool, so I caught some on 'film'.
Last year my 30th birthday got a little overlooked, and rightly so! I mean... look at that sweet face!
Anyway, so this year my sweet family wanted to make sure I had the family tradition milestone party that we missed last year. It was very thoughtful of them and my dear hubs and aunt put a lot of work into it! In the end it was a little low-key because we decided to cram two other parties into the weekend (my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower and Emerson's party) to make the most of out of town guests. So as the third party of the weekend, we were all a little partied out.. which is why I failed to get pictures of the pre-candled cake or the a-mazing food. My favorite spread: Blake's pulled pork, brisket, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad and (wait for it) pepper jack mac and cheese. I might even be forgetting something. It was so tasty.
The people who partied on through their second or third parties of the weekend were the troopers, the people who really love me, and I couldn't have asked to spend my 30+1 with anyone else. I went to bed that night feeling so blessed.
The traditional cake-o-fire milestone birthday candle extravaganza.
I love the looks on the kids' faces!
I got some new essential oils, Emerson approves ;)
So many wonderful, thoughtful gifts!
Party animals.
It was a long day for the kids, and lots of cake. Sweet Lincs made it through!
My tired co-birthday girl. :)
Again, so, so blessed by my friends and family. Such a wonderful way to end my thirtieth year and begin my thirty-first.
