E-Babe 3 1/2 years

I guess I'm just not quite sure how we went from this....

To this, SO FAST?!?! She loves her lipgloss, which only makes her look older! 

Just a few pics of Emri girl over the past few months....

 

 She's pretty chill about most things...even peeing in her own "pool"  :)

 Picked her outfit this day.... and had to wear her hat like daddy.

 Is still a water dog!

She would spend all day and night in a pool....or lake...or tub if we'd let her!

 Loves to be silly and make us laugh...

 Seems to be clumsy a lot lately. Is she growing and just can't keep up the coordination that comes with a bigger body? This goose-egg was from turning around into the door jam in her room :(

 Can be seen like this when boy cousins are around....hey, if their shirts are off, why can't hers be??

 Has been playing hard this summer...and sometimes barely makes it through the door from our outings....

 Or maybe there's just sleepy potion at the bottom of the stairs??

 This picture makes me smile! Our garden was pretty lame, other than our tomato plants. These sunsugar cherry tomatoes are so dang good and Emri pops them into her mouth like candy! Last week I gave her a bowl with the assignment to go pick all the tomatoes off the 2 plants. I wanted to put them in a pasta salad to take to a church outing. A few minutes after I sent her out I peeked out the window to check on her progress and saw her eating EVERY tomatoe she picked off the plant!! Needless to say, we only had about 5 for our salad! haha! She swears she only at 3.... 

 At Gma/Gpa Andertons there's this little 4 wheeler....Emri LOVES that thing! She has also figured out that Jet loves it too, and she's big enough to take him for rides around the back yard. There's 2 speeds....and we tell her to do the slow one with Jet on. Somehow she always manages turn it up to the fast mode...and they both love it!

 This big girls starts preschool next week! I say I'm sad because I just can't believe we're to this point already....but she is SOOOOO excited to go and learn and make new friends, I just can't be sad about that! She had a little worksheet to finish before meeting her teacher... Part of it was to write her name. I just love the chicken scratch letters! So cute!

• She is a sweet big sister (most of the time).... I think occasionally she has to get back at Jet, because he's quite the stinker. 
• She is mommy's buddy during the day, but if you ask who her bestie is, 90% of the time she says Daddy is! 
• She loves being around her extended family...grandparents and cousins. On my side she adores her uncles...since the cousins are more limited...and they love to give her tons of attention! 
• Her favorite food right now is probably cantaloupe and "picked corn" (on the cob).
•  She loves to sing "Tonga songs" with daddy at bedtime. She has two full songs memorized in Tongan! 
• She loves "dancing music" and the Disney station on Pandora. She can be caught dancing several times a day. 
• She loves to brush her teeth.

We are crazy in love with this little ball of spunk!

Jet @ 18 Months

18 month check-up stats:

Height: 30.5 inches (7%)

Weight: 22 lb. 2 oz. (7%)

Head Circumf.: 18.5 inches (27%)

Our big guy is actually kinda little :) 18 Months seems like such a big deal---a whole year and a half that this little monster has been adding so much to our lives! Strangers comment all the time on his "white hair" and pretty blue eyes.

 Sissy had to jump in on the photo shoot...this is a pretty common face at our house!

 Daddy's helper fixing sprinklers

 Daddy's buddy, no matter what. 

 Pants off, helping me water the garden....his chin is just so big he can't get a drink!

 Chillin' poolside, enjoying his snack.

 The poo incident. PLEASE, oh PLEASE let this never happen again. AMEN!

 Boys??

Obsession: Toothbrush

 He loves to lay on his back next to the fridge when he has a snack. Weird. 

 Just before we went to church he somehow got ahold of a tube of liquid eyeliner...

 ...it did not come off easily. Needless to say, we were late :)

 Oh, there he is in a clean shirt....in the NURSERY!!! It's official! Brett can now sit through a class, instead of roaming the halls for 2 hours!

At 18 Months, Jet:

• started off his last month with a high fever, (reaching 103.7*) then a yuck nose and cough. Dr. said he had walking pneumonia. REALLY? In July?! Seems odd.
• is really walking! He finally started walking instead of crawling about 3 days before he was officially 18 months....he must have believed it when we told him the other kids in nursery would beat him up if he couldn't walk?!
• Has done great in the nursery the past couple weeks. It's nice that Emri is still in there....otherwise I don't think he'd be as willing to stay. 
• is obsessed with his toothbrushes. Yes, there are multiple. I think 4 or 5 actually. He carries them around and chews on them all day. He has to hold 2 at a time usually. He is currently teething. I think they work better than his real teethers. We have them rotating all day in a Listerine soak.... I dry heave several times a day when I unwind stray hairs out of the bristles. 
• got his 8th tooth (Aug.16)! It's #N...now has 4 top, and 4 bottom in front.
• loves to rip Emri's hair out. He's such a tease, but honestly....the girl's hair is already a bit thin and he's not helping the problem!
• is in that super messy eating phase...wants to feed himself...likes to throw food. 
• is full of energy! He loves to get in, climb on and be in anything he's not supposed to!

USU Ladies Clinic

My brother in law called me one night, told me he signed up his wife for the "Ladies Clinic" at Utah State and asked if I wanted to do it with her? Sure!!! Neither of us had any idea what it was, but i enjoy football, and I'm always game for a "ladies night!"

At the beginning we wandered through the football offices...

Megan...very serious at the Head Coach's desk :)

 ...and the team locker room.

Then it was the REAL DEAL!! Time for business! Pads, cleats, helmets, spandex pants, the whole get-up! 

 Ok, no, that was only for a minute... just to let us see how fun it is to get all the gear on in 95 degrees of heat! Basically the clinic consisted of several different stations...each representing the football positions. We would rotate through the stations and do real football drills at each. It was really really fun! We threw passes, caught passes, tackled dummies, did foot drills and other little obstacles, practiced kicking field goals, practiced offensive line, and recovered fumbles.... after which the players had us "run for a TD" and then do a TOUCHDOWN DANCE!!  Seriously?! I'm sure this is just their favorite night of football practice, watching us all make fools of ourselves! I have zero dancing skillz...so i busted out the only move that i know that's somewhat impressive... I got down on the ground after my "touchdown" and did THE WORM! hahaha! I have not done that since high school....and I definitely felt it the next day!  I think I surprised the players (and myself)! 

 What a fun night...Thanks Meg for being there to laugh with me...and at me! I totally want to do it again next year! Anyone want to join us?! 

Heber Canyon--Anderton Reunion

This was the lovely place we called "home" for a weekend in Heber with Brett's parents and siblings.

There was silliness....

...and fun to be had by all!

My little explorers, waiting for our adventure.

There were lots of treasures found on our walk.

This was the weekend of the start of the London Olympics....so we celebrated with festivities of our own! Each family made a flag...

and donned our "olympic gear"....oops, if you look closely you will see that our uniforms were ALSO #madeinchina haha! Jet thought it was funny too :)

We marched in the parade of nations (aka families)...

Grandpa was the official torch carrier...

...and we posted our flags to show our pride!

Of course, the fun didn't stop there.... We had Olympic events for young and old, alike. Here's Emri and the noodle, oops Javelin, throw!

Our relay races were with water, not batons (can't get enough of Charlie's face)!

Tug-o-War....did you know this used to be an actual summer Olympics event?!

During the Closing Ceremonies each child was awarded with a medal!

Jet boy was quite fond of his :)

Most of the kiddos...minus a baby or two! Oh how I love that the grandkids are old enough to take care of my babies...

Emri is obsessed w/ Morgan and Kenzie. They are so great with the younger kids!

The cabin had it's own little amphitheater which we put to use....

By "we," I mean the talented kids! They got into groups and performed little plays and songs. 

The 3 little Pigs...oh, and Dexter is the big bad wolf in case you didn't know that those dangling leaves are his ears :) They are so creative with their egg carton noses!

Emri was the star in her group, playing the lead in "Rapunzel!" There she is riding behind Eugene, aka Willa, on their trusty steed Maximus, aka Everett!

Jet opted to dig up grubs in the dirt rather than show off his thespian skillz.

After the plays we sang camp songs... Emri said she knew a camp song, so she stood in front of everyone and belted (in her small voice) the ABC's! Too cute!

There was lots of cousin time! Aunt Ingrid took E and Willa for a cruise on the wheeler...

We had a dance party....and some how shirts came off in the mix....Emri had to join in!

Giant tubs were great for containing little ones....

The views were gorgeous!

 AND THEN THERE WAS THE NIGHT THAT NEVER ENDED!

I just have to document this....so I can look back on it and laugh. I am not quite to that point yet (almost a month later)!

 Well, the 2nd night of our stay Emri woke up with her lovely croup cough that we experience all too often at our house. We decided to stay because the next morning she was acting fine, barely coughing. Then the last night of our stay Jet woke up at 10 pm. Brett was able to keep him calm till around 11pm...then the crying wouldn't stop. He was wide awake!! Crying, then happy, laughing, then screaming again. We watched part of a movie on the iPad while he ate Oreos (I was desperatley doing everything to keep him from crying again and waking up 20+ kids/14 adults). Yes, the cabin was HUGE, but in the middle of the night when EVERYONE else is sound asleep, I had no where to go! There was nothing to do to console the boy. He didn't want to be inside--or out! Didn't want his beloved bear, or blanky, no milk, NOTHING! I actually took him out to the car at one point, thinking i'd drive him around, but I don't know the area so I didn't want to leave and be totally lost in the mountains. I sat in the car for about 10 minutes till my mind started playing mean tricks on me and I totally got freaked out and went back inside. It was 1:30 am when Brett came to relieve me. He took Jet back outside to the car. I was so bugged I started packing our bags! Just about that time, Emri woke up with that lovely cough again, so I took her outside to the cooler air to try to help her breathe better. While I was outside, Brett found us around 2:15....Jet was asleep and in bed. Hallelujah. I got E to sleep and Brett talked me out of packing up. We went to sleep around 2:30....(on top of all this Brett was getting a head cold and I had almost lost my voice)!

...and at 5 am Jet was screaming again! He had just gotten over his cold, wasn't feverish at all ...but the only thing I could think was the problem was teething (but the Tylenol obviously wasn't working)? Either way, I was done! By 6 am we were packed and on our way home. Ugh. Longest night ever! The kids did sleep on the way home. It was nice to have a little silence. We felt like zombies. I'm surprised we made it home in one piece.

WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS AHEAD... NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS!

After we had been home a couple hours, Jet was looking like nap #1 was needed. Our house was hot because we didn't leave the swamp cooler on while we were gone...So, I just laid Jet down in his diaper, thinking he'd be more comfortable that way. Mistake.

20 minutes after laying the boy down he was crying, so I walked into his room to see what the problem was and this is what I found. I WANTED TO DIE! Because I'd lost my voice I couldn't yell downstairs to Brett...(and even if I could have he wouldn't have been able to hear because his head cold was impairing his hearing)...so I pounded on the walls till he heard me and came to help! 

OF ALL THE DAYS FOR THIS TO HAPPEN ON!!! The cleanup process took about an hour, a can of clorox wipes, lysol spray, garbage bags, 3 wash cylcles (just to make sure), a sad tired boy sitting in the shower for about 20 minutes, and maybe a few tears on my part! THANKFULLY, the one item not "painted" by our artist was his favorite teddy bear. Everything else was chucked (like the pillow he peed on) or washed! 

Looks like from now on it's full clothing for this fella at nap time! At some point during the day we all got a family nap in and were able to recover a bit! :)

Aside from the bad night, we had an amazing time in Heber with our family and made lots of amazing memories! Thanks Ric and Sharon!!!