Moving Day

Ahhh...it's finally here! I am so sick of packing...I would rather throw the rest of our stuff away than pack it! We packed up tons of crap yesterday, including our tv. So now Emerald has to watch her movies on a little tiny 7 inch portable dvd player. Poor kid. Life is rough. :) Charlie just sits in his port-a-crib so he doesn't get into things (and so Emerald doesn't sit on him...she just loves to try to ride him for some reason).

I have so many mixed emotions about leaving Cache Valley. I have never lived anywhere else! It's definitely going to be a culture shock. I will miss all the fun little traditions we have started here in Cache Valley. The Pumpkin Walk, Baby Animal Days at the Heritage Center, 4th of July fireworks in my Parent's backyard, walks to the library, and the list goes on! But I know there will be lots of fun stuff to do in Southern California too! People ask me if I'm sad to go....yes and no. I'm sad to leave my Parent's and little Mia (the pet dog). I know Emerald will miss "Mama" and "Papa" very much too. (oh and Mia)

I'm excited to break free from family though too. I think it will really help me get out of my shell and be able to discover life in a whole new way! When you live so close to ALL your family members, you seem to get sucked into the drama. So I'm SUPER excited to leave the drama!! :) And I am so excited for our new ward!! We have been talking with our Bishop out there and the EQ Pres already called Jacob and talked to him for a good 30 mins! And then today a cute little Southern gal called me up from the ward and lives just down the street from us! I'm glad to get out of a student ward and to have ward members that might actually do their calling. :) Haha, I don't know what it is...but every student ward we have been in...We never have our Hometeachers come!! I get really P.O.'d because it seems that Mormons outside of Utah are the BEST! And students in student wards just don't make the time for putting in their best when it comes to church callings. Like they are busy or something! HAHA.

I beter get back to packing...UGG! Stay tuned for pics of the new home and stories of our adventures driving 12 hours with 2 kids! :)

Emerald likes all her animals to "ride" something. Here she tries to let her ladybug ride on Charlie. Look for the little dance moves she does too. My kids are so freakin cute.

Conference Weekend

We also got glow sticks at Michaels for only a buck and danced the night away! Well, until 9 pm anyway...we were all pooped by then. Amazing how early you go to bed once you have kids.

Here is Emerald's Pumpkin. All sorts of colors. Mostly black.

We painted pumpkins last Monday night. Emerald loved picking out the pumpkins at the store with Uncle Nick. She even lifted them up into her little cart @ Lee's. I heart Lee's. What a great store. People are so nice there.

Pppfff. Lazy parents.


Emerald and Cousin Tyler chillin and watching a movie. (during the Conference sessions of course)

Who needs Toys?

Bees!

Emerald has this love for all creatures...including bees. She calls any bug that flies a Bee. And her new favorite movie is Bee Movie. So I found it fitting to get her a Bee costume.

ATK Test Fire and Golden Spike

We had a picnic in the back of our car to watch the test fire over at ATK.

Somewhat Recent Events

Jacob's 25th Birthday!! Yay! He can rent a car now!

We went to Hollywood! You can barely even see the Hollywood sign...it's actually quite lame. We didn't do a lot while we were there since we will only be living an hour and a half away from L.A.

Emerald at Hogle Zoo with Cousin Tessa.

Charlie is getting even bigger.

We made Play Dough at Aunt Jessica's house and Emerald and Cousin Ethan had a blast!
Great Gma and Gpa Brown came to visit a few times this summer. Emerald really liked serving them tea from her kitchen.

Emerald got a jeep this last summer. I found it at a yard sale for 25 bucks and then Jacob beefed it up with 4 extra batteries. It's awesome. Emerald always wants us to ride with her, so she pats the seat next to her and says, "Sit. Sit Mommy. Sit." She is so demanding. Wonder who she gets that from? :)

Falling babies, Peace and Traditions

It's crazy how fast little ones grow! I can't believe that Emerald used to weigh only 5 pounds and now she's talking up a storm and helping around the house. The past few months have been so fun to watch Emerald grow. She has really increased her vocabulary and I can see such a loving personality in her. She's so sweet with her baby dolls; she takes them for walks and tips over the little stroller and says, "Uh-oh. Don't fall baby. Baby, you ok?? You ok?" Then she picks up the baby and holds her tight while she says, "It's ok baby. Shhh-shh-shh." It is so adorable! She loves animals, babies, tractors, pumpkins (she sleeps with the pumpkin Grandma got her at Lee's), walks, horses, drawing, play-dough, and jumping. It's such a fun age to see her learn all these new words and to really be able to talk with her and connect more.

Emerald also learned the word "Peace" and I taught her how to sign the peace sign. One day she got in trouble for hitting Charlie on the head and Jacob was getting after her. He told her to go to time-out and sit. She quietly bowed her head, then popped up and said, "Peace, Daddy. Peace" while signing the peace sign. It was so heart-breaking..she is such a sweetheart. It's really hard to discipline such a sweet girl. It's going to be extra hard to discipline Charlie cause he's just so sweet and fat!!

So we've still got 2 weeks to pack and say Bye-Bye to Utah! The thing that I am excited the most about is that in December the temperature will be 60 degrees! Ahhh...and NO SNOW! It's sad that we won't be able to come back to Utah for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year...but we are excited to start our own little family traditions and make lots of new friends! What are some traditions that you do in your family? I wanna start some fun things this year so our Holidays won't be so lonesome and boring. Leave me a comment on some new traditions we could try this year!

Flashback...Emerald at 4 months