Love in a basket

Emma turned 11 months on March 26th! Here is her latest trick:

One of Emma's favorite things to do is ride around the house in the laundry basket! I love how the simplest things bring the greatest joys (plus, it's the only way I can get the laundry done!) :)

"Mom, why do you have to take so many pictures??"


We got to do some fun things this past month!

At the beginning of March we went to the Body World Exhibit at the Arizona Science Center (sorry no pics...) and then we went to the Bass Pro Shop in Mesa. Emma got to see all the cool outdoorsy manly man stuff and all the fish in the huge tank.

The next week we went to a D-Backs spring training game with Jake, Brittney, and Porter. Emma got some serious lovin' at the game by getting on the jumbo-tron AND getting some special attention from Baxter the D-Backs mascot!

The very next day we went on an amazing weekend cruise to Mexico with the Nelsons
(for pics from that trip click here )

The following week was spring break and we got to spend time with our good friends Roman and Shaley Madsen. They came down from Provo and we got to see their adorable new baby Lucy! We went swimming one of the nights they were here - Emma and Lucy loved it :)

Also, we go to go to dinner one night with our friends Bryce and Ashley. They took us to a pizza place called Spinato's and it was de.lish. mmmm...you should try it.

Remember this bad boy?
Last week we obtained my family's old Nintendo 64 game system (yes it still works). Needless to say, we've spent LOTS of time getting our game on playing MarioKart. YaaHooooooo!
And yesterday we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Butterfly Exhibit. It was such a cool experience to be surrounded by hundreds of butterflies! We even got to release baby butterflies into the pavilion for their first time.




Brittney, Paige and my mom were lucky enough to have butterflies come and land on them!

The month of March flew by and April has a bunch of things in store for us! Emma will be turning one before we know it! And I can't wait for General Conference this weekend - we're so lucky we have the chance to hear from our prophet and church leaders.

Ahoy!

On Friday, March 11 we got to go on a CRUISE with the Nelson family! We went on a 3 night 4 day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico with all of Thomas' siblings, their spouses, Thomas' parents and, yes, you guessed it - no kids! It was so fun to be all together for the weekend :)

Playing mini-golf on the top deck

Our favorite part about dinner every night: molten chocolate cakes with two scoops of ice cream oh, and when all the waiters/waitresses would start singing and dancing for us...

Having fun playing games....lots of games!

One night the girls went dancing in the 'REX' room! We had so much fun that we convinced the guys to come with us the next night and it was hilarious. The Nelson men DON'T dance so it was quite the experience - let's just say it only lasted for maybe 15 minutes...but it was worth it! Haha :)

We had so much fun and it was so nice to have an adult getaway for the weekend. Thank you Kent and Kathleen for making the trip possible! When can we do it again??

10 months

Dear Mommy,

I am now 10 1/2 months old - can you believe it?? I know you and daddy already know how awesome I am but here's a list of all the things I can do just in case you forget:

• I can crawl so fast that when you look away for 2 seconds I am long gone!

• I love to play with anything that isn't my toys - I just want to play with your stuff, please :)

• I can drink out of my sippy cup all by myself now!

• I can hold my bottle all by myself so you don't need to hold it for me anymore

• I love giving you and daddy hugs :)

• I HATE getting my diaper changed so if you could just not do that anymore I would appreciate it...

• I can give you kisses when you ask me too!!

• I don't like to eat my food when I see you eating your food so if you could just give me your food everyone will be much happier, thank you

• I like how my toe nails are always painted

• I can say 'uh-oh' when I drop things on the floor, and I say 'ow' for everything else

• I love to point my index finger at everything I see or want

• I finally learned to fall asleep on my own at bedtime! Thanks for all those hours you and daddy spent rocking me to sleep every night, now you don't have to :) yay!!

Only a month and a half till I turn one!
Love, emma lyn

Family pictures

In February we got to go to Cedar City to spend a weekend with Emily and Jared. Emily took some family pictures for us! They turned out so cute - thanks Emily! :)

ALOHA

A couple weeks ago we got to spend a whole week in Hawaii! Thomas' parents were nice enough to let us tag along with them on their vacation to Maui for Kent's radiology conference. As hard as it was, we left our little Emma behind. But despite my motherly withdrawals we had an amazing and very relaxing week.

Here is the first view you see when you enter
the hotel....can you say gorgeous??

Snorkeling at 6:30am...it was pretty dang chilly
on that boat but the water was actually warmer
than the air outside so that was nice!

In Lahaina we went to a magic show that
was so hilarious! and, of course, magical :)

View from our hotel deck

Lounging by the pool: our daily activity

Our favorite place to eat: Cheeseburger...yum

At sunset you could see the whales way out in the ocean
blowing their spouts and swimming around, it was awesome.

This was the rug on the floor of the elevators. They
changed depending on the time of day. So in the
morning it said good morning and then good
afternoon at noon, etc. We never did catch who it
was who changed those rugs every 6 hours or so.......

The infamous macadamia nut pancakes! These were
so delicious that we had them for breakfast twice!
They came with bananas and coconut syrup and
oh man, Kathleen and I still dream about them....

On our last day we drove on the road to Hana.
It was long but the views made it well worth the trip!

Oh, and the gi-normous ice cream snow cone
helped make the trip worth it too!

We found some cool trees and vines along the road so
naturally I had to try and swing on them like Tarzan...
needless to say, it was unsuccessful

Hawaii was such a blast and quite the dream vacation.
Thanks Kent and Kathleen for making our tropical
dreams come true! We are so lucky to have you as
parents/in-laws!

Also, shout out to Emily and my parents, our fearless
babysitters, who watched Emma for us while we were
away! We couldn't have left her in better hands,
thanks so much :)

*To see some adorable photos Emily took
while watching Emma, click here