M.I.B.A

I've been M.I.B.A (missing in blogging action) since Easters (with the exception of a couple small posts) and I express my deepest apologies to all my readers....I know, I know....I only have about 5 and they're all related to me....NONETHELESS! I will carry on with my blogging duties and update you on all the Nelson happenings since Easters. Bear with me (or is it bare with me?), there are A LOT of pictures :)

The Saturday before Easter we had a beautiful dinner with the Nelsons and the kids had an egg hunt and played games.

On Sunday morning Emily took some adorable pictures of Emma in her Easter Sunday dress

After church we went up to the Thurston's for another egg hunt and dinner

Emma didn't really get the whole 'hunting for eggs' thing but she did get the 'eat the candy inside the eggs' thing!

We also celebrated Emma's birthday with them! My mom made these delicious chocolate cupcakes and made an especially huge one for Emma. She was a little hesitant at first (probably because everyone was huddled around her highchair staring at her..)

...but as soon as she realized it was chocolate she dug right in!

There was no stopping her!

She kept rubbing her hands all over her face - haha it got EVERYWHERE! And I couldn't believe she ate almost half of that huge cupcake!

On Tuesday April 26th was Emma's 1st birthday! She wore this cute shirt that said "I'm the birthday girl" I tried getting a picture of it but she kept moving around too much!

She loved the balloons we got her :)

We sang her happy birthday and I blew out the candle (she didn't get it)

After dessert, she opened her birthday present

A baby doll!

Just so you know, Emma is obsessed with baby dolls. She loves to hug and kiss them - it's SO cute.

The next day we went to a D-Backs game with some friends that were visiting here in the valley

And then on Saturday was my sister's wedding! Lindsay and Eric are such a great couple and I'm so glad they found each other! It was a beautiful wedding and I'm happy I got to help with everything! I was Lindsay's unofficial "official" wedding planner and I had a blast with it. I think that I want to be a wedding planner when I grow up :)

Porter and Emma stole the show with their cute outfits :)

The following Thursday we flew up to Seattle for one of Thomas' mission friend's wedding! Neither of us had ever been there so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and make a trip out of it :)

One of my favorite roommates from college lives in Renton so we got to stop by her house and see her! Hannah makes me laugh so hard - I seriously love her to death. She is expecting their first baby this year and I couldn't be happier for them :)

One of Thomas' other mission friends lives outside of Seattle in Puyallup and so we got to stay with them for our trip. Dan and Lindsey have been our friends since we've been married and it was so fun staying with them!

While we were there we went to Alki and drove around to Alki point

We saw the Space needle

We went to Pike's place - the huge street market

They had TONS of flowers in the market, especially tulips. They were so pretty

And the famous gum wall. Yes, it's a wall down in this creepy ally with millions of people's chewed up gum stuck to it. Disgusting.

We went to a Mariners game

At first Emma was not a big fan of Dan. Every time he tried to talk to her or even look at her she would turn away or make a mean face. Haha it was the joke of the trip. This is a picture of him trying to hold her but she kept trying to push him away! By the end of the trip she finally warmed up to him though :)

Went to the Seattle temple for Brandon and Malia's sealing

And they had their wedding reception in a barn - it was so beautiful!

We spent Mother's Day there and this was my present from Thomas and Emma. They made me this adorable mother's day shirt! :)

Front:

Back:

We had Sunday dinner at Lindsey's grandma's house and then we had to fly back home Monday morning. We had so much fun and enjoyed visiting Seattle for the first (and probably last) time :) Although it was overcast and rainy most of the time Thomas and I couldn't help but fall in love with how green everything is and how many beautiful trees there are!!

Big Girl Seat

Sippy-cup holder? Check
Hidden compartment for snacks? Check
Meets the size requirements? Check
Able to see mommy driving? Check
Comfy enough to sleep in? Check
Ready to conquer the world? Check :)

One year ago today...

...our little Emma Lyn was born! Although her entrance into the world was quite traumatic and life-threatening for her and myself, Emma is now a healthy and beautiful little girl. We are so lucky to have her in our lives and feel so blessed to be her parents. While I was in a coma the days following Emma's birth, Thomas made me this video of her to watch when I woke up. It still brings me to tears when I watch it, to think of everything that we went through during and after the delivery; it just makes me that much more grateful for my precious little Emma. Happy birthday Emma, we love you!

Steppin' Time

Emma has become a pro at standing up by herself. She will push away from whatever she was holding on to and she stands in this sort of crouching stance with her knees slightly bent. It's hilarious because she gets this look in her eyes that says, "look at me, mommy, I'm doing something really cool" and then she'll start opening and closing her hands into a fist, like it's helping her balance or something. haha. SO CUTE. She's been doing this A TON over the past week and then this weekend she started taking steps! She'll only do a few at a time and it usually ends with her falling into us, but nonetheless she is moving her feet on her own!

Check out Emma's sweet kicks. Pink Sperry top-siders. Thomas and I have been waiting and waiting for her to fit into them and she finally does! So obviously we had to do a photo-shoot :)

Last week I came home from working out and I walked into our room to find this:

If that doesn't define the word precious I don't know what does...
And then there's this:

Not quite as precious...more like the "this is really hard to get any sleep with Emma's head and arms glued to my face all night" kind of precious...

A couple Saturdays ago it was rainy so we took the 4runner out for some off-roading in the mud and to see if we could get to the snow on the mountains. Emma was so cozy in her snow princess coat that she fell asleep right away and slept THE. WHOLE. TIME. (we were gone for over 3 hours)

EMMA'S SPOT

If you seem to have lost track of where Emma is, chances are you'll find her in her favorite hiding spot: under the kitchen table :)

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