Our Happy Place

I just keep thinking I'm pretty sure my happy place is just anywhere I can be with these two..

I have been feeling so much gratitude and love for them lately, even when we are just lounging around playing together at home.

 BUT I have to say in this little family, the Zoo definitely doesn't hurt.

There is something so fun about spending our Saturday mornings there when we get a chance and being around all of the animals.

Now if I could have just gotten my pet fish to show this much enthusiasm about breakfast time maybe we would be, very entry level fish owning, pet owners today.

They were absolutely crazy jumping all over each other.. 

& Somehow I think that I might have been enjoying the wild fish commotion as much as they were enjoying being fed.

It's so fun watching Emery gradually be more and more excited and aware of what's going on..

I'm not sure if she was more excited about the hippo or her picture being taken (or maybe it was those beautiful colored fish in there with the hippo) but either way we were loving the enthusiasm.

And if you can spot the bear in this picture I think that you too have had some zoo practice, it took us a minute to find him but I was laughing. It's the best when the animals are out and climbing around.

We also saw a baby monkey hanging from it's momma's tail, and I realized that no matter what species you are being a mom is work. & of course I took several pictures of it and then later realized I had forgotten to put the memory card in our camera! Thank goodness for iPhone pictures.

And in this picture you can experience our poor sweet little interested in touching/grabbing everything Emery learning her first little lesson on personal space..

If you can't tell by the fact that this bird looks like he has been battling other birds previously,

 he took his food very seriously.

Our poor baby girl just isn't used to everyone not absolutely loving on her.. bless her little heart.

He didn't hurt her I think it just surprised her, but lesson learned for all of us..

Emery probably just isn't quite ready to be a zoo keeper yet.

We will keep working on it though, and for now we are just hoping the zoo and family time is filling the void in our little Emery's animal loving life left by not having a real live pet in our home.

5 Month Old Emery

Oh this girl.

  

I like her so much.

And if I was to make a bet, I would say that Blake was pretty fond of her too.

She really is our absolute light of our lives.

I am a little bit behind.. but 5 months was when I remember life starting to get a little easier.

Emery started being able to sit up on her own, of course you had to prop her into sitting position, but then she could stay sitting for about as long as she wanted and it was awesome.

She's also always really loved standing and even could hold herself standing on the couch starting this month if you stood behind her. 

& She started scooting around (kind of like an inch worm), and with rolling and scooting combined seemed to basically get where ever she wanted to towards the end of her fifth month.

This was her last month in the carrier while we shopped.. definitely bittersweet.

And her first month with solids..

{oh boy solids. everyone seems to have quite an opion with solids.. but we eventually gave in to our doctor suggesting we start them and she was definitely ready, never spit her food out and with the exception of green beans seemed really happy with it}

This girl really started making us laugh, this is the probably the month that she became a lot more interactive and her personality seemed even stronger.

 Emery and I started doing yoga together (alot less relaxing, but oh so cute) and story and singing classes and other fun things and she really still is so much fun for me,

 Emery is definitely my little sidekick and makes me love love love being mom.

 

 5 month Emery, even though she never has been a very good napper, really was a joy.

And even though every stage has fun things about it, it's so fun when they start to really experience the world and enjoy things and interact with you.

We are so blessed to have this perfect wonderful little girl in our lives

(please note her rings caught between her toes-those sweet toes kill me)

Blake and I sure love our Emery girl to the moon and back,

(besides sleep through the night) I don't know what we ever did without her.



And Guess Who is Finally Back!

I would take a couple of guesses here as correct seeing as we have been a little MIA for a while..

So I am back.. taking a little breather from this crazy life to catch up a little bit.. I've noticed that my last blog was very closely correlated with the time in our lives right before Emery got pretty quick at moving. She has been keeping me on my toes to say the least! But we are FINALLY getting the hang of this napping business so we will see if that helps me be a little better at preserving/sharing life.

 (and rested.. oh how I have taken sleep for granted in my life)

But anyway the real answer and purpose of my being here today documenting is.. 

MY BROTHER!

[please insert some cheering and jumping and clapping and fist pumping]

 

Mitch has been in Argentina serving a mission for our church for the past a little over two years and holy smokes I can't tell you how proud I've been of him, but boy we have missed this guy!

 

And I can't tell you what a blessing it was to be able to make it to New Mexico in time for Mitch to get here..

Besides for the fact that survival of traveling 15 hours with a newborn seems to be a miracle all in itself, schedules while trying to become a grown up seem to be crazy and kind of hard ot coordinate.

But Blake is awesome and negotiated this week with his job before he took it,

So here we are after a few minor hiccups with my favorite people.

After we just about had everything ready to go to the airport and were starting to get ready to go

Mitch called and his first flight had run late so he'd missed his connecting flight into our home town...  

So Emery, and all of our hearts, had to wait a little bit longer, seeing as plan B seemed to be a trip in what just about was the middle of no where..

 

And in the middle of no where existed what I'm sure had to be the smallest public airport in human existence.

Seriously in these two pictures you can see the entire airport.

And after we waited and waited all by ourselves we were taking bets on if Mitch was going to show up by himself on a crop duster.

{I mean possibly even flying the crop duster, judging from how many people seemed to be wanting to end up in this airport!}

So we couldn't believe our eyes when there was our missionary coming off of a real live Airplane.. and HOME.. {sort of} haha

 

 

And even though I definitely think it took some adjusting back to America for him,

There is no where in the world I would have rather been than there hearing about all of his adventures and just getting to be able to enjoy hearing my brother's voice again.

And even though it felt like a quick little trip- I think some time with these guys was probably just what the doctor ordered.

{Oh Those Cheeks. I pray I will never forget those kissable wonderful soft squishy cheeks.}

 

We spent the week catching up on a little R & R believe it or not..

Got to be in New Mexico to celebrate my Dad's 50th Birthday..

 

{can I just re insert the believe it or not.. how is time flying so fast.}

 

 

And spent time with the people that I love.

 

Family is a pretty wonderful thing.