Em and her letters

Have you heard the joke that all white people think their kid is gifted?
I've realized that, although I am constantly amazed at how Emmery is progressing and learning, she is on track with all of the other kids her age.
However, after last week I think she may be gifted :)
We were reading a book and she pointed at letters on the cover and said, "H,S,I,W" (wish backwards). I was amazed- we'd never even specifically worked on letters! My mom came up the next night and validated my feelings- I didn't know my letters until I was 4 1/2.

Here Em is showing Grammy how she knows her letters

Disclaimer- the only way she will sit still while I take a shower is to watch a LeapFrog letter factory movie (one movie in particular) which talks all about the letters…

Snow!

We got snow a few weeks ago, and with the frigid temperatures it stuck around for awhile!
Emmery helped me shovel the driveway one day- she is not a big fan of how cold snow is. Luckily she loves her snow boots :)

What would Dec be without some crafts? We made a snow-Woman. That's right- girl power!

Emmery got some jeggings and brown boots- she looks just like a teenager :)

One weekend morning Jamison and I had fun taking pictures of Emmery doing one of her favorite activities- jumping on our bed!  On a side note- Jamison made this bed- isn't it beautiful?!  I'll have to take more pictures after we paint the room.

Jamison and I attended a Christmas tree fundraiser through his company for the Tiny Tim center in Longmont, which provides preschool for children with special needs. We had a great time, and Jamison won a giftcard to a spa in Longmont. Anyone willing to babysit while I go get a massage? 

This year I had a great idea for family Christmas photos- Jamison/I would take Kelly and her family's photos and she/Dane would take ours. It worked out okay- although next time it might be better if we did it at separate times rather than trying to get 4 kids to be 'smiley' for such a long time.

Here is Emmery waiting to take pictures.

We got several good shots- thanks Dane!

This is the one we chose for the Christmas cards… which may not get delivered until Jan.

The sweater really hides the fact that I'm 18 weeks pregnant!

By the end Emmery would only not cry if she had a candy cane… girl loves her sweets!

Em loves trying on my shoes. While getting ready for Jamison's work Christmas party, she tried all the different heels. I think she walks in them better than I do!

At the work Christmas party.

November and turkey day

We are very excited about the new addition to our family- baby Peanut is due May 16th!

Here s/he is at 12 weeks.

Luckily the first trimester sickness started to subside the end of October, and we enjoyed the last few days of Fall.

We headed up to Fort Collins and had a great day visiting Denise and Moose. 

Emmery had fun playing with beads.

Emmery made a cute leaf squirrel with Grammy.

I caught Emmery in the act of stealing marshmallows...

Drawing with Uncle Scott. Her pencil grip is better than mine!

Testing out her new boots.

And this year we hosted our first Thanksgiving with Tom, Jean, Scott, and Katie.  All recipes were new, and luckily it turned out okay. Of course Emmery woke up Friday morning with the stomach flu, and then I got it Sat afternoon, and Jamison got it Sat night. Hopefully this wasn't a result of our meal...

And here's a picture of our sick little Emmery. Her mattress got moved to the living room that day, and the sheets got washed at least 3 times :(  And yet our little bean is still smiling.

Costumes and candy... and more candy

It was a lot of fun to be around older cousins for Halloween this year!
During the day we went to the downtown Corvallis trick-or-treating where shops hand out candy.

Here is Em getting ready.  She was the cutest black cat, courtesy of Grandma Jean.  She actually kept her ears on for the most part and enjoyed saying 'Meow' :)

Kellie's kids all picked their costumes out at Goodwill, and they found some great stuff!
Torrington was a soldier

Kavanaugh was spider man

And Holland was a clown, with some sweet face paint

Hannah had play practice, so unfortunately couldn't join us for the afternoon. And although I thought this was the part of the day Em would enjoy most, she slept through the entire thing!
Here are the kids running to the next store.

After trick-or-treating, Kellie and Eric treated us to a yummy burrito lunch, where our little black cat finally woke up

That night we went back out around the neighborhood. 

Here's Hannah- a pretty pirate.

And even Eric dressed up. The first house we went to asked him if he was a football player...

The kids all did great and we got a nice walk in with all of the hills in their neighborhood :)
And Emmery loved  it. She said 'thank you' at almost every door.

The next day we celebrated All Saints Day at Kellie's church. The kids dressed up as saints and there were lots of fun saint-related games for them to play.

Emmery dressed up as an angel.

And the next day we headed back home. 

The pilot told us in the waiting area that we should stop off at the cockpit, where Em got an official wing pin :)

And traveling with Grandpa is waaay better than traveling alone.

We had a great trip and Emmery had so much fun. She now loves to name all of her cousins when she looks at pictures, which she does daily :)  Thank you Kellie and Eric!

Fall fun with family in Oregon

Over Halloween week, Em and I went with my parents out to Corvallis to see Kellie and her family.  It was a beautiful time to visit Oregon- the trees were vivid oranges, reds, and yellows, and we had such a great time- especially Emmery who loves to look back at all of the pictures and name all of her cousins :)  Since we don't get to see the Jensen family often, we took lots of pictures (warning that this is a long post!).

We tried to do a little something everyday, but also spent time just hanging out together at the house.

Opening up Halloween presents from Grammy and Grandpa!

Baking cookies

Loving playing with lots of new toys and her cousins

Hannah working on her house for a mouse (aka homework)

Holland and Emmery drawing. Kellie's dining room is full of craft supplies, and whenever I couldn't find Emmery she was in there coloring (or upstairs naughtily jumping on the bed with Torrington)

Playing 'Go Fish' with Grandpa

Reading books (of course Emmery would rather read her own than listen to a book :p)

One morning we went to the farmer's market!

Holland (who I wished lived closer to babysit) pushing Emmery

Carving pumpkins.  To raise money, a group had pre-gutted pumpkins to choose from, tables, and carving supplies ready for a donation!

Kavanaugh and Grandpa

Emmy had fun crunching in the leaves with Grammy

Torrington drew me and himself on his pumpkin (Kellie carved it)- so sweet :)

Tasting apple cider

We also went for walks and to the park

Emmy and Grammy

Swinging

Kavanaugh on the monkey bars

On a beautiful morning we went to the pumpkin patch. 

How cute is this old red barn? They had some baby farm animals, a dark maze and hay-bale maze, pumpkin patch, hayride, and slides- so fun!

Holland on the hayride

Torrington trying to see

Going through the maze

We tried to take a picture of all of the kids in their Halloween outfits.
This is the first one. But Em was eating a snack. So we took it away...

And we got this. So Kellie said to make funny faces...

 And we got this. Guess we should have been happy with the first one!

Holland and Kavanaugh

And leaping up the hay to get to the slide

Aunt Kellie helping Em up to the slide

And Grandpa helping Em watch from the bottom of the slide as her cousins come down

 Torrington on a very large pumpkin

Possibly the cutest picture ever of the 4 Jensens at the bottom of the slide

Fall fun! Since this has already gotten so long, I'll do Halloween in a separate post.