Late Merry Christmas :)

Our Christmas Holiday was wonderful!!! We went up to Bountiful to spend the holiday weekend with my family. We had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures that highlight our fun adventures...

We started out by celebrating Kristen's birthday. She was born on Dec. 23rd. She gets to open lots of gifts within a few days! :)




Right before dinner on Christmas Eve we got a big package on our front porch. Someone had rung the doorbell and ran. We opened box after smaller box after even smaller box, until the contents revealed...a can of prego sauce. It was great news from Nathan and Steph...they are expecting again!!! Yay! She is due in June.


Everyone got ready for the Christmas Eve program. All the kids got into their onsies....

We always have a Christmas program with lots of music and everyone in the family shares something that night.


We have a tradition in our family called "gift from the heart". A couple months before Christmas we all draw names in the family. Then you have to be creative and make something for that person. You can buy the things to make it, but it has to come from the heart!





Christmas morning Cade and I woke up with some sobering news. His sister Tara went into labor that morning at 32 weeks gestation. She was pregnant with twins and lost one of them (Abram). Cade flew on Christmas day last minute to go be with them. It was extremely sad news, especially for Christmas day. But the Lord also blessed them...the second baby was delivered fine and life-flighted to Portland, OR to the NICU. They named him Ashur. He is doing wonderful and progressing so fast! We are so happy that he is doing so well and that Tara and Johnny are parents to him! They will be such amazing parents and he is such a cute baby! Oh, not to mention...he was born at 3 lbs 6 ounces- the exact same as Emma! What are the odds...



One happy part about Christmas morning was seeing Wills that morning! It is so much more fun with kids again! And we spent many hours just watching him...he is very entertaining!

He loved his new horsey.

Apparently Boose did too :)

Aunt sisten with the babies.

Wills was so cute with Emma. He loves babies!

One of his favorite words now is "stuck" and will say it whenever he is stuck or a toy gets stuck and he says it in a very panicy voice. Emma was sitting on him and after he gave kisses, he started yelling "stuck", "stuck!" He was done with her:). It was hilarious!

Some cute pictures of Emma. Cade loves the outfit with the snails! Too bad she is growing out of her premie clothes!


Well, needless to say, we had a great vacation full of surprises. It was also a great time to give gifts as well as remember the greatest gift of all: our Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Happy New Year!

Well, it sure has been a great year! Cade and I have been extremely blessed in 2009 and have one more year of marriage down :). There have been a lot of changes in our family and we have learned a lot from the last year. Some memories from 2009:

January: Starting the 2nd semester in the MDT program.
Feb/March: Can't think of anything significant, sad to say, and I didn't write much in my journal during these months...oops.
April: Finding out we were expecting :), performing in Thouroughly Modern Millie.
May: Announcing to both families the good news! We flew to AZ to announce to his family.
June: Fun camping trip with our good friends the Henderson's, Finding out they get to adopt a beautiful girl named Savannah.
July: A great trip to AZ for the 4th and having a blast! Finding out Tara, Cade's sister, was expecting as well! An amazing vacation at Lake Chelan, WA with my family. It was such a relaxing, amazing trip!
August: Our Second anniversary! We stayed in SL at the Anniversary Inn and went to the Draper Temple. Cade headed up a service project for his company at Fishbowl called "Fishbowl day of service". Attended Ed Week at BYU...love it!
September: Starting up school again.
October: Put on bed rest in the hospital on the 9th and spent the whole month there in my new home :). Learned new skills and how to kill time!
November: Emma was born on the 3rd. She has been the highlight of the year, that is for sure! Cade's parents came to Utah during Thanksgiving to come see their first grand baby!
December: Emma finally getting to come home on the 9th from the hospital. A great Christmas vacation in Bountiful with my family!

Emma Photography

My friend, Kimberly, came over to my house to take some pictures of Emma. Emma's supposed to stay inside all winter and not go to crowded places, so it was very nice of her to come to my house and do a photo shoot. I was really worried that Emma might not cooperate at all...well, she lasted about 4 minutes before getting hungry, then after I fed her and changed her clothes, she fell asleep for the remainded of the shoot. Well, luckily I think she is still beautiful while she sleeps because we tried waking her up, but nothing would work! You can tell by the photos that she definitely was tired :)! Here is my beautiful 7 week old baby...well, of course I would think she's adorable...I'm her mom :).

Daddy and Mommy at work...

So when you have a crying baby to calm and have ten other things on the list to get done at the same time, you have to be creative. Well, just like every other parent...Cade and I have learned how to manage...

Finally HOME!

Emma is finally home with us!!! We are so excited to have her healthy, tube free, and growing! It was exactly two months of hospital stay between her and I. Emma is doing really well...besides the fact that night and day are mixed up...she definitely likes to be wide awake and fussy throughout the night:)! I'm sure most parents can relate. The first night was classic: no sleeping, not knowing why she is crying, Cade and I switching off every couple hours to try and get a shut eye for a few minutes...good times:). She is so cute and we love her to death! It is so fun, tiring, and wonderful being a parent.

This is Gene Cross that we live with. He was happy to see Emma and be her great grandpa!

Having fun taking pictures! She is so cute in her new little premie outfit! (from Stephanie's mom...very nice of her:)).

Giant Carseat...

So one of the things we had to do before being able to go home was to bring our carseat in and have a trial run. Emma had to sit in it for 90 minutes and see if her heart rate and oxygen levels stayed okay. She looked SO adorable in it because she is so itty bitty in that huge carseat! She looked so confused why we would stick her in it. It was great!


These are some one month birthday pictures that Linda, one of the NICU nurses, took of Emma. I love the kissy lips pose. Can't wait to take her home very soon!

One Month Old!

Today Emma is one month old...how time flies! She is now 5 whole pounds and 17 inches long! She is doing so great. I love her so much and am so proud of her improvement. Nursing has taken a while for her to get, but she is learning. It looks like she will be coming home with us sometime next week. The nurse practioner thinks she is ready to advance in breast feeding and getting her home soon. It has seemed like a long journey, but she will be home before we know it!



I got a great shot of her searching for her pacifier to suck on...

Of few! She found it...look how content :).

She can't keep her little socks on very well. I think her feet are so adorable!

Aunt Steph got to hold her for the first time. She has visited Emma many times, but finally got to hold her. Nathan and Wills got to see Emma through the window. I should have gotten a picture of that. Wills kept knocking on the window and pointing and saying "mama" and "baby". It was so cute!

A couple nights ago, Cade got to give Emma her first bottle. He really enjoyed that.


Well, soon she can come home! We can't wait for that day. I have had many Mom's tell me, "oh enjoy the sleep right now" or "enjoy not having to find babysitters", etc. But trust me, less sleep and finding babysitters will be just fine! As long as we get to finally have her with us.