2 Years Ago...

2 years ago on the 10th, Morgan and I became parents for the first time and fell head over heals for this little girl...

To read Emerys life story, read every post from October 10th 2008 until now :)

Now onto the festivities! Since Emerys birthday was on a Sunday and I'm quite large with child and not really up for a lot of hullabaloo, we decided to keep this birthday to family. Which is still PLENTY of hullabaloo :)

The Lewis boys came down the mountain to spend the weekend with us and the rest of the cousins (minus the Clarkson girls) came over on Sunday for dinner and some cake and ice cream! It worked out really well because my parents always have Sunday dinner so all I was in charge of was the cake! (even though Annie really ended up making it while I held Bridger boy...thanks sister! :))

(a lot of candles for a two year old i know...all the little candles spell "EM!" but you can't really tell....)

Thanks to Savannah and her mad bargain shopping skills, Emery got her very first TRIKE this year!! Emery LOVES it...and so did every little kid at my parents house...you know you picked a good gift when there's at least three other children in the room crying because THEY want it...haha

Unfortunately, Morgans family was in Rocky Point with the other grandkids for Ems actually birthday (again, me being large with child, decided to sit that Mexico trip out)so we had a second little party for Emery as well as Ayson (whose birthday was on the 5th) on Tuesday...

The Christensens got Emery little "clickity-clack" shoes which Emery LOVED and Grandma and Grandpa Pew got her a new baby with all the accessories...

(isn't Morgan handsome?? seriously...just thought I'd throw it out there)

Emery has been obsessed with babies honestly as long as I can remember... if there is a baby in the room she'll drop everything to hold it or feed it or just look at it and say "aww...baby" she has to have one or two of her babies with her all the time and really does a good job taking care of them! They get fed and changed and taken for walks and cuddled and put to go "night night" at least 10 times a day...

I can't even say how grateful we are for our sweet Emery...she really is the sweetest, most sensitive, affectionate, kind-hearted little girl I know...she has taught us more about love and patience and what really matters in this life in the short two years that she has been here, than we ever could have imagined...we joke that we're going to get it with this next baby cuz there's no way the Lord would give us another one like Emery...no one is that lucky :)

Oregon Quick Trip!

So Courtney, Annie, my mom and I got the wild hair to book a trip to the great Northwest and take advantage of the fact that Courtneys parents have a house up there that pretty much sits vacant most of the time...we convinced our husbands (well two of them at least) and Thos that it would probably be the only time that would ever be able to go and stay for free cuz Courts parents are thinking about selling...so away we went!

Thank you Allegiant Air for getting us there safe

The house we stayed in is right across the street from the Deschutes River...and let me tell you, it is beautiful...honestly the whole scenery reminded us a lot of our own White Mountains just with more water...which is nice :)

get a load of that belly... 30 weeks today!

The next day we went on a little hike to a place called...hmm...well i don't remember what it was called but the whole hike was along side the Deschutes River...again beautiful (but with lots and lots of mosquitos....yuck)

we're working on Emerys "pretty smile" haha and yes, that little dot on her forehead is a mosquito that I squashed right after this picture was taken. I feel itchy just talking about it...

That is a big cliff with Matt at the top looking very "king of the mountain"

hmm....

Sunday we took a drive up to Washington! Just to be able to say we've been there :)

On the way back we drove by Mount Hood which was AMAZING....probably my favorite part of the trip was the drive around this mountain...someday I will hike it...someday

We pulled off the highway to eat our lunch at this random little veggie stand which happen to have the cutest little vacation rental with the perfect view of the mountain...If it wasn't so dang windy i'd totally live there :)

And then we headed back to the house and goodbye to Mount Hood...for now :)

These cute girls were the biggest stars ever...and very cute :) (Bridger too but he wasn't wearing Tinkerbell so he had to sit this one out...)

Big thanks to the Wilkes for letting us commandeer their house for the weekend! And to Mom, Annie, Bridger, Thos, Matt, Court, and Kenz for being great travel buddies :) We love you guys! aaaaand to Lissa for keeping our rabbit alive while we were gone :)

Arizona Room Camp Out

Tragically the fan on our AC unit bit the dust yesterday evening...I guess thats what we get for keeping the AC so low all the time (thank you Solar Panels) ;)

Luckily we have a little AC unit out in the Arizona room/Emerys play room soooo we blew up the air mattress and camped out there last night! It was fun....sort of. :) We tried to make the best of the situation and I think we did a pretty good job!

Funny though, the highlight of the whole thing....

I said to Morgan "well at least you'll get to watch Sports Center from in bed!" and he said "I know!! I'm kind of excited about it...is that weird?"

Emery thought it was the coolest thing ever to get to sleep in her play room...

Potty Time!

We took the potty training plunge Tuesday...

Our baby isn't a baby anymore...bye bye diapers!

Hello panties!!

Honestly...its bitter sweet...I kind of miss my diaper baby (and the convenience of them...) and sometimes I think, am I crazy? Am I trying this too early???

But she's been doing really well so far! She's been dry every morning all week, only one accident yesterday and none so far today...so we're going to keep going and see how it goes! And seriously, seeing her cute bummy in panties makes all the potty trips and isolation (we haven't left the house in a couple days) worth it!! We can do this...

Pew Beach Week 2010

We were lucky enough to visit our favorite beach in Oxnard for a second time this summer! Yay!

It was sooooo nice to be back on the beach and in a sweater again...

This time we got to spend the week with the Pew side (and the "beach week" friends) :)

Quite the contrast going from 16 little kids in one house to 3! We were spoiled this week to say the least...

Nobody I think as much as Emery though...

she got "a bite" of just about anything she wanted no matter who was eating it (sorry everyone especially Gpa, she's a mooch what can I say)...

got to play with all of Ayson and Maceys toys (thank you Aysonpants for sharing)...

took naps on the beach...

stayed up as long as she wanted...

slept in...

played "ouside" with her cousins aaallll day...

and the list goes on...

Emery got so tired out on the beach and was having the hardest time going "nigh night" until her daddy came and laid down next to her and then she was out like a light...

Our new tradition thanks to Courtney...the Underwood Family Farm in Moorpark

Ayson got to go on a pony ride and Macey got to pet one but Emery didn't want anything to do with either...

The rest of the day was full of feeding animals, practicing our animal sounds, a train ride and lots and lots of fun

The rest of the week was spent having a blast on the beach...

Morgan and I did escape Wednesday with Dallin, Lissa, Jake, Kaylee and Bailey to Santa Barbara so the boys could play Sand Piper . Us girls shopped till our feet hurt and then met the boys for dinner...

Thank you Grandma and Papa for watching our widdle widdle :) And and even bigger thanks to those same two wonderful people for the entire trip in general...THANK YOU!!!

And another thanks...to my more than amazing mother...

Our tired little family pulled up to our house Friday night to a freshly mowed lawn...freshly planted flowers, all the dead ones pulled out...and these on my kitchen table...

I mean seriously...what a lady right??

Thank you for the thousandth time mom...we LOVE LOVE LOVE you!!

4 Years

Morgan and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on the 12th and spent some much needed "mommy/daddy, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend" time together...

Morgan got off work early and we went and got pedicures

(Morgans first and probably not his last!)

Then we headed over to Tempe Marketplace to catch a flick

(Knight and Day)

but we had some time to kill before the movie so we got some Cold Stone

(yum)

and then hung out with the cool kids at Barnes and Noble for a few.

After the movie

(which was very entertaining)

we got some dinner at Darcy McGee's

(yum again)

It was so nice to hold hands, take our time, talk and talk and pretend like we like each other ;) all by ourselves

K so I pulled out my journal from when we were dating and found some kind of funny/cool things I wrote...

February 16, 2006

Dear Diary...(jk)

"A guy in my World Religions class who i've been kind of interested in asked me out! His name is Morgan Pew. Anyways, I've been with Morgan pretty much everyday this week and have been having a really great time! He's awesome, we hit it off right away-our first date, he took me along with a bunch of his friends to Game Works to play a bunch of arcade games-I had so much fun! He's really easy to be with-I decided (over the course of our week together) that he has the perfect personality-well at least a lot of the things I look for in a guy-More like the "pluses"...like the foundation qualities I'm not 100% on yet...I'm not sure how motivated he is or how 'smart' or really what his goals are...I DO know that he honors his priesthood and loves the gospel. But what I mean my the "pluses" is that he loves ice cream, is out-doorsy... he said once that he can't wait to have a big pregnant wife to sit on the couch, eat ice cream and watch movies with-or take off to Mexico with or go camping for a night or two. He's also super affectionate which I LOVE-like he puts his arm around me, holds my hand, squeezes my leg. He also drives a truck...etc...all the things that I LOVE in a guy. So we'll see how things go...oh ya, and he has a FULL BEARD haha that HE loves! I don't mind at all-I think its fun!

Love, Lauren"

THEN

February 25, 2006

"I LOVE MORGAN PEW!! He makes me so dang happy I can hardly help myself! We get along so well its ridiculous! I love how comfortable we are together. From the get go it was never awkward and its only getting better. We've spent pretty much everyday since we met (2 weeks ago) haha together with the exception of when he went to Mexico last weekend and a Tuesday night last week. I'm just loving life right now. I'm really grateful. Truly. He's amazing. The perfect combination of everything I look for in a guy. But honestly, I am in no rush. I'm not going to let myself get ahead of the moment. So we'll see how it goes!

Love, Lauren"

Need an 'Atta Girl'?

Thank you Janie for posting this on facebook :)