Miss Em's with a capital D...

for DIVA!! Man, if I've said it once, I will say it again. SHE IS A DIVA!! I guess that's what I get for naming her after her great grandma Emeline!

She is the best at posing for pictures!
Miss Ems, where do I begin? You are such a joy to have in our home and make us laugh every hour without fail! You are getting to be such a smart girl now, and it reminds me that I need to watch my every move, because I know you do and will repeat it one day. DANGIT! One day you were riding in the car with mommy, Tina and Bri, and Tina said somthing inappropriate to the neighbor and you straight repeated it!! lol... oh man.
You are still a FABULOUS eater, and we are so happy you aren't picky yet. It's hard to think you will ever turn into one with the variety of food you just love! The only thing you really have a hard time with is onions if they are too big. If I dice them up enough you have no idea you are even eating them. It's just the long sliced ones you must not like the texture of.


You are starting to overcome many of your obstacles. You would never climb in the playgrounds cuz it made you nervous, you hated fake animals, pony rides and the $.25 rides at the grocery store. Just the other day your Auntie Tina and Bri took you to the Salt Lake County Fair, and you rode all the rides with your hands in the air!! Too funny! Then you headed over to the pony rides only to jump on by yourself and ride the dang things! Mommy and daddy were sad they didn't get to be there, but we take you to Gardener Village pony rides to get the same effect.

This is the sweet face I have to drop of to Papa every morning. It makes me so sad to have to leave you, when all I want to do is squish you! I seriously ask you 100 times a day if I can hold you, and maybe 50 times you say yes, the other 50 times you say, "No, hold you." And instead of getting sad or mad, you make me laugh. As soon as I get you into Papas house, he pulls down the covers next to him in bed, and I lay you down. You stretch a big stretch, and then give this groan of satisfaction and curl up right next to Papa till I put your blanket on you. TO DIE FOR!

You tell us "kiet!!" all the time. One day you were throwing a fit in the car, so I decided I was going to act like you were. You were shocked and stopped crying to figure out what the heck I was doing... seconds later you looked at mommy and said "kiet!!" You were so mad I was doing that. You love to go to church because Nursery is your favorite place right now. The leaders just love you to pieces and think that all the kids should be as good as you are!! What?! Really??! They must not get the screaming fits and fights that we get at home. You pick up the phone and carry on a full conversation with hi at the beginning, and c ya at the end! You even hold the phone on your shoulder like an adult!
You sleep at Auntie Tinas house every Thursday and have the routine memorized. You get there, have some chips, jammies, paint your toenails, pick a show, and pop some popcorn.And then in the morning, it's off to McD's for some pancakes!

You have to be a part of EVERYTHING Dax does. If I put him in the bumbo, you have to get in the bumbo. If I put him in the vibrating chair, you have to get in the chair. If I lean over him to talk to him, you have to lean over him and talk to him. You crack us up!
You are saying so many words and phrases, I really can't write them all. You love walks in the wagon and the bike cart. You are a good napper, and love to wear dresses and pretty bows or flowers in your hair. But most of all, your love to look at YOU! Anywhere you can catch your reflection, you will walk past AT LEAST 4 more times. You love your papa and ga's house, especially the family pictures they have in the living room. You can recognize everyone in them and repeat it 10 times a day! You HATE when papa sings "give says the little stream"... you bow your head and slowly exit the room... HILARIOUS! You love Toy Story right now and walk around say "fiiini e yooooooond" and jump off random things. You are at such a fun yet challenging stage right now. You are a defiant little girl, and know how to get what you want. You are such a joy to have in our home, we couldn't have asked for a cuter girl to pick our home to come to. We love you so much and can't wait to see what you come up with next!! Love you sis!!

Dax is 5 months!

I took Dax in for his 4 month checkup. I can tell he has grown A LOT and was pretty excited to get the statistics. He remains in the 25% in his stats. He is 14 lbs 3 0z and 25 inches long.My little boy has grown up so much I can't even stand it! If you knew me when I had my little Ems, you know I HATED the newborn stage. I guess it was the simple fact that I didn't know what the crap I was doing with the first, but got smarter with the second. I LOVE this stage and hate to see my little man growing up. Dax, you are starting to do so many things lately, it's really bitter sweet. I love that you can recognize me and cry when I walk past you in a room with out picking you up... you get so mad! You are grabbing your feet all the time, and getting better and grasping things. You LOVE to put things in your mouth regardless of what it is. You have this bar of toys that hang over your head on your vibrating chair that you try endlessly to get to your mouth. Your toungue never stops going in and out of your mouth in hopes that one time, just one time you can lick the stupid things! You and mom have a game where she cries, and you make the same little cry sound and after a while you really get sad and start to cry! TOO CUTE! You are CRAZY about food! Whenever you see your bottle, whether you are hungry or not, your hand and legs get going a hundred miles and your mouth looks like a little baby bird just waiting for it to touch your little lips! You eye everybody's food like a hawk hoping they will slip and give you a little taste.
(Britt experienced this at Sundays dinner when she was eating a FAT BOY nut sundae. Dax was kickin and waving his arms with his big ole mouth just waiting for a taste. Well, the boy got Britt to break down and gave him a little lick.. HEAVEN for this boy! We had Payton giggling so hard it make me laugh with him. LOVE HIM!)

Your big sister loves you to pieces and is always worried about where you are. She rubs your head and calls you "good boy buddy" and is always saying "HHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIII DAX!" as loud as she can.
She loves to feed you and spend time talking to you and calling you "good boy".
Daddy rubs your huge bald head at night while he holds you, and you LOVE it!

YOU ARE SUCH A GOOD BOY! You sleep 7-9 hours at night and are a happy little sucker all the time. you melt mommies heart every time you look up at her with those BIG baby blues and flash that cute smile at her. Mommy can't stop kissing those chunker cheeks of yours and goes to work late most mornings because you are awake and ready for a bottle and mommy can't just let you hold up your bottle by yourself, although you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself. She LOVES feeding your whenever she gets a chance just to have that snuggle time with her little boy.
Thank you for joining our family. We love you and are soooooooooo happy you are in our home. We love you buddy!!

I typed this post over a month ago and am just now getting it posted with pictures. Dax is sitting up more, rolling over, and just last week broke his first 2 teeth right in the front on the bottom jaw! I have to admit, I didn't even know about them until my dad called one afternoon and asked me about them. Really though, he never even fussed about them or anything!! I hope that means well for the rest of the teething stage. Eme did awesome teething, I can only hope Dax follows in her footsteps! He is seriously such a joy to have in our home... LOVE LOVE LOVE him!

24th of July

About a month ago we pulled out some videos from back in the day. We happened to come across one from our annual 24th of July party we would have at my parents house. Although we haven't had one since about 2001. So, I told my mom that I would help her if we could try it again this year because it looked like soooo much work. Well, I'm not the only one that helped out for sure, and she learned to deligate out some of the work as well! So, this year we planned an afternoon swim party on the 23rd with a BBQ and an outdoor movie and campout that night and breakfast in the morning! Everyone was in charge of planning their own meal for the BBQ, Bri brought over the projector for the out door movie, and each family had a meal assignment for breakfast in the morning.

We started the day off with the sprinklers and a large piece of plastic for a slip n slide. Little did we know how AWESOME the slip n slide would turn out! Everyone had such a blast trying to beat the last persons distance record, we had to add an extra piece of slip n slide at the end of the first piece to limit grass rashes.

Miss Kaloni didn't hesitate to give it a whirl

Moloni and T-Bone took over the mini slide

Alena's knees are made of steel

Moloni takes the game all too serious

Bri Bri took a hit on the slide

Collin gets some pretty good grass burn on this one

Aaron looks like a pro

Tianna loved veering to the left every time

Maile suffered some grass burn on this one too

and me... well I was just happy to be there! (hahaha)

Then it was time for the BBQ. MMMMM... it was so yummy and everyone shared with everyone to make it a nice family get together. By the time dinner was over and the kids were done with the water, we didn't even get to the fire pit marshamellow roast before the kids were ready to lay down and watch a movie.

Big daddy on the grill

Never too much food with this family!

Sione and Papa enjoying a break

my darling Miss Em's

Losahina and Terina. Lets just say there will never be two cousins closer than these two!! THEY LOVE EACHOTHER! Seriously, they hold hands and hug the entire time they are together, and are sooo inseperable. SOOOO CUTE!

The next morning we were all up and ready for breakfast before 8:00am. We ate, and then it was time for games. Penny planned face painting for the kids, and Tani did a game for everyone.


Moloni opted for the snake. I Just LOVE this kid. He is so goofey it cracks me up!

We paired off in teams and had to run to the table, pick an item out of the paper bag and eat it before the next teamate could head down to the bag. Man, there was some interesting things in there. We had gummie worms, starburts, banans, lettuce, pickles, cottage cheese, raisins, marshamellows, hard boiled eggs and lemon wedges.

the teams were pretty fair considering the little kid to big kid ratio...

these were the surprise sacks.. you couldn't look in, you just had to grab n go

we made a rule that the big kids could help the little kids eat their things so they wouldn't get sick...

and let's just say that the big kids were more competitive than the little kids. Mike was stopping Sam in the middle of his run so he could get his stuff down first. CHEATER!

by this point I was feeling really bad for Misi. He didn't want to stop eating because his team was going to win! This kid cracked me up.. he was gagging with each bite but never stopped.

Lets just say Misi was the worst off at the end when he had to down the cottage cheese, and then the hard boiled egg after that!! Poor thing... I thought for sure he was going to puke, but he only dry heaved!! lol

Thank you mom for braving it and doing the party once again. It was a total success and everyone had such a great time!! Here's to next year!!

GNO!! (with the spouses)

I always love to get the girls from high school together as often as I can. Now that we are married and have spouses and kids, it's a lot more difficult to get us all at the same time. This weekend was no exception. We missed our friend Cass and her spouse and kids, but other than that, we all made it! I know that it was hard for others to get there because of the eventful day they had before the BBQ, but man I'm glad they fit us in! We usually go out to dinner, but we decided to have the spouses and kids come too, so we played it safe and had a BBQ at our house. HOLY MOLY it was a BLAST. I honestly don't think I have laughed THAT hard in a long time!! We always have so much fun together, even if our "past" is a little more pathetic and emabarassing than we remember it being. For some reason, we have to get reminiscing and dang, we were so lame! But, oh so awesome all at the same time! LOL :)

Thank you girls for being a part of my life. I seriously LOVE you all and am so grateful that you haven't wrote me off yet. You are and will always be a part of my life, and we have to keep doing our "annual" (although I would like it monthly/bimonthly) dinner.

we did this most the night (laughing like Amy, not gettin s*!+ faced like Ang) hahahaha

Bryscon and Carter became BFF's

the boys cracked themselves up talkin crap about us right in front of our faces

and the whole time, the kids entertained themselves!

I seriously couldn't ask for a better group of girls to call my BEST friends! We are all so different in our lifestyles, but when we get together it's like a blast from the past and we are all the same! We will always be friends and our kids will grow up together and be awesome friends like we were. Let's just hope they make "smarter" choices then we did. LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!

Gardner Village

We are so lucky to have my sister Tina around. She is the one who is always in the mood to go places on Saturday, and is always persuasive enough to get us to go with her! Well, this weekend she got us out to the petting zoo at Gardner Village, and I am so glad she did. Eme had a BLAST trying to keep up with all the animals. She loved being up close and personal with the animals. She loved the goats, chickens, pigs and emus... but HECK NO would she have anything to do with the poor little and big turtle that didn't even move!! REALLY Eme??... a turtle??

You would never have thought that minutes before that, she was trying this....

...touching every goat she could...

... crossing the bridge 1,000 times...

... and trying to sleep with the animals...

I didn't get a picture of her trying to get in the pigs pen with the pigs because my camera died!! BOOOO

Anyways, thank you Auntie Tina for taking us out to play with the animals!

4th of July 2010

This year for the fourth we decided to see if Eme would enjoy the parade. We live about a block off of State street in Murray, and decided to take the kids to the Murray parade. Eme was quite nervous about the parade to begin with.

She has NEVER liked the mascots and human like animals that walk on 2 legs. She always gets SOOOO freaked out everytime she spots them, so I knew we might be in for a long morning. However, she did quite well. I finally got her to get out of mine and daddy's arms and get close to the curb to watch the excitement and she had a blast!

Of course this was Mommy's favorite float!

and this was Eme's favoite float!

As soon as she got brave enough to go get the candy they were throwing out we were on a roll! I did have to teach her however, that we keep the candy... not throw it back! I should have let her

just throw it back, because it just ended up the the trash when we got home!

The parade was quite fun, I think we might go back next year!!

After the parade, we went to see Toy Story 3 but the only had crappy seats left, so we decided we would ditch the movie and go on Monday. We came home and let the kids go down for a nap, and then later that evening, we had a BBQ at my parents house. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, salmon burgers, grilled zucchini and home made burnt almond fudge ice cream! Mmmmm. Then after the BBQ we went to Brady's friend Justins house and lit a few fireworks before we called it a night. All in all it was a pretty mellow 4th of July... just the way I like it!!

Girly time

My sister Tina came over the other night so I could help her deep condition her hair, and mine! Of course the second we got started, this little monkey wanted to get in on the action. So, Tina being the good aunt that she is, decided to amuse this little girl and hook her up with a shower cap and let her play with the bowl and brush....

Little cheese ball

if we are doing it, she just HAS to do whatever it is!

Lampton Days 2010

My parents have a neighborhood party every summer. It started back before I was born and this year they celebrated the 30year reunion!! WOW! I can still remember the excitement all us kids had about this day. We anticipated it for weeks, and the night before Lampton Days was like Christmas Eve!!

The parents in the neighborhood plan this for months, and when I was a kid... they would never disappoint!
A normal Lampton Days day would go like this
7:30- Flag ceremony at the Christiansens
8:00- Breakfast was usually at the Drapers, now held at the Densley's
9:00ish- Parade!

We would all decorate our bikes and wagons, trucks, dress up whatever, to be in the parade
Noon would usually start the planned games and activities which would include the grease pole with $50 at the top, moon walk, dunking machine, volley ball, root beer chugging, saltine cracker whistle blowing, pie eating, saw dust fishing pond... etc, etc, etc. If you can do it at the fair, we did it at Lampton Days!
We would have an all day long water fight and then get home to get showered and ready for the dinner @ 5. Everyone would bring a potluck item and meet to eat.
After the dinner we would get all freshened up for the dance and fireworks, and that would conclude the night.
Oh man, just typing about it makes me miss it so much as a kid!! Now, all of us kids that have grown and had our own kids, show up with our kids to enjoy the fun. I LOVE THIS TRADITION! I really wanted to start one in our neighborhood, but I don't really want to commit to that much work yet.
Anyway, as you can tell, I love Lampton Days and took Eme this year to the parade. SHE LOVED it... mostly because she was in the parade and was the center of attention. She likes that a lot.
Thank you Lampton parents for putting so much time and effort into Lampton Days!! We will always remember it and all the fun we had!!

Best buddies...

As many of you know, my sweet dad takes care of my kids while we are at work! He does such an amazing job with them, I couldn't ask for a better example for them in thier lives. My dad has had Eme since she was 3 months old, and did the same thing with Dax!

They have a daily routine which consists of breakfast, snacks, naps, and playtime. My dad has taught Eme many valuable things like how to eat EVERYTHING! He makes her oatmeal, cottage cheese and fruit, raisins, cheese, yogurt, meat, and one of her current favorites.. Noodles!

Dax is still pretty low maintanace and only requires milk, naps and diaper changes. However, my dad will always go the extra mile and play and entertain my little man.

Well, he never fails to amaze me, and the other day when I went to pick up the kids after work he went out to mow the lawn. I had been talking to my mom in the living room and realized I hadn't heard Eme in a few minutes so I went looking for her. Normally I wouldn't worry too much about her, but recently she has learned to unlock the dead bolt and get out of the house! So, I looked all over the house, and then in the front yard and heard the lawn mower in the back. So I headed to the back and when I got there, this is what I saw...

Cutest thing ever! My dad LOVES to mow his lawn, and for him to let little Em's hinder him a little and make him hold her hand was priceless. LOVE this pic of those two.

Thank you dad for all you do for our little family! We could not make it without you, mom, and Maile. And of course, Tina and Bri! I LOVE when you want to have Thrusday night sleepovers with her, almost as much as she LOVES to sleep with her Aunties!! We are so grateful for all the hands we have so close to us. THANK YOU!!