Baby William

Baby William is 3 months old today! He was born on August 29, 2016 after an easy induction and about 5 and a half hours of labor and 3 minutes of pushing. My blood pressure dropped a lot after my epidural and I had a little too much bleeding, but it was a pretty easy, low pain birth. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces, 20 inches long, and was born at 3:04 pm.

He has been such an easy baby. He has had pretty much the same natural schedule since the day he was born. He rarely cries (unless he's hangry or has to burp). He smiles a lot. He just oozes sweetness and we love him so much!

He started smiling on October 7th, started cooing at 2 months, and rolled over at 2 and a half months. He would love to be able to crawl.

Likes:

Stripes
His toes
Elephants
His toucan toy
His tiger toy
Football and cooking shows
His bouncy seat
Baths

Dislikes:

Wet/dirty diapers
Being hungry
Tummy time
Burps

Emilia turns 3!

I can't believe my baby girl is already 3! We started celebrating on Friday with dinner at Spaghetti Factory and family presents.

This year, Emilia's birthday was on a Saturday so she had her party the same day. We invited her cousins and her friends from school. Months ago, she decided that she was wanted a My Little Pony birthday party and when she decides something, she never changes her mind. 

She let me do her hair for once!

We decided to make the party easy this year since I'm halfway into my pregnancy with baby brother so we held it at our community clubhouse and hired a clown to do face painting, a magic show, and balloon animals. That clown was some of the best money I ever spent. She was great at entertaining the kids and they loved her!

I still wanted to have some fun making things for the party so Joe and I made cards with fun themed names for all the food.

After the magic show, Emilia opened her presents. She got a lot of really great presents- and many new My Little Pony toys. All the guests got a pony blind bag before leaving.

She's already saying she wants another My Little Pony when she turns 4. I wonder if she'll change her mind?!

Silver Lake

The next morning, we got up early and Joe made us some really yummy french toast. Then we packed up the tents and headed farther up the canyon to Silver Lake. The Silver Lake hike is a really pretty, easy hike that the kiddos loved. E and J's family have been there a lot, but it was our first time.

The kids were more than happy to run ahead

Thanks, Jessica, for the family pic

We have been letting Emilia play with an old waterproof camera. Most of the pictures she gets are pictures of her fingers in front of the lens, but sometimes she gets a good picture. She took this picture of Silver Lake all by herself.

I love watching the cousins play together. Emilia and James were so sweet holding hands.

After the hike, we met Damma and PapPaps for lunch. Emilia was so exhausted. She slept all the way home. It was such a fun family weekend!

Camping

I'm not much of a camper, but Emilia saw a few shows about it and it was all she could talk about so we decided to try out a camping trip with her cousins. We couldn't get reservations for just a Saturday night, but we headed up into the mountains anyway to see what we could get. I got discouraged when Spruces had a "Campground Full" sign outside, but we checked it out anyway and they happened to have one site with two tent spots- a really nice site with good shade. Ethan and his family were right behind us so we all got to the spot at the same time.

We set up our tents and then took the kids exploring. It wasn't a far walk to find some water.

Helping Daddy put up the tent

Cute cousins

"Fishing"

After a while, we went back to the camp site. It was getting  a little chilly so Emilia put on her cute camp shirt.

Being silly in the tent

A kiss for Juliet

Soon, Damma and PapPaps came up for dinner. Of course, the kiddos wanted to explore some more so the grandparents took turns taking them for walks. After dinner, we started a campfire and made s'mores. James insisted he was a marshmallow roasting expert and had to give everyone samples. 

This girl loves her PapPaps

The night was a little rough. Emilia sometimes gets night terrors and it's hard to calm her down. She loved the idea of sleeping in a tent, but I'm sure it was a little confusing. She only asked to go home once though and after looking at a bunch of pictures on Joe's phone, she finally settled down.

In the morning, we saw some cute/naughty squirrel behavior. 

This guy was into the watermelon 

And this guy was eating a marshmallow he had stolen and stashed the night before

I think everyone had a great time and we had more fun the next day- Silver Lake post to come!

Lagoon

Way back in July, my parents, Joe, Emilia, and I took advantage of the two for one deal at Lagoon and went on a Friday evening. We weren't sure how Emilia would do on the rides so we followed her lead and let her decide what she did and didn't want to go on. She wasn't interested in anything that went up and down (like plane rides), but she loved most of the kid rides. She even loved the kid cars even though she was all by herself and couldn't see us for part of the ride. She even liked some of the big rides like the teacups and the big ferris wheel (except when we were stopped at the very top!)

We can't wait to go back for Frightmares!

Duck pond is always our first stop

Family selfie on the train

Damma and Pap Paps

Ice cream in Pioneer Village

Her favorite ride of the day

Father's Day

We had a full day planned for Father's Day. My mom, my sibs, and us all pitched in to rent a pontoon boat on Deer Creek Reservoir for my dad's 60th birthday. The date that worked for everyone also happened to be Father's Day so it was a fun activity for all the dads.

We got to the reservoir around 12:30 because I thought Emilia would like to play in the sand and water, but it was SO WINDY. She did have fun though, even though the water was a bit rough. Soon, everyone else arrived and we headed to our boat.

These two loved to "drive"

Everyone brought snacks and we explored the reservoir and got soaking wet- the wind was still blowing hard and the waves were pretty choppy so we kept getting sprayed.

Mom and me drinking margs. 

A few of the crazies decided to get out and swim. It wasn't easy to swim with the wind or get back to the boat so they were all exhausted when they got back on.

Ethan, Juliet, and Jessica. David jumped in right after.

Juliet was pretty upset and very tired so she snuggled with her mama and fell asleep. Emilia decided that looked like a good idea and fell asleep too. Sweet girls!

The wind finally calmed down and we found a nicer place to swim, but I was the only one brave enough to get in the water again ;)

After everyone had had plenty of sun and water, we headed back to our house for a BBQ. It was a really fun day.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!