Christmas time, better late than never!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Da was Santa at the ward Christmas party and we got this cute picture of the two of them.



This was Cory waiting in line to see Santa.












Christmas morning Cory was so excited to have everyone open presents that he actually woke Emma up! I got the camera ready and then he walked in with her. She was a little out of it but her reaction to her big present was great!






I actually walked in on her and she was already in this position so I quickly got the camera and took some pictures.



She is such a character, we are very grateful that we get to have her in our family.















So this is me! I am 6 months in these pictures. I feel really good and things are going great! So far I am enjoying this one a lot more than the other one!

I counted a few days ago and I think I am close to having 12 weeks left.

Fun at Grandpa's and Grandma's house

Cory and I were lucky enough to get to go on vacation this holiday season and we went to visit my dad. We left Thursday morning drove all day and night and arrived Friday morning at around 2:30. Emma is such a great traveler she only cried a total of like 15 minutes and that was because she was hungry and we were looking for a place to stop. Some little car adventures we had was I bought her some glow in the dark bracelets and about 45 minutes later she had bent one and it broke and she got purple glow in the dark goo on her blanket, hands, my blanket and my hands! She didn't eat any of it thankfully! One other problem we had in the car was every time I offered her something to eat she would pull out her binki and drop it or throw it and then I would always have the hardest time finding it again!
Friday Emmers and I helped Grandpa feed cows and it was so funny because Julie has two smaller dogs and for the most part are really great around kids but Emma was scared of them but when we got out around the cows she just walked right up to them, without any fear! She is afraid of a five pound dog but not a 1000 pound cow! She enjoyed feeding the chickens and got to pet one thanks to Grandpa and seemed to like them until the roster started crowing and then she got a little nervous.
Saturday morning another group arrived around 3:00 in the morning. Shawn, Steph, Brad and Danielle and they picked up Lindzi and Loryn along the way. Dad had some manual labor he needed done so poor Shawn, Justin and Cory were rounded up to help while the girls, without kids, got to go into town to a craft show thingy. They had some really great baby things and cute bags. Later that day the boys got to do the one thing they all had been waiting to do, have an air-soft BB gun war! It was pretty cold but they didn't mind one bit! When Kyle got home from work he came out and they played in the dark. The worst injuries that were reported was Shawn got shot on the nose and it kind of bled and Cory ran into the trailer ball on the back of my dads pickup! Shawn healed quickly and Cory didn't even bruise!
Sunday was nice. Church started at 11 so we got to get ready slowly and everyone was on time! It is nice to visit and see lots of people you've known all your life.
Monday night we were all invited to Kyle and Julies for FHE and dinner. It was really good, both FHE and dinner! And then we played some games. The rest of the weeks activities included more work for the boys so Dad could get ready for the other house to get moved over. We ate at Denny's, a funny tradition we have kind of started every time we come to Cortez. We swam at the rec center. The girls even got to go to see the movie New Moon at the theater. Of course there were tons of air-soft gun wars and almost every night we played games! One of the best things we did was Steph brought fun crafts for us to do. We painted and used vinyl and made watch bands with beads, it was great fun!
Finally early Wed morning Jack, Alyssa and Hadlee showed up. The girls had school until Tuesday so the came later. Thanksgiving day was great! We all had something we wanted to make, everything smelled yummy and Kyle and Julie and the boys came out to eat with us. Of course we watched a little football and later played some games.
Friday was when Cory and I decided we would leave so we could have time to recover and I could teach my primary class on Sunday. We got up and packed our car and were getting ready to go into town to Kyles house to eat lunch when my dad decides to start cutting down this old big tree with his chainsaw. He was in the tree about half way up, like 20 feet or so and I was watching from the open window of the bathroom when there was a big crack and a big limb fell off the tree. Just after it landed Shawn who was close by starts shouting up at my Dad, are you alright, are you alright!! Dad didn't say anything, which is a bad sign, but kept on cutting another limb out of the tree. I thought things must be fine because he kept on working but I also know that if my dad gets hurt really bad he doesn't say anything. Eventually he got down and limped inside. Julie had heard something might be wrong so she came over to him and he lifted up his pant leg to show us where the tree limb had cut off then scraped his shin and calf muscle all the way from his knee to his ankle about 4 or 5 inches wide. It was already bruising and he had some scrapes but they weren't bleeding. It looked pretty bad and he said that once he knew that he probably hadn't broken his leg he finished the last limb on the tree. Poor dad! He got bandaged up and still came into to town with us to have lunch at Kyle and Julies.
We left around 3 or so and got back into Waco at around 8:30 on Saturday. Emma slept a good bit of the time and was a good girl the time she was awake. It was so fun to be able to visit. I love to stay up and play fun games and just hang out with my wonderful family! Love you all!!

I can't believe I brought my camera and didn't take a single picture! Oh well maybe next time!

Silly girl!

I think the first part of this video is hilarious! She comes at you like she is attacking you or something!

She's fun to have around thats for sure!

This is the month for birthdays! Kaleb my nephew kicked the month off, followed by Hadlee my niece and then Cory. Next came Bradley and Danielle my other niece and nephew. At the end of the month comes the birthday of a very special person Landon, who would be 4, I think. Or is it 5! Oh I am not sure!

We are proud of Cory because he is finally 25 and our car insurance can go down! And he is also doing very well in school. Emma is so cute! Her next big goal is to run! She can walk really fast, go backwards and spin in circles so her next thing will defiantly be running! She can say uh-oh when she drops something and she says hi to complete strangers all the time in the store!! Its cute now but what about later, she wont fear anyone new! She says mommy and daddy and can point to her nose. We are working on eye and ear. She loves to wear shoes and even though you cant see it her hair is growing!! I am feeling a lot better food wise but can still get tired over stupid stuff like sweeping the floor or standing for too long while doing the dishes! I can feel the baby move sometimes and that is also very fun!

This was Emma's actual birthday and so we went out to celebrate! She loves french fries so we ordered her some of her very own and she loved it!! I'm not sure if its noticeable but she made a pretty good dent in that pile of fries.

This is the cake I made for her. Lindzi told me about fondant and so I tried it and this is how it turned out. Its a lady bug.
At first Emma just poked the cake so I had to peel off some of the fondant so she could see the cake and icing that was underneath.

Then she got the hang of it and ate some. She is not a very messy eater, which is good most of the time but today would have been fun to see her get it all over her self!

She got some books and clothes. And a cute soft bunny from build a bear workshop and a few other toys. Thanks everyone! We had a great time!

This was our family trip to Luna, minus two, (we missed Steph and Danielle) where we celebrated the 24th of July! In the pictures we have the Helgesens, Jack, Lindzi, Alyssa, Hadlee, and Loryn. The Gropps, Cory, me and Emma. The Derricks, Grandma and Grandpa along with Shawn, Brad and also Justin!

We celebrated some early birthdays, Emma and Justin. Both born on Aug 5th, crazy huh?

They both got a cup cake with a candle and we sang happy birthday!

This is a small look at the nice cabin we all stayed at. It had 3 bed rooms, 2 bath and 2 sort a family rooms with pull out couches and kitchen and laundry room.

This is a picture of us at the rodeo. They announced there was only about 5 thousand people there. We were participating in the egg toss! Cory and Shawn were a team. Then Jack and Loryn. Hadlee and Alyssa and then Lindzi and I. Brad was suppose to be with Jack after he and Loryn broke their egg but he tossed it and broke it before Jack was there to catch it! Oops!

At the Church they had a bar B Q with games for the little kids. Someone brought a dunk tank! Alyssa and Hadlee both did it and Brad was a pro at throwing the ball and dunking people! I never got a picture of him doing it but saw him dunk at least 5 other kids. I did get a picture of Loryn dunking Hadlee! Classic!

We also did Grandpa's favorite thing to do, go rock hunting on Saddle Mountain. All the kids cried on the way up, saying it was too hard and that the bushes were poky. Once we actually got to the top of the mountain and started hunting they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Julie found the biggest rock, called bitenite and had the biggest spill coming off the mountain! So much for rocks being a firm foundation, hu Julie! These are the happy no cuts or scraps before pictures. We were so out a shape getting back to the car was our biggest goal so there is no after picture.

On Sunday we went to the reunion. We ate some good food and then started the auction. One of the first things to sell was a nice CD player. It only took a couple seconds for Justin to realize it was his CD player and had to fight to buy it back! Grandpa bought a lot of stuff and then it started to rain. It was about this time that a baby doll was being sold. It was Emma's!! She saw it and reached both hands out for it so her daddy kindly bought it back for 4 dollars! Lindzi and Jack bought some stuff, Lindzi was waiting for the pickles I brought that I had canned and she did end up getting them. Its kind of a tradition to sell something of the newest additions to the family's stuff as a kind of welcome to the family joke! It was fun and then Cory and I had to leave so we could drive a few hours and have time to set up our campsite before it got dark.

We went to the Gila National Park a couple hours away and in a light rain and fading light set up our new tent that we didn't know how to set up. You all know how that probably went but we got it up and the inside was not that wet! We spent that whole night listening and seeing the thunder and lightning and hoping that our tent didn't get rained out!

The next day we drove to Carlsbad Caverns and took a 2 1/2 hour hike down the natural cave entrance into the massive 14 football field length cave. It was really cold and wet down there. Cory took some pictures on our phone so someday I might try to get those off but until then just use your imaginations! It was really pretty and fun to make the hike. Emma did pretty good but once she really started crying loud and hard and Cory and I were pretty embarrassed because before we started down the park ranger told us that our voices travel far and so we need whisper when we talked to each other and so I am sure everyone in the caverns heard her when she cried!! But later we did run into a family that had a loud baby too so we felt a little better after that!

After the Caverns we spent the last night of our trip in the Guadalupe National Park. There I decided on a campsite that was about 2 miles from the car (at least Cory thought so) and camped there for the night. It was the best site despite the long travel to get to it because it had soft gravel and dirt on it unlike the rest of the sites that were packed so hard they felt like you were sleeping on one big rock. Before we went to bed Cory noticed 2 deer about 20 yards from the tent and Emma proceeded to talk to them in "baby talk" and tried to get them to come on over for a visit. After a "goodnight sleep", yeah right, we drove rest of the way to Waco.

All in all it was a fun and successful trip. Thanks for reading about our little family trip. Love to all.

Its pretty funny, all the adults have a chair and now Emma is big enough to sit in the little red chair and can rock just like us! She loves it!

This is her birthday present from Cory and I. I know its a couple weeks early but its suppose to help her walk and she is ready to learn now, so we busted it open! She doesnt care if its not on her birthday anyway! She loves it and is so proud of her self when she walks!