L.A.- "Lotsa Fun!"

I'm a little late on blogging, but the first weekend in August we drove to California for Matt's Aunt's birthday party extravaganza! She had a week long birthday celebration, and lots of family came throughout the week to stay with her. Matt's Mom was there and his cousins too, it was such a good time! Emma did surprisingly well for the 12 hour drive, she had a sleep pattern of being awake for an hour, and then she would sleep for an hour or longer, etc. She was so happy, and didn't seem to mind being in the car seat for so long. I think it was much harder on Matt and I, we can't road trip like we used to! It didn't help that we drove straight through without making a sleep stop. We got there about 2 a.m. Cali time, and Matt's Momma was there to greet us... OK she was there to greet Emma, who am I kidding? :) 

We weren't there for too long, so we didn't want to pack our days full of "things to do" while we were there. We went out to eat, went swimming in the pool, and hung out with family. It made the weekend seem longer than it really was! Grandma Entwistle had lots of Emma time too, and we were happy for that! Maybe some day they will move out here.... *hint*hint*

Here's the cutest video of Emma swimming in the pool:

Emma met lots of new family members, and everyone said she looks just like Matt when he was a baby, and I have to agree! It was so great that everyone was able to see her and love her! 

4 Generation photo- Grandpa Mel, Mom Entwistle, Matt, and Emma

Aunt Mar (birthday girl) and Emma

Great Grandpa Mel and Emma

Cousin Michelle and Emma

Matt's cousin Eddie and his wife, Christina just had a new lil' baby boy in July, so we were so happy to see him! I forgot how little they are as newborns, and just loved holding him. They named him Edward, and he is the sweetest thing- the sweetest thing with so much hair that is!

Baby Edward sleeping...

Matt's Mom and Edward

We had such a blast, and it was so sad to leave! Luckily we will be seeing Matt's family again soon, we have a plane booked for Chicago at the end of this month! Emma will have another first: First Plane Flight! We are really looking forward to the trip. 3 weeks to go! Here are some more pictures from California, we miss everyone so much! Aunt Mar is right, we will have to come out to visit more often. 

Aunt Mar and Matt, with Patty's famous chocolate gravy

Bean Pole Emma!

Christina and Michelle

Eddie

Bath in the sink! She didn't seem to mind

Daddy and Emma swimming, she LOVED the water!

Emma in her new swim suit from Grandma

The Fam'

Griffin (Eddie and Christina's boy)

Emma listening intently to Grandpa Mel

Happy 50th Aunt Mar! We love you!

Emma loves Griffin!

Grandma, Emma, and Mommy

Emma loved the water, she would have stayed in all day!

Aunt Carolyn holding Emma in the water toy

We still love each other! BFF's!

Aunt Carolyn with baby Edward

Michelle's hubby Dan

Thanks Aunt Mar and Uncle Kelley for letting us stay at your house for the weekend, we loved seeing everyone!!

Summer Time!

August has been very busy for our lil' family. The big trips we had were Bear Lake and L.A. Bear Lake was Emma's first camping trip, and she did pretty well! She slept the whole way up (only a 2 1/2 hour drive) and was able to change her schedule for the weekend. Instead of going to bed at 8, she slept til 8:30 and then stayed up until about 11:30 and slept through most of the night, waking up at 6 a.m. The lake was really high this year, which made for some pretty gross water, so I didn't get in at all. The kids had lots of fun building sand castles and playing in the water. The adults had a nice time chatting in the shade while the kids got dirty and played. 

Matt brought a game called "Hypertheticals", which was really interesting! It's a game with different scenarios, but intense ones, where you have to decided what you would do. Here's an example I liked: 

You come home from an afternoon of shopping, expecting your residence to be empty. However, upon entering your front door, you immediately sense that something is strange: The entire place smells like marijuana and roses. There is a briefcase sitting in the middle of your living room floor, filled with diamonds and Christmas cookies. You can hear the shower running, and- when you open the door to the bathroom- you realize that the man using the shower is basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal. A naked Shaq peers at you from behind the shower curtain and smiles enthusiastically, but says nothing. He then returns to washing himself. When you ask O'Neal what he is doing in your home, he simply says, "I don't remember."

Do you call the police??

The game is really fun, and is a good conversation starter too! All in all, Bear Lake was a good time, next year will be better since Emma will be older- and hopefully the water won't be so high! Here are some of the few pictures I took on my phone (We thought we had left our camera at home, but really it was in my purse the entire time. Awesome.):

Emma takin' a nap on the beach

Always a gorgeous view

caught both of them off guard...

"This is my campin' face!"

It was a nice time, but camping with a baby in a tent is not my idea of fun!

We love Emma!

I have some random pictures of Matt and I with Emma,  enjoy!

Cuddling with Dad

... and with Mom

playing on the slide with Dad!

ham'n it up for the camera!

At Owen & Crissy's wedding

Our happy family

6 Months Old!

Emma is 6 months old this month! Wow how time flies! We have her 6mo check up next week, and I can't wait to see how much she's grown! She has gone from this in June:

 To this:

So big! Also, we are still swaddling her (I know the end is coming near), and a couple times in the morning we have found that she has managed to roll over onto her tummy in her swaddle: 

She must be a tummy sleeper like mommy! I have let her sleep sans swaddle for both naps today, and have found that if I put her on her tummy, and give her a blankey to snuggle, she passes right out! Hopefully this will continue to work during the night as well. I tried to let her sleep without her swaddle a couple weeks ago, and she woke up 3 times that night because she had knocked out her binky, or she rubbed her face with her hands. She just barely started sleeping through the night this month, so we have only enjoyed it for about 3 weeks now. I don't know if I'm ready to go back to waking up twice a night again, when she wakes up because she's not swaddled! Ugh. 

Moral dilemma: selfishly swaddle your child to sleep more (and possibly stunt her growth), OR stop swaddling her and wake up multiple times a night until she gets it? *sigh* 

Emma has also started eating baby food, which she totally digs. However, she only seems to like the sweet stuff... (she may not look like me, but her love for sweets is a dead giveaway that she's my child). She loves sweet potatoes, squash, peaches, pears, bananas... she ate peas and carrots one time, and the second time I offered them to her she over dramatized it, and gagged and coughed when she ate it! Guess we'll stick to the sweet stuff for now:

She is definitely an old soul, stuck in a child's body. It seems as if she knows how to do everything, but simply cannot get her small body to cooperate. She is chatting away, making complete sense to herself, but we can't seem to understand her. She looks at us like we should know what she's gabbing about. She tries to crawl every day- almost like she's practicing! She will stay on her tummy and move her legs until she gets tired and frustrated. Once she gets things down, she becomes a master at it! I can't wait until she masters crawling! I know you Moms out there will say, "You say that now, but wait until she...*insert over-used Mom phrase here*...blah blah blah. I will love when she's getting into things and crawling around eating everything in sight too! I will just be a proud momma with my mommy goggles on. She is the best thing in my world. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her this month. She is such a ham for the camera!

Making dinner with Momma!

My lil' model baby, posing for the camera

Photo shoot!

Emma's first Cubs tee! Matt was a proud Daddy

Happy 6 Months Emma! Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know. Thanks for choosing us as your parents. We are so excited to share your life with you!

Date Night!

Last Saturday Matt and I had our first date night since March! Our friend Bree came over and watched Emma for us, and we went out to dinner and then went to see Grace Potter and The Nocturnals downtown. It was a lot of fun, and quite nice to have some alone time with Matt. Dinner was great (Olive Garden never fails us), and the concert was even better! If you aren't a fan of Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, you should be! She rocks out and plays great music. Here's a taste:

Here's a picture of Matt and I at the concert! So much fun!