Monday, October 21, 2013

13 months

Emily turned 13 months old yesterday! I wasn't planning on doing any monthly updates past the first year, but she's learned and changed so much this past month, that I just had to do a quick update.
We're amazed at how smart she is! She can do so much now and we're just not ready for it. Here's a list of some of Emily's new accomplishments:

-She's starting to say some words (kind of). She says more (moh) when she wants some more food. When she wants us to help her with something she'll bring it over to us and say "eh?" like she's asking for help. One of her favorite toys is pretend phones. She knows that she's supposed to put it to her ear and say hello. Sometimes it sounds a little bit like hello, but it always has a questioning tone to it like she's asking hello. She'll also bring us the phone and have us answer it. Whenever a real phone is ringing she'll point at it or bring it to us and make sure we answer it. She starts to get really worried if we don't answer it.
-Just likes she knows what to do with a phone, she also knows what to do with a remote. She'll grab it and point it at the tv. She's so smart!
-she's started shaking her head when she's about to do something she knows she shouldn't. She also shakes her head if we're giving her something she doesn't want.
-Emily's learned to point this month. She'll point to pictures in books, food she wants, something she wants us to do, etc.
-She's taking her first steps! She first started taking steps about a week after her birthday and she's just gotten more and more confident since then. The most she'll take right now is about 5 or 6 steps at a time, but she can go forever if someone's holding her hand. She would much rather walk than crawl, so it probably won't be long before she's walking everywhere.
-Emily loves organizing things! She'll empty baskets or bags and then fill them up again. She also loves taking a set of objects and relocating them one by one somewhere else. And she's gotten really good at stacking things like bowls, cups, etc. She'll stack and unstack all day. She also really likes getting in and out of things like this toy basket and box:



-She's starting to get a little bit more cuddly. Usually only when she's tired, though. When I sing to her before bed, she'll lay her head on my shoulder and it makes me want to sing longer so I can soak up the cuddles. Occasionally, she'll cuddle us at other times if she's in a silly mood. She'll attack us with hugs or kisses and just laugh and laugh.



-She's just a fun, happy girl and we're enjoying every day with her!





Sunday, October 6, 2013

This is Halloween

I'm so excited for the holiday season coming up! This time of year is so fun where we have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's right in a row. It's one of the many reasons that Fall has always been my favorite season! This past week I've been working on getting all of my Halloween (and some generic fall) decorations up. Here's a look into what our home is looking like right now:



close up of the ornaments (they're skulls)



These blocks stay up year round and rotate to say different words. I thought this side was appropriate for halloween. And it has the cute little pumpkin jar on top right now.

This weekend, I convinced Grant to work on pumpkins with me for our in-between-conference activity. I'm so excited about the way they turned out! I'm just hoping they last until Halloween! All the pieces are pretty secure, but I'm a little worried about them staying put with all of the wind. We'll see how it goes. At least I got pictures to document!




I won one of these stakes at Bunco night last week... so cute! Thanks Sierra!!

The previous homeowner left this behind when they moved out. It's one of the few things they left that we're not complaining about :)

Happy Halloween! Our costumes are in the works so there will definitely be another Halloween post coming toward the end of the month!