24 Months Old!

Well, here we are.  Emmett's last monthly post of his life.  I started writing these monthly updates when Lia was one month old and decided that it would only be fair if I continued to write one for the first 24 months of each of my children's lives.  I will be honest, it definitely got more challenging to find the time with the addition of every child as life got more busy, but I am grateful that I forced myself to be consistent and do the same for Emmett until his second birthday.  Hopefully, he will enjoy reading all of these monthly updates one day when he is grown.  

So, where to even start with this boy?  He is so big and so busy and so much fun.  I took him to his 2-year check-up today and he is in the 89th percentile for weight and 92nd percentile for height.  He is such a happy, busy, active boy when all of his basic needs are met.  Emmett loves playing with his siblings and still loves being outside as much as possible.  He loves playing with balls and has fallen in love with football during this Seahawks season.  He calls it "upball" and can recognize football just by seeing it on TV for a few seconds or seeing a Seahawks emblem on a shirt of on a flag, etc.  It's rather impressive.  His vocabulary has continued to expand this month and he has started to say two word phrases on a regular basis like "read book" or "sorry Ella."  He has also stated to say, "Oh No," in this worried, concerned voice when something goes wrong and "Okay" in this funny, monotone voice when we tell him something that he agrees with or is okay with.  It really is so funny.

Emmett still eats like a horse at every meal, but continues to refuse certain meats and vegetables at dinner time.  He also still takes a long, 2 to 3 hour nap every afternoon after lunch which is such a life saver for me.  He still sleeps from about 8:30/9 every night until 7/7:30 in the morning and is now requiring to be rocked back to sleep almost every time he wakes up in the middle of the night instead of taking a pacifier.  As annoying as this is, he normally only needs me to do this about once a night and it only takes about ten or so minutes.  I normally fall asleep pretty fast when I go back into bed, so I still wake up most mornings feeling pretty rested.  

Emmett continues to LOVE Elmo and enjoys watching an Elmo movie most mornings.  This has really started to save me during the days of the week when I am trying to homeschool Ella and Logan when my mom or dad are not here to watch him (which happens one or two mornings a week).  Emmett usually will stay on the couch and watch an Elmo movie with the volume on low for several minutes at a time before he gets bored and gets up wanting some attention.  Emmett has also figured out to open a door if it is unlocked and I am still surprised to see him come into my bedroom if the door is closed.  He also still loves anything to do with trucks, cars, and trains and can play with them for hours or watch real ones drive by our house for hours.  Emmett also enjoys reading books and will happily sit in my lap (or Lia's or Ron's) for several minutes while we read four to five board books to him before his nap and before bedtime.  He loves pointing out things in pictures or asking questions.  Emmett also likes to play hide-and-go-seek games with us and just enjoys getting one-on-one attention from anyone which has happened a lot this school year with Ella and Logan as they regularly take breaks during the morning while I am homeschooling the other one.  I have really been grateful for all three of my older kids' help this year watching him and playing with him.  That's our big, two-year old in a nutshell!  And now it's on to toddlerdom!

Celebrating Emmett's 2nd Birthday!

We had my parents over this evening to celebrate Emmet's second birthday a day early since my dad is scheduled to have shoulder surgery tomorrow.  Plus, since I am busy half of the day now with homeschool responsibilities, it is much easier for me to bake and decorate a cake and make a dinner on Sunday instead of a school day.  We spent a pleasant evening tonight celebrating our favorite, little baby and the two years of life that he has spent with us.  I know that I have said this many times before, but I just cannot believe how fast these past two years have gone.  They have simply been a blur both before and after the pandemic hit.  I have tried to treasure every day with Emmett during these "baby years" of his life and now that he has moved on to the toddler stage, I feel like I barely remember anything.  However, I can say with 100% surety that I am so grateful that this special boy of ours came into our family two years ago.  Within a matter of days after arriving, he became the center of our little universe.  Everyone just adores him to pieces and still finds joy every day in watching him discover new things and say and do funny things.  The kids never mind when they are asked to watch him (which is a lot these days) and are so protective and careful around him for the most part.  I honestly cannot imagine our lives without him and it is really hard to remember what life was like before he joined our family.  But, I digress....

So, although we only invited my parents to join us for Emmett's birthday party, there was still plenty of noise and energy as Ella was so excited all evening long that she was practically bouncing off the walls before hand, during dinner, gift opening, and dessert, and even while getting ready for bed.  The poor thing kept on getting in trouble by her dad, but we all survived.  Emmett really was fascinated by his Elmo cake and kept on saying "Elmo" every time we wished him a happy birthday.  He also really enjoyed playing with his train and car toys that he got as presents and loved eating every bite of his cake and ice cream.  Although he really had no idea what was going on, he seemed to enjoy himself and understand that something special was happening tonight that centered around him.  Here are a few pictures of our evening...

The group gathered around the dining room table at the beginning of dinner.  We feasted on pot roast, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, rolls, and tossed salad.  Since Emmett is too young to request a dinner, I enjoyed planning and preparing my own dinner of choice. :-)

Our sweet Emmett getting ready to open up his gifts.

Emmett getting grandma's and Ella's help opening up his first gift--a few packs of new ya-yas that Ella wrapped herself!

Emmett looking over one of the three "Little Owl" books that he opened.  We fell in love with this board book series when we got one of these books as a baby gift for Ella.  It wasn't until years later, after Emmett was born, that I discovered the author has written several more.  We all just love the pictures and the stories in these books.

Lia and Ella helping Emmett open up a new, Elmo DVD.

Emmett trying to open up his new Elmo movie with a very excited Ella hanging all over him.

Emmett enjoyed ripping out the pieces of tissue paper from his gift bags after his sisters showed him how to do this.  Here he is working on opening up one of his gift bags with Lia's help.

Emmett got a few plastic plates, cups, and silverware with sport balls, sharks, or construction themes on them.  Here he is trying to drink from his new cup covered in all sorts of balls (which he LOVES at the current moment).

Emmett received several more wooden train cars to go with his expanding train set that he got for Christmas.  Since Ron had already set up the track around the coffee table, Emmett loved adding more trains to it and pushing them along throughout the evening.

Emmett moved away from the train tracks to push his Bertie the Bus on the outside of the stairs.  I just had a get a picture of this as I thought it was so cute.

Logan and Emmett playing with the trains while we finished opening up gifts.

We headed back to the dining room to sing "Happy Birthday" to Emmett and to enjoy eating cake and ice cream.  Here is a picture of the Elmo cake that I made freehand.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.

A somewhat confused and happy Emmett half smiling while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

Mama helping Emmett blow out his two candles.

Taking a picture before cutting into the cake.

Another pic of the birthday boy with his cake, his mama, and his siblings.

Emmett thoroughly enjoying his birthday cake.

Emmett using both his fork and his fingers to eat!

Emmett enjoyed playing with Logan and Ella in the foyer after dessert with his new push toy cars.

This is an action shot of Logan sending off all four of the cars while Emmett looks on with amazement.

A group photo that we managed to take with grandma and grandpa before they headed home at bedtime.

Lastly, before I went to bed, I had to sneak into Emmett's room to take one last picture of my baby boy while he was officially one year old.  Here he is sleeping away on the green, Girl Scout pillow that Ella put in his bed a few days ago while they were playing.  I can never get over how angelic and sweet my children look while they are sleeping--especially when they are still babies and toddlers.  I have loved having Emmet as my baby and part of me is sad to say 'goodbye' to this phase of his life forever, but I know that I can't stop him from growing, and so I will try to enjoy and treasure this next toddler phase that he is entering as much as possible.  Happy Birthday, baby boy!  I love you to the moon and back!

A Winter Escape to Priest Lake

We just returned this evening from our 5-day trip to Priest Lake.  Although my parents decided to be extra safe and stay home, the rest of my family (besides Brynn and Garrett who are serving their missions) decided to go up for the week after Christmas.  Although we missed having my parents there, we knew that it was the safest thing for them to do especially since there was over twenty people staying in the cabin and spending most of our time indoors.  After a quick turn around after Christmas, we headed out on the morning of December 27th to make the seven hour drive to Priest Lake.  Luckily, the roads were basically clear and we made it there before dinner with no problem.  We then spent three, fun-filled days at the cabin playing in the snow and spending time in the cabin together.  Although there was only about five inches of snow on the ground when we arrived, it snowed all day long the day before we left creating a winter wonderland.  It was so much fun to play in that beautiful, fluffy snow with the kids.  Part of me wished that we could stay one more day to enjoy the new snow, but we decided to stick with our original plan and head home on New Year's Eve to give ourselves three days at home to unpack and regroup before facing the realities of homeschool and work on Monday.

On Monday morning, we decided to let the kids open up their cousin gifts instead of waiting until the evening like grandma normally did.  Here is Ella opening up her gift from Sarah.

A LOL, coloring set!  Needless to say, Ella was thrilled.

Logan opening up his gift from Trenton.

Logan holding up his Pirate Treasure Dig activity.

Lia opening up her gift from Kelsey which included some vintage, AGD books and a Polaroid camera.

We then bundled up and headed outside to spend the morning sledding.  Although the road to our cabin had been torn up by an overzealous neighbor driving his tractor, our neighbor's driveway was untouched.  After patching up a few bare spots, we had a great sledding hill to use all morning long.  Emmett loved going down the hill with me and never even made a peep!  Here we are ready to go.

Emmett and I sledding down the hill.

Ella was totally fearless and had no problem steering the toboggan sled.  It was so impressive to watch her fly down the hill over and over again.

Lia sledding down the hill with Ella in front of her.

Logan walking back up the hill with a sled full of snow and his brand new, snowball launcher.

Ella took Emmett down the hill with her a few times.  Here are the two of them walking back up together.

Ron fixing one of Emmett's gloves.  I just love this picture of our sweet, little snow bunny looking over at me.

Emmett did a great job lasting all morning in the snow and didn't get fussy until it was time to go in for lunch.  Here he is hanging out in daddy's arms.

After sledding down the hill many times, our family walked over to the neighbor's tennis court to play in the untouched snow.  Here is Ella after making a snow angel.

For some reason, all three of our older kids LOVE eating snow and can be found munching on it all the time whenever we are outside.  Here is Lia snacking away on a snowball.

Emmett giving me a look as he walks through the snow which he kept on calling "no" all week long.

Logan made a little snowman all by himself that he named Frosty (which Ron later changed to Dionisio).

Kelsey eventually joined us on the tennis court and took this darling family picture of us hanging out on the log swing.

The Hartland kids swinging together in the snow.

We celebrated Callie's 17th birthday on Monday evening.  Here she is about to blow out her candle.

Blowing away!

Emmett loved climbing up the bunkbed ladders in our bedroom all week long and hanging out on the top.  If it weren't for the worry of him falling off, it would have been the perfect activity to keep him busy and happy while hanging out in our room.

Lia and Ron and the majority of my family left very early on Tuesday morning to spend the next 12 hours going on a ski trip to Silver Mountain.  Since my knees are still not 100% healthy, I decided to stay behind and watch our three younger kiddos.  We had another pleasant day playing in the snow both in the morning and afternoon and enjoying a calmer and more peaceful cabin.  After Ella went back into the cabin, Natalee and I took the boys down to the beach after playing in the snow all morning.  Emmett was fascinated with the water and kept on wanting to play in it.

The boys on the frozen beach.

Brothers at play.

Emmett giving me a sad look after loosing one of his gloves.

We then walked back up to the cabin so that the boys could go sledding in the driveway for a little bit before heading in for lunch.

Logan giving me a smile from the driveway.

With all of the big kids gone for the day, Logan, Ella, and Trenton built their blanket forts on the catwalk again.  Please noticed the two D-O robots that are "eating" at the table that Logan set up for them.

Ella smiling from her fort.

On Thursday, we headed out two times to enjoy the beautiful snow that had started falling some time in the night.  We spent the morning sledding on our road that had been covered with a fresh coat of snow.  We managed to take a few family pictures before heading off down the hill.

A close-up of the Hartland fam with a beautiful, snowy background.

Once again, Emmett loved going sledding with me several times.  Here we are ready to head off down the hill.

Logan hanging out in the snow at the side of the road.

We then spent the afternoon sledding down the massive hill by Canoe Point.  Everyone went except for the other moms, Ron, a napping Emmett, Callie, and Vivi.  We all had such a great time sledding down this epic hill several times until we were forced to quit when it got dark.  Here is the group picture we managed to take before we all went down our first time.

The first wave of people heading down the hill.

The second wave of sledders taking off.

And a third group pushing off.

Since it takes about 15 or so minutes to walk back up the hill, Kelsey was kind enough to pull Ella up several times.  What a nice, older cousin!

Ella was so brave once again and had no problem going down this hill by herself.  This is the picture I took of her as she sledded past me in the midst of this winter wonderland.

An adorable Ella smiling at me after she came to a stop.

Ella and Logan taking a break on the side of the road before heading back up.

Lia, Ella, and Logan walking back up the hill.

At the very end of the afternoon, the majority of the group made the trek down to the water to look out at the lake in all of its frozen glory.  It's amazing how different it looks in the winter versus the summer.  Here is the fun, group shot that Eric took of us hanging out on someone's dock.

The gang starting the hike back up to the top.

A picture that I took of a snow-covered tree on the side of the road.  This perfectly captures how beautiful everything looked outside on Thursday!  Oh, how I love Priest Lake covered in snow!

We enjoyed relaxing together as a family on our last evening there.  Here are the younger cousins hanging out on top of Riley while watching TV in the rec room.

Eric got a hold of Emmett and wrapped him up in his blanket like he was in a straight jacket.  It was so funny to watch him walk around as happy as can be!  He didn't mind at all and would have kept it on as long as he could, but it eventually came unwrapped.

Emmet walking around in his blanket.

Emmett chilling out on the stairs with his two favorite things:  his ya-ya and his favorite blankie.

After dinner, the entire group enjoyed playing some fun games.  The first was taking turns unwrapping a massive ball of saran wrap full of goodies inside courtesy of Rebecca.  Although several of us never got a turn to unwrap it (since we needed to roll a double pair of dice), it was still very entertaining to watch!  Here is Brent unwrapping away.

Bryce getting a turn with an envious Logan looking on.

Callie getting a turn!