Emery is 10

 Emery had a birthday!  She now has to use all of her fingers to tell you how old she is.  She is really doing well on her cello.  She needs a bigger size...hers is getting too small for her.  

At her concert.

I got to accompany them on the piano.  

Cutie!

Emery is so nice to Finley.  When it snows, she will go outside with her and build snowmen and play as long as she wants.  All while I am warm inside.  :)

Early morning present opening.

She's been asking for overalls.  I think she rocks them!

We love having Emery in our family.  She's so creative and thinks differently than mine.  Happy birthday!

Christmas parties and such

We had some fun Christmas parties this year.  Emery got to go to perform at her friend's Christmas party.  They played cello and her friend's brother played violin.  They did great.  I got to accompany them on the piano.  

Cute Attie and Emery.

They brought a fun hat for her to wear.

At our ward party, Zac got to play guitar with his guitar teacher.  She is mostly blind, but she has done such a great job teaching Zac.

Finley loves wearing our Santa beard. 

Sadie came with us to see Emery and her friends play their instruments.

Riley as Santa.

Cute girls at our Christmas party.

Setting up our Christmas tree.  The kids are such good helpers these days.

 Rob let the kids put up the Christmas lights this year.  I had to go inside because I didn't want to be a witness to them falling off the roof.  Ha ha.  

Zac and Mom head to AZ

We had planned a few trips that required airfare before the pandemic hit and they got cancelled so we had some plane ticket vouchers that needed to be used up.  I decided it would be fun to go down to AZ and see the Mesa temple open house with Zac.  I woke up bright and early to Finley coming into my room and climbing into bed with me.  I never know when it's going to be her last time coming in to snuggle with me, so I allow it.  :)

She actually fell back to sleep...that usually doesn't happen.

Zac and I were leaving around 1 so we spent the morning packing and getting ready.  He was a bit nervous and kept asking questions about 9/11 and the planes crashing into the buildings.  I told him to stop talking about it because it would start to make me nervous.  ha ha.  

Made it to the airport and Zac was really nervous.  We brought a dice game to keep us occupied at the airport.  

Got onto the plane and got a seat right behind the wing.  

This is a picture of the Copper mine.  Emery always asks about it and wants to go there someday, so we took this picture for her. 

First item of business, eat at Jordans!  This is my favorite Mexican restaurant of all time.  It did NOT disappoint.  Thanks to my brother Scott and his family for picking us up from the airport and shuttling us around for a bit.

Zac spent hours setting records on this game.  It's the best game.  Very addicting.  Bullseye ball.  

Looking out the window.  There was a bit of turbulence on the way there.  I hated it, but Zac thought it was fun. 

While we were there, we discovered that Zac's feet are now bigger than mine!

Zac got to spend some time with Gunner.  Here they are playing Curses.

Sunday dinner.  It was delicious.  

These boys loved tormenting Isaac.

Cade and I were matching.

Scott brought his new game that he got off of Ebay.  It is now referred to as the 100 dollar board game because that is how much he spent on it.  We got to play it twice while we were there.  It was fun. Well worth the money I would say...especially since I didn't pay for it.  ha ha!

The next day we went to see the temple.  There weren't very many people there.  

After we saw the temple, we changed out clothes (in the car!) and walked over to the new visitors center.

Zac left his mark on this light board.  :)

Then we went down the street to an ice cream shop that sells BYU creamery ice cream.  I offered to pay for my mom's ice cream and when I went to pay, the cashier said "someone came in a paid for a bunch of people's ice cream, so you're good."  How cool!  Thanks to whoever did that!

Cade was so fun to play with.

We went go cart racing and it was a bit intimidating, but by the end of the race we were a bit more confident.  We wish we could have gone again, but that meant forking out more money...so we just did the one.

We went scorpion hunting in the backyard.  We found a good handful of them.  See that glowing thing?  THat's how they glow in blacklight.

We visited my grandma one morning.  We walked over from my parent's house.  She showed us how she practices her putting in the backyard.

She even showed us the proper technique.  

I love being able to spend time with my grandparents.  Wish we lived closer!

This is my childhood home.  It was fun showing it to Zac.  My parent's rent it out so we were able to walk around and see the inside as well.

Then we had to break out the double bike.  We took it for a spin around the neighborhood.

Stopped by a candy shop for a little snack.  

Then we went to the airport and found out that our flight got delayed.  It was already a late flight but it got pushed back a couple hours.  This was how we felt about it.  

Zac was tired so he layed down for a bit.

Here are some videos from our trip.

 

Riding the double bike.

Scorpion hunting.

The boys bugging Isaac.

Playing Bullseye Ball

Emery's trip to the ER

 Emery had a bad stomachache for three days or so a few weeks ago.  Normally we are the type to just wait it out, but this time since she had no appetite, no throwing up, and it was lasting longer than 3 days we decided to bring her into the urgent care doctor.  It was a Sunday so we couldn't bring her to our normal doctor.  She would be fine for a bit but then she would be crying in pain.  A friend had just had to bring her son to emergency surgery because of his appendix so I was a bit worried about that.  The urgent care doctor was also worried about it so he sent us to the ER in Salt Lake at Primary Children's.  Sigh.  Next time I'll just skip the urgent care and go straight there.  

Anyway, after a few hours, some blood work and an ultrasound, everything looked normal.  Thank goodness.  Although I was kinda hoping for appendicitis because then we could fix it.  But she got an iv of fluids and felt better that night.  She eventually got better over the next few days.  It was weird. 

I must say, I have always had great experiences at Primary Children's hospital.  They are so good with kids.  

Emery, who throws a fit getting her flu shot every year, sat so still for her IV.  A lady came in and explained everything to her and let her play her Ipad while they were putting it in.  I could tell she was a bit nervous, but she didn't put up a fight at all.  She just let them do it.  

Then the brought in a pumpkin for her to paint and a little Halloween sticker craft.  I told Emery it was like a little date night for us.  Ha ha.  A very expensive date night.  

 

School spirit week and baking with Finley

The kids had spirit week last week at school.  One day was pajama day and Zac showed up at his friend's house to ride his bike to school and they were both wearing the same pants, and a Puma jacket.  So Zac ran home to get a black shirt for him to wear so they matched completely.  I love it!

Zac and Braden

Crazy hair day.  Zac rocked pink hair.

These two had three ponytails.

Finley didn't have crazy hair that day, but she had to try this creepy mask on at the store.  

My sister in law posted a recipe she found for these delicious cookies.  I decided to branch out from my normal chocolate chip cookies and try these pumpkin ones.  They were actually delicious.  I wasn't expecting to like them as much as I did.  

She was such a good helper.  (insert laughing emoji here)  She actually made a huge mess with the sugar and flour.  

But she did an excellent job cleaning the beater off.  :) 

 

Zac's reaction to the flu shot

 Zac has always had a reaction to getting the flu shot.  I'm not sure why, but his arm always swells up really big for a few days after he gets his shot.  When he was young, he tested positive to a slight egg allergy.  So I think that might be why...not sure.  This time it got all red too.  Poor guy!

Can you see the red outline?  HIs whole shoulder is swollen and hard.  I tried to massage it, but it was so hard and it was pretty uncomfortable for him.  He said he could hardly feel it at all thought because he was so used to his allergy shots that hurt worse.