Back in Cali... and I passed my test!

Good news! I passed my glucose screening! 3 hours and 4 viles of blood later... everything came back normal! We are so thankful!

We made it back to California last night after 22 hours of traveling. We had started our day at 2am east coast time to catch a early flight to DC. Then what was supposed to be our early flight from DC to San Fran had issues that had us sitting on the plane waiting to leave the gate for 2 1/2 hours. Then they deboarded us and a couple hours later deemed our plane unworthy to fly. We spent about 9 hours in the DC airport... trying to get back to the West Coast... along with a couple hundred other people. They managed to get us 3 to LAX by 7:30 west coast time. My parents picked us up and we drove the rest of the way! Poor Emily only slept for about 3 of those 24 hours! We unexpectedly got some practice for our big travels next week! Our bags showed up this morning... they got an extra stop in San Fran and we had to spend the night apart. :)

I'll try to post some pics or videos soon , but just wanted to update quickly until I have time to do that!

fun pic we found from summer of '05

We found this pic from 4 years ago of Bridger as a puppy! Now this is his new family! Everyone looks so much older now... except for Leslie - she looks just as young!

Trip to Washington DC

This week we all got to go to Washington DC! We enjoyed the day out, and it was Scott and Emily's first time to go there. Here are those 2 at the original Smithsonian building.
The Air and Space Museum was interesting for all of us!
We strolled around the mall with some friends and their 2 year old too.
The cherry blossoms were out even though the sun wasn't. And beautiful purple flowers were everywhere.
Emily was happy even though it rained and blew gusty winds.
This picture snuck in twice... ooops.

In other news, I failed my first glucose screening and have to go back for the 3 hour test on Monday. I am bummed about not passing, and really really hope I pass this next one. Some of our plans about where we'd have the baby might need to change if it doesn't go just right! We'll let you know how it turns out when we hear back!

Happy St Patty's Day

Well, today we are having a good day... this is the first day (out of the last 13) that we are not dealing with fever, diarrhea, or vomiting issues with Emily! It is nice to think we might be in the clear now! Just had a lunch of corned beef and boiled potatoes. :) I have no pictures to post from the last few weeks... they wouldn't be pretty! But more to come soon hopefully... of a healthy family!!

Fun in the snow

March has brought us a lot of snow. Emily likes to take a stroll out to take it all in.

She also likes her new pull-up bar which is an all around workout machine you can do different things with. She finds even more creative ways to use it than the creator intended, and loves to exercise with Daddy.

It's a GIRL :)

We went for our ultrasound on the 18th, and here's the little gal we saw! She looks healthy and is already one pound! Normally at 20 wks a baby would only be 10 ounces. She's quite ahead of the curve! This is her head and her little fist by her chin. We are thinking we like the name Aubrey Mei, but we haven't settled on that for sure yet.
Emily loves her winter hat and tries to put it on all by herself. It ended up on backwards, but securely fastened. :) She's going to have so many things to teach her little sister!

Video of Em reading her book

Emily's favorite book right now is a freebie from the kids meal at Chic-Fil-A called Giggle Giggle Quack. She tries to read it to us and is getting good at the title at least. :) In the middle of this clip she sees something out the window and falls into a trance for a minute... but snaps back out of it eventually. :)

Valentine's Dress

Emily was sick for Valentine's Day weekend, but is feeling mostly better now! So she wore her special Valentine's dress today and loved it! Thanks for thinking of us when she was fighting her fever. Hopefully she'll be strong tomorrow when she has to go get a few shots! Daddy has to get more than her though! :)
Always a ready smile... and then runs to look at the camera to see how her picture turned out!

Endless fun with dirt

Playing in grandpa and nana's flower bed. (This pic is a few weeks older than the videos below... and in a different state. I got a little out of whack with the space time continuum.)

Fun with a balloon

Unfortunately her favorite thing to do with this balloon is bite it and see how it squeaks. But it has yet to pop, so the fun goes on! Press the play button to see the video clip.

Video clip

Here's a video from a few days ago. She's getting to be more and more fun all the time! She amuses us with all her vocabulary and new phrases.

We're having a great time out here and we are all learning to be flexible. Em likes to scratch her nose with her foot. More to come later! :)

Visiting cousins Makinsa and Braelyn in Montana
Feeding the cows with Papa Eakman
Emily checking out the really big doggies
Playing at the farmhouse that her great-grandfather was born in.
Back in California enjoying our last day together as a complete family.... with Bridger. Tomorrow he goes to his new home.... where he may be even more spoiled than he currently is! :)

The last few weeks in review

This is Emily experiencing her first Montana winter.  We arrived to a -26 degree temp with wind chill factor.  Emily was properly bundled, and hasn't been allowed out to make snow angels yet.  :)
We had a fun Christmas in Bakersfield and you can see in the background that Carey got just what she wanted!  :)  

The week before Christmas

Grandpa Buss and Emily went to Toys R Us and came home with this special chair.
Emily really likes it and uses it for many purposes!  
The week before Christmas we also went and visited Nana at work, and met her friends.