Spotlight on Emma

I've been wanting to blog lately, but things have been craazy busy. If someone were to ask me what I did all day, I would have a hard time knowing what to say. I guess cleaning up poop would be on the top of the list. And making macaroni. Yes, it seems that the fun never stops. And a big part of that fun is Emma.

Jakers and I have described Emma as the "will and the energy" in our family. She is very social, lively, opinionated, and isn't scared to tell the world what she thinks. We hope that will be a good thing as she gets older, but we often find ourselves at a loss as to how to respond to her when she "dominates".  She does, however, have a very sweet, funny and loving side too.

Emma really loves her baby sister.  Often when I go get Madwell up from a nap, Emma has her surrounded with blankets and stuffed animals. She really loves hugging and snuggling up to Madwell. A few weeks ago Emma hugged one of my legs and said, "I like your legs, Mom. They're squishy like Madwell's." Aside from off days, Emma's been really helpful with Madwell. When I ask her to get me a diaper or something like that, she'll respond with "of course, Mommy" and help me out.

Emma also really loves helping me in the kitchen. She likes making cookies, but recently discovered her love of peeling carrots (pictured below: she peeled half of the carrot off and took a bite in the middle).

I think one of my favorite things about parenting Emma has been witnessing her spirited personality. One woman in our ward told me that Emma glows, and I'd have to agree with her (I'm her mom, so of course I'm biased). She really takes in life and connects with people, or, as well as a 3 1/2 year old can :-)

And I guess that's all I have to say about Emma for now.

P.S. LOVE the Easter pictures. Did you have those professionally taken? They are adorable.

ALSO-- still really annoyed that I can't figure out how to comment. But I wanted to thank you for the Happy Easter wish and say that we hope you had a good one as well! We love you too, Hughes family. And we totally get having to hold off on blogging about Christopher. Timing is everything when writing about our kids :-) We look forward to reading about him though in the future.

Easter

I'm not going to sugar coat it folks, Christopher's been a little hellion this week, and so for the sake of your eyes and ears I've put off writing his spotlight. The only adjectives and nouns that are coming to mind are cuss words, so I'll just leave it your imaginations to fill in the dots.

However, since it's Easter and I thought I'd at least post a couple pics we managed to take after church today. Here ya go:

The weather here, as you can see, has been stunning and we are drinking it in. I feel like we are awakening from a very deep and deary sleep! Easter felt simply magical, and my heart has been filled with a lot of gratitude for new beginnings and reset buttons. That's what Easter has meant to me this year.

We love you awesome Goddards! Happy Easter.

A Short Post

I am having a moment that almost never happens during the day-- both kids are napping at the same time! So I thought I'd write for however many glorious minutes this lasts.

I LOVED reading the spotlight on Mikey. He is so adorable and I can start to see a little more of Christy and Dan in him.

Thank you, Christy, for sharing those "crack induced" moments. As strange as it sounds to say and write, I have had some experiences as well where I feel that, through a tender mercy, the veil is very thin.  Those experiences leave me saying to myself, "did I just experience that?" which I conclude that I did because I wouldn't be asking myself that question if I had not.

I also love your idea to spotlight each of your kids. I can't wait to read more about your kids. I may have to copy your idea and spotlight both of mine as well.  But that will have to be in a future post as I'm already hearing crying coming from downstairs!

P.S. We can't wait to see you guys in May! We will have to get together and do something uber fun.

And P.S. again. Have you guys ever watched the Twilight Honest Trailer? Jacob showed it to me and it's quite funny :)