Emma Jane

This is a going to be a short post... mainly to tide some people over.. (Amy) until I can post longer.. and these pictures are a little over a month old!! She is moving like crazy and will probably be crawling soon!!

yes.. we spend a lot of time on the love sac..

I love this of them reading together..

Emma Jane and Papa! Her awesome great grandfather!

Happy Tuesday

Horray! I am picking up the keys to our new house in about 20 minutes..
Look at those toes!

Anyone want to buy us a roof for our house?

Check out this beautiful quilt Mama Rhien (Emma's great-grandmother) made for her! We love it!

Sweet baby Emma (John said this is his Anne Geddes picture)
Here is what I have been doing this summer: Mostly reading baby books. I read all these books.. plus a lot of magazines and Ensigns..

Well we are still moving! We will be closing on the house sometime this week hopefully.. there are always issues that come up.. still more issues with the roof.. but everything will work out.. fingers crossed!! Our apartment is full of boxes.. some packed.. some not. We are excited to be leaving! Especially since yesterday while I was bringing laundry back and forth to the laundry room (can't wait until those days are over! ) I found the hugest black widow spider I have ever seen!!!! Right outside our door! I have a pure hatred and fear of cockroaches so several months ago John got me this spray to get any I saw... so I soaked this spider.. Hopefully she doesn't have any babies near by!

A couple of weeks ago John and I went on a little hike with the Berger boys (John and Kyle) up to an old decalogue stone in Las Lunas. This is something John discovered online several months ago and checked it out. I couldn't go with him there until now becuase you have to squeeze through a gate.. and that was not happening with my big pregnant belly. It has not been "officially" authenticated by any scholars but it is thought to be ancient hebrew and a little ancient greek and they think between several hundred years old to as much as 2 thousand years old of the 10 commandments.. perhaps Book of Mormon times? It's pretty cool. You'll have to check it out and see what you think.. It was so green and pretty and a nice little hike (that we cut a little short because the moisquitoes were eating us alive..)

Emma is growing and smiling and is such a joy! She rolls over on her belly when she's on the love sac sometimes and she had her first laugh two days ago! I don't have any pictures of this yet but we had Emma sitting bare feet in our friends grass while she was taking pictures.. and she loved kicking the grass and feeling the breeze and watching the dog running around the yard so much that she had her first laugh! It was awesome! She is too much fun. I can't wait until she is laughing more regularly.

She loves to sit up (with some help) and look around the room. She really loves to watch the fish tank..

We'll keep you all posted on the house!

Trips and Pics

Well I guess I am not as regular a bloggger as I'd like to be.. oh well. It's been a fun and busy time in the McCulloch house hold. John has one week left of summer school! Horray! He has really done so much this summer...lot's of work and class and studying.. he's a stud. :)

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It was a long drive, but Emma did great! She was certainly the star of the show there at the McCulloch family reunion. She got to finally meet her uncle Ganes and bond some more with uncle Frank (Max) (they really have some connection going on.. it's pretty cool). The firework show there was so amazing. I'm sure it it was the best I've seen. We were very close and they got really loud but Emma loved them! Also while we were there she gave me her first real smile ! It melted my heart! Here is Emma with Ganes after playing hours of golf and getting attacked by mosquitoes (but before the West Nile really hit him).

We did a little hike to a waterfall. It was sooo green there! It was seriously neon green is some areas. So beautiful!!The next weekend was Emma's baby blessing. It was really a great day. My mom made her beautiful dress (which we had to pin in to fit her.. she's so little) We had a lot of great family support.. John gave her the blessing of course and we were able to have Papa, John's uncle Larry and good friend David Frost stand in the circle. (as well as a good friend from the ward). Here are Mama and Papa when the first got into town for the blessing. Mama made Emma's booties that she wore for the blessing. Here are the booties.. and aunt Megan finally got to meet Emma Jane..

Emma and Uncle Frank..
We are so crazy about our little Emma!The Shupe's...

The McCulloch's

The Rhiens... (well Nanny and Grumps)The great- grandparents..

The Palmers...The mothers...The close-up...the dress.....

yea.. we were taking pictures for a while.. don't worry we have a lot of other combinations that we got pictures of too..

Well Emma is just a little over two months old.. she smiles a ton now and is gaining weight a little better finally. I was looking back at pictures of her first six weeks and she looked soo skinny to me! I wish I would have figured out this no dairy thing a lot earlier. She had her first shots last week. She did pretty well.. just a little feverish and extra sleepy for a couple of days...sad! She is adorable.. here are some fun recent pictures of her.

yay for smiling!
This one cracks me up! this is after about 15 camera flashes in a row.. hilarious!!I am really into attachment parenting. Here is baby carrier number 3.. it might be the winner.. This is after a good warm bath and lotion massage.. She knows her mama loves her!!.. she's a doll..Here we are in front of our future home.. hopefully..We love it!... the closing date is set for August 11th.. but it turns out we need a new roof.. hopefully everything will work out! We are soo ready to move into our first house!! Wish us luck!

an update finally!

Well we sure have been busy.. I've tried to post something... often. I guess I don't have my schedule as a new mom figured out just yet...

Emma is doing well! She is getting bigger.. I'm not sure how much bigger... People ask me all the time how much she weighs.. I don't have a baby scale.. so I really don't know! But I do still worry about her getting enough milk and gaining enough all the time! I still pump every now and then and give it to her throughout the day. I probably shouldn't give her a pacifier.. she just loves it though! I think I have determined that she is somewhat allergic to the milk and dairy products I eat, so I am now really trying to cut out dairy. If anyone knows me, they know how much I love dairy! I am drinking this almond milk with my cereal, which isn't too bad. So far I think it's helped her..

We've been going out for walks in our snazzy jogging stroller.. I haven't actually jogged with it yet.. but that will be coming soon I hope! I have my follow up appointment with my obgyn in a week and a half.. which will actually be 7 weeks postpartum... Here's Emma before our first stroller walk. Looks pretty comfy, huh?

It's amazing to me how much muscle tone I have lost! I try to exercise some days and let Emma hang out it her bouncer or swing.. some days she actually lets me! A kid at our complex walked by when the door was open and asked if we had THREE babies! It sure looks like it with all her seating!

John has been working pretty hard this summer.. lots of hours working and doing math homework, and not as much sleep as he's used to. So, three weeks ago we went up to his favorite place (and definitely one of mine.. it's where he proposed!) .. the family cabin in Vallecito, Colorado. We looove it there. We were both feeling overwhelmed and tired and stressed and it was amazing how we could actually feel the stress lifting off our shoulders the closer we got to the cabin and the more green and scenic the drive became. Nancy and Kenny met us up there. It was a wonderful weekend and much needed retreat! We took Emma in a carrier on her first hike, a little over a mile right next to the lake..and here is Emma and I after a nice nap in the "napping room." It is the back room (sun room) of the cabin which has a beautiful view of the lake. It is very conducive to sleep! I tried to study for dental hygiene boards in this room a couple of years ago.. I think I lasted 10 minutes!

Here we are in front of the cabin on our way to leave..(she was already buckled in so we didn't want to take her out)

Here she is with Nancy and Kenny (also known as Granny Nanny and Grumps): (she is about as big as Grumps' forearm. They are such great grandparents!)

After we left the cabin we went to Farmington for a father's day dessert over at Mama and Papa's house. We got a few generation pictures with Emma's great-grandparents (which unfortunately none of them really turned out) here's one where at least the lighting is somewhat okay..We did get to have a quick photo shoot with John's very talented cousin Rachel. She took a bunch of pictures of Emma for us. Check out her web page http://www.rachelclarephoto.com/

and her blog. ..http://www.rachelclarephoto.com/blog/ There are three pictures there of Emma under the title "New Baby E (June 18th)" .. you have to scroll down a bit to get to them.. but it's worth it! And ALL the pictures on there are soo beautiful! I wish they weren't moving so she can always take pictures of all our kids!

So.. after our wonderful father's day weekend at the cabin we came back to Albuquerque.. to our crazy apartment management.. and homework and our crazy pets! We have this great tortoise that is about 5 years old named Truman.. and one night about 1 am I was feeding Emma and John was doing homework and he looks down and is shocked to see that it looks like his guts have literally fallen out! We were so worried and sad.. I'm thinking that I don't give him enough water and he's dying and I don't even have a vet for him! So we put him in the bathtub to give him some water.. and his guts went back inside.. hmm...after 20 minutes or so searching on the Internet we find out those were not his guts, as "congratulations, it's a boy" comes across the screen. Yep Truman is officially a boy. He is sexually mature now and decided to let it all hang out.. and yea, it was a lot to hang out! Here he is looking innocent..

So, after the initial shock and trauma were over I go back to feeding Emma in the living room to see this! Sorry for the graphic picture.. but seriously! We have a real animal planet thing going on in the house! I don't think we'll see any tadpoles though because I'm sure the fish will eat them up unfortunately.. (you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it)

Well here are some pictures of Emma at one month .. (she'll actually be 6 weeks tomorrow)

Soo.. we have been managing our apartment complex for almost two years.. it wasn't bad the first year. We actually liked it.. the free rent has always been nice.. but the past several months have been increasing in frustration until we were counting down the days that we were not managers any longer.. so we put in our two weeks and not one moment too soon we put up a sign over the manager's sign saying .. well to pretty much leave us alone now! It's great.. now I don't feel guilty for not opening the door when I get knocks throughout the day! We were so happy and excited to put up the sign we had our friend take pictures for us..

Well John and I have been looking for our first house for about two or three months now and we just finally moved on from one house we really loved after making three different offers.. and even offering 98% of the asking price .. and still being refused.. we are convinced that she really doesn't want to sell her home.. so now we are writing up an offer on another house we actually found a month and a half ago and fell in love with.. but it was out of our price range.. but we are hopefully going to get an offer out on it tomorrow! Wish us luck! With how many problems we are having I wonder if we are not meant to buy a house right now.. but we are persevering and will hopefully be in one soon. Maybe even this one! We love the neighborhood and the house and the yard are perfect for us..we'll see how it goes.

Sorry for the loooooooong update.. I need to be more regular about this... We're off to Colorado for the Fourth.. I hope everyone has a wonderful Independence Day!!