there goes the sun..

20 NOVEMBER 2009
I uploaded most of these pictures in August.. so some of them are old and they are posted in backward order but at least they are something! This is what an Emma Jane looks like after eating chocolate pudding (her mama's favorite snack) and her daddy making the Emma face. This was around September...
We spent Labor Day Weekend in Napa Valley, CA for John's step-sister Kim's wedding. It was our first time in Napa and in the Bay Area and we both LOVED it. This is us at the wedding- it was beautiful and in a winery's cellar.. very cool. The coolest part was Emma Jane dancing like a diva at the reception. She was jumping and spinning and shaking her booty... I really don't know where she gets it from.. it must be her natural instincts! We spent a lot of time in San Fransisco and loved it! The tour we did of a WWII Submarine may have been John's favorite part. Here they are in the Dining area..

The Sub..

The city's trolly. We watched them drive the train on a big turn-table and get out and manually turn the train around. We were impressed.

This may have been my favorite part- lunch! I had rissotto for the first time and It may have been the best thing I have ever eaten! (I have since been making it at home and I found a butternut squash pistachio rissotto that is FABULOUS!)..of couse we ate dinner at fisherman's warf- clam choweder in a sourdough bread bowl..
Emma eating and loving the bruschetta tomatoes..

This was around August? Nanny and Grumps (Nancy and Kenny) came into town and brought this cute hat for Emma Jane. John had just gotten back from a boy scout wood badge training weekend which he loved and was a pretty big deal.. the area authority pretty much said all young men leaders had better get the wood badge..

Emma Jane and I went to the zoo with the McCrackin's.. here we are at the train station on our way to the aquarium.

This is Lana McCrackin.. they are best buddies.. soo cute!

This sweet dress was a christmas gift from my dad.. I think she is 14 months old here..

This adorable little dragon costume came from the Franze family. It brought alive the wild thing in Emma!

Emma LOVES going over to Marie and Nelson's house. And so do we!! They are the BEST babysitters too! The back view..

With her second cousins Addison and Coleson

Our wild thing

Uncle Ganes came through town

and we went on a steep hike in the Mountains of Mist.. Emma must have been on my back at this point..yea, I'm one tought mama..

I got this little blow up pool for Emma and she loved it! She would take a running dive into it! This is her best pirate face.

And her cheesiest grin! I wish you could see it better!

At the beloved cabin in Vallecito Colorado.. July or August

We took the boat on the Navajo Lake and and did some camping. We loved it. We ended up sleeping on the boat.

At our Elder's Quorm Social.. food on face and having fun!

This is BEAUTIFUL hike we did in Colorado, near Pagosa Springs.. can we live there please please please? This was at the tail end of the 4th of July weekend McCulloch Family Reunion. The actual reunion was at the Blue Lake Lodge Bed and Breakfast near Durango.

This is at the original McCulloch family homestead on the family ranch. It was so cool to go and get so much family history for his side of the family. Emma especially liked the chocolate chip cookies..

and chasing after the cows.. moooo...we went a couple miles away from the homestead to go shooting.. and John shot a gopher://gopher...after/ about 30 bullets.. it was hilarious.. soooo sleepy!

A trip to the zoo with the Smiths.. watch out.. these birds poop and bite!

Yay!

Emma enjoying the spoils from her awesome book birthday party the Nanny (Nancy) and Denise and Mama had for her..

We were able to go to Mesa for Lyndsey's sealing (my best friend from Dental Hygiene) school. I am so happy for her and so glad I was able to make it! The last weekend in May we made it to Kingman for Megan's graduation.. This is in Kingman at the "second chance prom" it was tons of fun. ..From L to R: Niki Christensen, Amy Shupe, me, Bob Shupe and Chris Christensen. Cute Madison had to get dressed up too! Love her!!

It was so much fun to go to prom with John! We were really excited about it and even had my mom watch Emma that night and John reserved the hotel room we stayed in at our wedding night. I also made my dress! Maybe the funnest part of the night was dancing with John and watching Bob and Amy dance.. they are pretty darn funny.. and Bob looked like Moes (Dwight's cousin) with his beard..

My mom's piano (actually.. I think it's Amber's).. I really want to get one for our home! Emma loves it too of course!

Baby Mozart

My Mom's back yard.. she was really enjoying this sprinkler.. though it's hard to tell by the look on her face..

Madi is a little too big to jump with Emma, but they had a blast.

Splash! Madi would jump in and Emma would cry.. so the pool didn't last very long..I also did swimming lessons with Emma Jane this summer. It was so much fun. Emma loves the water!

We drove to Lake Havasu from Kingman to get Emma's 12 month pictures taken (which turned out great.. thanks for the tip Niki!) and of course had to drive down the London Bridge which was named after us!My mom Sherrie Kay Shupe after Megan Graduated from High School!

My Grandma Gwen Kay Frandsen

My Grandpa George Clark Frandsen

Congratulations Megan Marie Christmas!! We loooooove you!

We sat in the grass during the ceremony so Emma could play and John could read.. I bet he read through my college graduation too...

I took this picture as she was walking to her seat..love it!

Emma Jane love to play in our backyard

This was our first trip of the summer to the cabin in May, where we invited Bob and Amy. They had a great time and fell in love with the cabin and Vallecito (there is really nothing you cannont fall in love with about that place). Bob especially loved catching all those trout!

We got up there on Emma's first birthday (May 22nd) and had a little birthday party for her. It was soo hilarious to watch her eat her cake..

The McCulloch Family

The Shupe Family

It was a fabulous summer! I will do another post.. hopefully before another six months have passed!

spring fever

Horray for Banana's! She is 10 months old in this picture (March 22nd) She LOVES her swing in the backyard. She just laughed and laughed! This is March 1st, before we planted the grass.. now it is bright green! :

Bob, Amy, Madison and Robby Jay came to visit the 2nd weekend in March. It was soo much fun! They are the best!

Emma eating "Mel's Mix" out of our square foot garden boxes we put together (March 21st):

(March 26th) Emma is really into books... We'll be having a first birthday "book" party in Farmington June 7th. You're all invited!!

My awesome jogging partner. It was pretty cold for a while and if her hands got too cold she would SCREAM... (April 7th):

Emma LOVES fruit.. here she is chowing down on a plum.. yum! (April 10th):

Emma got a lot of practice walking in Farmington this weekend.. (April 19th.. Happy Birthday Nancy!):

Happy Easter dress.. she's clapping because she knows she looks so cute in her hat! (Compliments of Grandma Shupe..thanks Mom! ) (April 12th):

Our first family trip to the park.. she LOVES being outside.. (May 1st )

I followed her around for 15 minutes trying to get a good picture.. John takes the camera and gets this one with his first shot! :)

I wanted to finish our family update on the last four months.. I did a lot of work on the back yard.. pulling bushels of weeds (for hours and hours) and tilling the ground by hand and mixing in compost and fertilizer and manuer to our sandy new mexican soil.. and only about 7 blisters later and several hundred gallons of water we have some tall, bright green grass growing in our back yard. Horray! Emma loves walking around out there and now I am not so worried about her.. yet we still have ginormous weeds probably because of all the compost and fertilizer... but I am not ready to kill them with chemicals. It is Emma's playground and Truman's (our terrific tortoise) main diet. He woke up from hibernation a few weeks ago and has actually been chowing down on the weeds. Love him for it! Does anyone know of any organic weed killer that is safe for tortoises to eat?
We spent two weekends in a row if Farmington in April with John's family. It was so much fun to be there for Nancy's birthday and to see both of John's brothers and all the grandparents and cousins. We also did a little shooting up there.. and I did a nice long jog in the mud and we went to a performance of Beethoven's full 8th. It was great..

oh.. I'm so out of order.. but another fun thing we did this semester was participate in Albuquerque's TEA Party.. it was awesome. About 4500 people showed up on April 15th to protest our government's big spending and passing the bailouts (without even reading them!) . It was great. It was a lot more partisan than we were hoping it would be, but we were so glad to be there and we hope we helped ! I made a sign saying http://www.fairtax.org/ You should all check it out and write to your state reps to get it moving! Emma also did great at her first protest!! :)

Okay.. now onto more important things.. Emma Jane has two teeth, her lower front anteriors (O and P). It is so cute! She loves to use them too! I am still breastfeeding her and she knows better than to bite me! She also is walking! She took her first steps on April 16th and spent about 10 days only going a few steps at a time, and then spent a couple of days going about 10 steps and now she is a pro! Well..she does look like a drunken pirate occasionally.. :) She is so much fun and still a great baby.. but she does have this increadibly high-pitched scream now... and she can get cranky when she wants to. She babbles all the time! She loves to say Daddy and Dadda... I of course always respond with "Mamma or Mommy." She says that only when she feels especially sad. :( On Saturday she started saying "Baby." I call her that all the time. I have heard her say "Emma" in her babbling too.. She's such a doll. She's been teething lately.. :( but a few weeks ago she went through a good growing spurt.. eating and sleeping all the time. She is about 18 pounds now and will be one years old this Friday.. I can't believe it!!

She is a little climer! (May 6th):

At UNM's Duck Pond on Mother's Day (May 10th):

This is Emma and Truman's first encounter... she just cried and didn't know what to do, it was hilarious.. but then she got very comfortable with him and would slap his shell like a drum. She loved it! Poor guy! .. so I took him outside so he wouldn't be destroyed by our little EmmZilla..

crazy late-night snacking!

Well, It has been an amazing four months since I have last posted anything (besides a few comments on friends' blogs) and I am excited to be here again! I have just realized the connection with my last blog.. it was right before John was starting his semester in school and he actually turned in his last homework today for the semester. Honestly, he being in school makes me feel so busy and stressed as if I was taking the classes and had to complete hours of homework and projects and impossible math problems right along with him.. I guess that is the empathy in me. ..
So, what have we been up to this semester? Well a LOT.
John of course was very busy with school. He is one smart cookie and I am still learning so much from him (he will always be my greatest teacher). He should be getting two A's and three B's this semester.. which I think is awesome for your Junior year in Nuclear Engineering. I do wish it could have been done with a lot less "5 Hour Energy" consumption and a lot more sleeping in bed next to me.. but I am proud of him. He is still an awesome scout master and got certified through the NRA to be a rifle instructor.... so of course we had to buy a gun and go shooting a few times. Fun! Actually, I think we saw a mafia member.. with body guards and all at the gun store.. good times. I am actually a natural good shot. .. a little Annie Oakley in me.. John studied a lot this semester with a Mr. Mario Luigi Luis Migel.. (I'm not sure on the order).. he is mostly "Luis." He is a great guy from Peru... and yes, John supplied the "5 Hour Energy" for all night studying! I am so glad that I get my husband back for a couple of weeks before summer school starts.. (I really sometimes feel like a single mom.... who has a loving husband I get to feed and cuddle with occasionally.. ;)
So.. what else have I been up to? I was just able to celebrate my first Mother's Day, which was awesome. John gave me my gift and card Saturday night (we can rarely wait to give any gift to each other), I got some wonderful chocolate covered strawberries and the sweetest card. We had a nice sausage-y breakfast and a wonderful picnic dinner at the duck pond at UNM (with ducks and baby turtles and giant gold fish). Emma loved it of course.. but mostly loved picking up the gravel. :) I am still the RS Secretary. I love it. It is a great calling. I love the President and the counselors and how laid back it is... and that it gets me out of Sunday school.. Actually Emma is good for that too. How do you get anything at all out of church on Sunday with a toddler? I guess I better step-up my scripture reading at home. :) I have been trying (not very hard or consistently) to loose weight..I've lost about 10 pounds since January 1st. I have a LOT more to loose. I am honestly lazy and addicted to sugar. I miss my athletic days and will have them again. Hopefully this summer John and I will get serious about working out and eating healthy. We'll keep you updated on that. (I really could use some encouragement... pushing.. coaching...training..bossing...) I did actually run a 5K race on April 18th. I think it took me 37 minutes.. It was my second 5k.. but I walked a little during the first one. This one I jogged completely and loved it. I really do love running. I did all my training for it in our neighborhood with Emma Jane in the jogging stroller. She's a great running partner (most days). I hope do do some more races. I love that Albuquerque offers occasional Saturday races (most are on Sundays). I hope to never run a Sunday race. In March we/I built two square foot gardening boxes and made the magic soil mix.. and it is now May and still have not planted any seeds (except for the basil in my windowsill).. we'll get on that soon after our next two long weekend trips.. John just got home from work.. so i am going to finish this later! with pictures and exciting stories of our family's main feature.. little Emma Jane!

Happy New Year!

Hello friends! I am really bad at keeping current postings lately.. I guess it was the holidays.. but now we are back to somewhat of a routine.. John is back in school full-time and he is working a little less this semester so he can hopefully get better grades.. he just better stay focused! :) I am still working part-time and LOVING my days off. Emma is growing so fast.. well she is still very little... in the 10th percentile for weight but she is an active, happy and beautiful girl! She started crawling when she was 6 months and 4 days old.. and now she is standing up- using anything she can for balance. She is eating more and more solid foods and loves to feed herself.. I don't think she'll be doing the baby purees much longer.. (she's been eating baby purees I make as well as jarred baby food). She ate all of John's black olives off his pizza last night.. She is just the best! We went to Kingman for Thanksgiving.. which I made most of the dinner.. fun.. it was a great trip. We had an awesome five days in Puerto Vallarta , Mexico for Christmas and a nice relaxing New Years here at home in Albuquerque.. And then on our three year anniversary (January 6) I took John to the airport for his 12 day trip to Chile with Ganes.. He had a great time and Emma and I had a pretty good time too at home.. but we'll be doing all our future big trips together. I want to get back into the loop of the blogging world! Sorry for those who've tried to get in touch with me! .. but I'm back! Love you all!!

Here's our little Sugar Booger at Halloween.. MOO!

At Thanksgiving Emma decided to crawl over her cousin Robby..

I love this.. yes.. she has a lot of books.. good for reading and for resting... She started this sticking out her tongue business a few weeks ago.. don't you think she looks like a puppy? This is at my office Christmas Party.. she LOVED Santa Clause! She was so excited a bouncing up and down.. I think she likes the bright colors.. and she did try to pull the beard off.. :) The Natives in Mexico LOVED Emma.. Christmas night at dinner the waiter saw she fell asleep so he made this little bed for her.. so nice!We loved to walk on the beach.. it was an awesome beach.. the sand looked like gold glitter..
This was her first encounter with the ocean.. it scared her a little.. but she LOVED the hotel pool.. and the wet sand! EmmZilla!!!
I love this one..
John came home from Chile with a moustache.. he calls himself Senor Bigotes.. (Mr. Mustache in Spanish).. Emma cried when she first saw him. We went to Chilies.. John's favorite restraunt to celebrate his return. I love the llama hat that Ganes picked up for her from Peru.

At night when I floss Emma goes crazy until I give her a piece. She is also doing this new wrinkle face smile.. I love it! She was exactly 8 months old in these pictures..

Horray for good oral hygiene! :)

Emma loves to feed herself .. though most of it still ends up on the floor.. still no teeth.. thank goodness, but she is sure working on getting some!

Have a wonderful day!!! Enjoy the pictures!

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!