This baby of ours had been teething since his 6 month check-up in February.  We watched his swollen bottom gums for what seemed like ages.  Finally the first one broke through in the middle of March.  (It's so teeny tiny in the picture; bottom right, Em's left.)

Another miserable week later, tooth number two broke through.  It's so funny to see those chompers in his little mouth.  Emmett did not want to show me when I got the camera out.  But I'm still showing you the pictures.  Because he's cute regardless.

Also of note, Emmett's coloring has always been a bit different from Samuel and Owen . . . he has more of the olive Briggs complexion, not the fair Jensen/Nielsen genes.  But I've also looked at him often times and wondered if his face, especially nose, was a bit orange-tinted?  Seeing these pictures, it's glaringly obvious to me that Em is orange.  Is that weird? 

January 19, 2012

Emmett's been going on a milk strike or something.  Doesn't want Mom, and refuses a bottle.  In an act of desperation –this kid needed to eat something!!– we started solids.  Em caught on so fast and has done amazing with them!!  Erik and I couldn't believe that we had a baby who was a) interested in food, b) continually wanted more, and even c) got mad when we weren't shoveling it in fast enough.  He has no preference for flavors, and will eat green beans just as well as applesauce.  Except for peas.  He had to warm up to peas.  Of course, with starting solids, it makes for fantastic picture taking opportunities of this Chubbalubs fat face. 

First solids ever with Mommy and Sam.

Later, with Daddy, and not so happy about the highchair at first.

January 29, 2012

Ten days later, he's a pro.

September 25, 2011

It took me a long time to finally make it back to church.  Erik had been taking the boys for the last 2 hours.  I finally decided it was time, so I got myself out of bed at 6:30 to start the morning.  Erik leaves every Sunday at 7:30 for bishopric meeting.  The boys got up right after he left.  So I finished getting myself ready, got the two boys ready, then woke up Emmett to feed him and get him ready.  Erik came home at 8:50 and we were only about 5 minutes late for 9:00 church.  And they might have been wearing cute coordinating shirts.  Totally worth documenting.  Except that once we were back home, no one really wanted to be documented.  Oh well.  Such is our life.  That's why these pictures still make me smile. 

August 24, 2011

Doesn't that make him sound so grown-up, "Pre-K"!!  Samuel is going to a new school this year, so we could be a bit closer to home and go with a few neighborhood friends.  He has been ridiculously excited and oh-so ready for school to start again.  On the first day, Sam wouldn't even let me come in with him, which really was no surprise, but it still stung a tiny bit.  

So far, Samuel is just loving school!  He's even had a few "homework" assignments that he gets super pumped about: bringing in a baby picture, bringing in a smell, and bringing in a vegetable for wombat stew.  Samuel also got to bring home the letter bag to fill with things that start with the letter S, and then bring it back to school to share what he found.  He had the weekend to come up with things to stuff it with, which included a shark, a seal, a sea lion, a snake, sunglasses, Snot Rod, Samuel the Lamanite, his Sammy the Snail book, his new soccer ball, and a "sticky strawberry snack to share at school" (fruit roll ups).

Seriously, preschool is just about the best thing to happen in Samuel's little life.  I love when he comes home and tells me about his day; what special assignment he had in class, what played on at "recess," what he learned, and who his newest friend is.  He thrives on this kind of thing, and it's been great for ALL of us! 

The parade this year was a first for us.  We've never been before.  And with the early morning wake up call, plus knowing he had to go back into work later that afternoon, we couldn't talk Erik into coming to this little celebration.  Thankfully, our awesome neighbors, who are pros at Art City Days, hooked us up.  The staked out our spots the night before, then gave us the run down about the cool parts and the best ways to get candy.  It was so much fun.  The very beginning started with the police force on their motorcycles doing cool little tricks and formations, and all the firetrucks, ambulance, squad cars, etc, following behind.  Sirens and horns fuuuuuull force.  Even after being warned, Samuel still ended up busting into tears and burying his sensitive little ears in Mark's lap.  Owen sat there wide-eyed and holding pretty tight to my legs while I covered his ears for him, but he kept it together just fine.  After that, everyone was ready to go candy chasing.  It took Sam a few tires to get the hang of it (ie, not break down into a fit every time a bigger kid got to the tootsie roll before him) but once Owen showed him a thing or two, everyone was having a blast.  The rest of the parade was really neat; very small-town, homey, and quaint.  Owen's favorite thing was the horses.  Samuel said his favorite thing was the monster trucks.  Have I told you how much I love where we live?!

May 27, 2011

Each year over Memorial Day weekend, Thomas the Train comes to the Heber Valley Railroad.  I've considered it several times since we've had kids, but we are always gone that weekend.  Not this year!  And since my brother, also Thomas, and his family were going to be around, I thought it was a perfect chance to go.  In all honesty, from the grown-up eyes it was ridiculously over-priced and not nearly as grand as expected.  We didn't get rained on, but the weather was crappy.  But the kids loooooved it, and we called the day over when almost all of them were breaking down into fits and falling apart at the seams.  So I'd say that meant we had a great time!!  Really, it was a cute and fun family day, and we all enjoyed ourselves. 

Samuel and Owen both recognized Thomas the Train as soon as we pulled in.  I was surprised at how tiny he was, but none of the kids seemed to be bothered by that.  Our first stop was lunch.  We got two soggy $5 hamburgers and a burnt-to-a-crisp $4 hot dog.  We totally felt like we were getting away with a steal when the lady let us have the Capri-Sun snack packs for just $1 (instead of the single Capri-Sun without a snack.)  While we swallowed down an insane amount of money, the kids were entertained by a magic show.  I commented that I could've done the same thing if I'd gone to the gag store and bought a few boxes of tricks, but the kids were still mesmerized and laughing it up.

After that, we got balloon "animals" while we waited for our turn to take a ride with Thomas.  I thought it was cute how Owen kept talking about his "monkey balloon" and "'a-nana balloon."  And Sam had a few sword fights with his cousins before boarding the train.  Both of the boys were pretty excited to be on a real train.  It was a lot of fun to watch them take it in.  They both were so good and sat pretty still, looking out the window of the sloooooow train.  Erik and I enjoyed pointing out yards that had dandelions way worse than ours.  At the end, the engineers came around with Junior Engineer certificates for all of the kids.

So once the ride was over, it was time to take in the other activities.  First up was a stop for tattoos. I was a bit surprised Sam wanted one on his face, and even more surprised that Owen wanted one at all.  But they both sat perfectly still and beemed at the results.  And they both cried the next night when Erik washed them off.  (Several days later, Owen still points to his arm and tells me, "Tommy Owie's arm all gone.")

Then we went and had a round of mini golf.  It was pretty packed in that small area, but again, that didn't stop anyone from having fun.  All of the kid-sized clubs were being used, but the boys weren't bothered one bit. 

Next up was meeting Sir Topham Hat.  Samuel saw him when we first came in and asked me several times when he would get to meet him.  The line was a bit long, and at this point, O was fading fast.  But Sam really wanted to meet him and say hello.  He watched several kids in front of us freak out and cry, so I think that added to his super cool and laid back approach to the whole thing.  Because Samuel is a BIG boy, afterall.  He walked up and shook Topham Hat's hand, "Nice to meet you sir," then posed cooly for his picture.  Like Sam meets celebrities all the time, right?

This was the point where the kids starting losing it fast.  Sam was so mad he didn't get to buy a toy from the gift tent (nope, not for $20) and O was way past his naptime.  Erik shared some cotton candy with the boys and played on the train tables while I rounded up the stamps we should've been collecting all along so we could get our "prize" before leaving.  It was just a fancy spinning paper wheel with Thomas and all of his friends, but again, the boys weren't disappointed.  We walked back to the car, did not opt for the long line to have our picture taken with Thomas, and instead chose to just wave goodbye on our way out.

It was really a great little adventure.  I love family days, and it's always so fun to do something different.  The boys spent the rest of the late afternoon at home playing Thomas and Friends on our train tracks at home while a Thomas movie played in the background, and Erik and I took a nap on the couch.  Yes yes, a very very good day.     

May 14, 2011

A guy in our neighborhood, who has a boy Sam’s age, spread the word about t-ball in Mapleton that he would be coaching. I jumped on that so fast. Samuel was beside himself giddy when we went out to get him a baseball mitt before his first practice. There are several other neighborhood friends of ours on the team, so that added to the excitement. Add in the fact that Samuel found out his team was the Giants and he could barely contain himself.

So the games go like this . . . each player on Team A gets a turn to hit the ball and run a base while all the players on Team B play the field. There are no offical outs, no score keeping, and lots of parents out on the field. Then Team A and Team B switch. Do that two more times, and the game is over. It’s a ton of fun and I think a great way to teach a bunch of 4 year olds the fundamentals of sportmanship and teamwork.

Sam is the one in the huge orange t-shirt and black hat.    He’s #2.

After a few weeks of practice, it was Mapleton Baseball Opening Day, complete with first games, parade, and hot dogs in the park. I dropped Sam and Erik off a few minutes before the 9:00 game and planned to scope out the parade set up when I remembered I was supposed to get balloons for our team! Dang it. I was so ticked at myself, and I ended up missing most of Samuel’s first game, but Erik caught me up and took some great videos, too. Our senstive hearted Sam has a really hard time when he isn’t the one to catch the ball, or if he misses it, or if he doesn’t tag a player out, or if he gets stuck with the pink helmet, or each time they do their team cheer that’s too loud and hurts his ears, or or or . . . ! But, he still loves it and looks forward to each practice and game, and I think it’s a really good learning experience for him. Go Giants!

Cutie little spectator.

“1-2-3 Goooooo GIANTS!”

Add Lambert in a few months, and we’re well on our way to having our own Briggs Fam team.

Yeah, you try to get ten 4 and 5 years olds riding in the back of a truck to all look and smile.

The parade.  Can you spy Sam in the bottom right?  That’s the back of his blonde little head in the corner.  Only pic we got of him in the actual parade.  I ran after the truck screaming and waving my arms trying to get his attention, just so he would know we were there.  I still don’t think he saw us.

November 12, 2010

Samuel totally lucked out with two full days of birthday celebrations.  We knew we would be traveling on the 13th, so we planned Friday as the big day.  Samuel woke up to decorations and a new dinosaur.  We spent the morning getting ready for his party, and playing with Auntie C who was such a doll to be there for the party and help me out.  At 11:00 the kids came a’knocking for Sam’s first official friend party.  He told me months ago he wanted a dinosaur birthday party, so I had a few prehistoric tricks up my sleeve.

As Sam’s friends arrived, they got to do cave paintings and play with dinosaurs.  Then we made some dino feet so we could go on our dinosaur adventure.  The kids had to go through an obstacle course, but stay on the “stones” so they wouldn’t fall into the “hot lava” and become “extinct.”  After that we played “Chomp Chomp, Gotcha!” which was our version of Duck Duck Goose, with a triceratops hand puppet to do the chomping.  We had a yummy lunch of dinosaur nuggets for the carnivores, veggies and ranch for the herbivores, and chex mix and goldfish for the omnivores.  We read some dino books, did some dino puzzles, colored some dino pictures.  And then it was time for a dino dig!  I tried to do it two at a time while the other kids kept reading, puzzling, or coloring, but that lasted maybe 37 seconds.  It got a little crazy, but oh so fun!  There were lots of baby dinosaurs hiding in the sand, but there was also a dinosaur skeleton for each kid to find.

By that point, I could no longer put off the presents!  Samuel was so so excited, but it was adorable to see that his little friends were just as excited as him.  After Samuel opened all the generous gifts, he handed out the thank you/goodie bags and dug into the dino cupcakes.  By 12:30, we said goodbye, put Owen down for a nap, and opened all the new boxes and bags of toys and games.  Smart Mommy that I am, I let Sam open one present from Mommy and Daddy . . . How to Train Your Dragon!  So we popped the movie in, Sam watched and played quietly and happily, and I crashed on the sofa.  It had been a ton of work, but so much fun and I enjoyed every single second of it.  So did the Samosaurus Rex.

I love Samuel’s age right now for his appreciation and understanding of what’s going on.  It’s so fun to make a big deal out of everything now that he’s definitely old enough to “get it.”  Halloween has been a lot of fun with Sam.  We’ve read lots of books, done so many different crafts, and talked about it tons.  One morning I bought spider webs while Samuel was at school.  He could barely wait for Owen’s nap time when I promised we could decorate.  And guess where Sam chose to decorate?  His room!  When Owen woke up, Sam and I were still going strong, now making spiders to add to the webs.  We all had so much fun talking about spooky Halloween things, deciding just where to put each web (I was hesitant to put them over the picture of Jesus, but Sam won), and naming all the fuzzy spiders.  Once our spooky masterpiece was complete, Samuel and I concocted a plan.  Sam called his Daddy, now on his way home from work.  “Dad!!!  You gotta come home quick, Mom is FREAKING OUT!  There are spiders all over my room.  A big mommy spider and lots of baby spiders.  Hurry home!”  He hung up, we high fived, and waited amidst fits of giggles.  Erik walked in the front door, and Sam was still totally playing it up.  Erik called from downstairs, “What do you want me to bring up to get them??”  He came walking up the stairs with a whole roll of paper towels.  Then Sam jumped out and shouted, “Surprise!”  And we all had a pretty good laugh.

Then this week for Family Home Evening, we carved pumpkins.  Once Sam saw what was inside, he had no desire to be involved.  He opted to color his pumpkin and poke holes in it.  But I think when he realized how into it Erik and I were getting, Sam jumped back on board.  He scooped all the gook out, chose and taped his pattern, poked and cut with minimal help, and TA DA!  Samuel’s first jack-o-lantern.

{Sidenote.  Fully aware I use the word “fun” at least 8 times every post.  I could use a thesaurus I guess.}

Lollipop! *POP* Buh-boom boom boom boom.

Samuel had his first lollipop today.  When I called to tell my mom she said, “He’s just now having his first one?!”  Yes, just now.  The sugar high and sticky mess has never been too appealing, lollipops aren’t something I keep close by, and the few times we get offered one at the bank I kindly refuse.  Today the nice gentleman didn’t give me a chance to refuse.  He just sent a couple our way in the vacuum-thingy-whatever-the-crap-it’s-called.  So, since Samuel had been a trooper all morning, and the bank was our last stop, I gave in.  I wish I had the camera the moment Sam stuck that sweet blue deliciousness into his little mouth.  “Oh boy!  Where have you been all my life, sugary blue raspberry Dum-Dum?!”  We came home and Samuel did not let that thing go.  Even when he wasn’t sucking on it, his mouth was hanging open just waiting for more.  While he chilled with Curious George, Sam was nice enough to share a couple licks with his dinosaur.  What a good boy.

Humor me and all the pictures of a single lollipop.  I couldn’t choose just a couple, I loved them all.