Happy Birthday Melinda, Brad, and America!

Daddy and Emerson

Grandpa J and Emerson

"What the...I have feet!?"

Emerson's little Crocs

Emerson being patriotic with his little flag

Emerson at the parade

Aunt Ashley and Emerson

Scott, Cousin Brett, and Melinda acting tough

Ben and Melinda at fireworks

I love the Fourth of July. I also love the third of July cuz it's my birthday. Hooray! I'm finally 22! You know the fireworks and parade? They used to be for me--that is, until I was 6 years old and we were lighting fireworks at 9:00 p.m. and my mom went into labor with Brad. He just HAD to come and steal it all away. (Just kidding Brad, I love ya and I would never send you back.) I still occasionally get a parade and fireworks on my birthday when the 4th is on a Sunday...so it's all good. I consistently got fireworks on my birthday when we lived in Logan because they always do the fireworks at Romney Stadium on the 3rd.
During the parade, it turned out that Brad was arguably our biggest asset as far as candy goes. One, because he went early with Daddy-o to save us places, and two because all the teenage girls throwing candy have crushes on him.
Another great thing that happened during the parade was Emerson discovered his feet! It was hilarious to watch him stare at his feet, rotate his ankles, and smile.
After the parade, Brad opened his presents and later we went to a barbeque at the Healys' house. Then we headed over to the McMullins' for another barbeque, and then went back to Murray to watch the fireworks on the rugby field with everyone. It was weird to talk with Scott and Ashley and realize that next year, we'll all most likely not be spending the 4th in Utah. But we really enjoyed spending the 4th with our families for the last time in awhile.

Rindlisbacher Reunion with Legs to Match

Emerson getting ready for his first swim

My handsome boys

Emerson's first dip (Isn't Ben's farmers tan cute?)

"Hey! This is just like a giant bath! I LOVE the bath! I must love swimming too!"

Who knew getting a baby ready to go swimming took so much preparation? They need a swim diaper AND waterproof pants, and I guess they don't HAVE to have a swimsuit, but Emerson does because Ben went with me to Babies 'R' Us (he'll deny it if you ask him though) and saw this little Elmo swimsuit and just had to buy it for him.

Every year the Rindlisbacher family has a reunion at the Spanish Fork Swim Park during the summer. We swim for about an hour and this is followed by a big pot luck barbeque. We thought it would be fun to take Emerson swimming at the reunion because he has fat (but adorable) legs to match.
This family is a big family (both in numbers and stature), and it's pretty safe to say that about 90% of them should not be seen in bathing suits. This reunion is famous among the Christensens because of what we call the "Rindlisbacher legs". R-Legs first entail cankles and are then topped off with cellulite that has cellulite. Nice image, eh? Now I'm certainly not one to condemn those with cellulite, because I might admit that I have more than I could ever want.
The reunion was fun, I only got mildly sunburned by good ole' Mr. Sun, and the best part was that we were some of the first 50 in line so there was still ketchup to go on our hot dogs and hamburgers. Small victory, but worth it none the less.

S'more fun pics of Little E

Salt Lake Bees Game

Ok, I know I'm a total blog slacker, and these pictures are kind of old, but we had lots of fun at the Bees game and Emerson looked really cute in his baseball outfit so I still wanted to post them. Yipee.

Hogle Zoo Adventure

Putting sunscreen on Emerson's face

Waiting for the choo-choo

On the choo-choo

Emerson giving a good nostril flare for the camera while riding the train

The traditional lion drinking fountain picture

Yes, my mom still had to take one of me :)

The traditional gorilla picture

Your hand is almost there, Emerson! Maybe you should learn to spread out your fingers first...

Grandma J and Emerson looking at the zebras

Mommy and Emerson looking at the elephants

Emerson on the carousel

Emerson's cool zoo hat and zoo-appropriate attire

Emerson with his zoo souvenirs (he loves his friend Tiger)

Emerson and all the girls got to have a fun day going out to breakfast at Ruth's Diner and then at the Hogle Zoo. Emerson actually didn't really care about anything obviously, but it was still fun to take him and the girls all had a fun time. And yes, the zoo was still a million degrees--just like everyone remembers it.

Itsy Bitsy Bouncer

Emerson's favorite accessory is his Itsy Bitsy Bouncer. It has little hanging spiders that you can pull to play music--specifically the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song. (I'd pretty much be terrified of the spiders except they're cheerfully colored, have no hair, have unrealistically rounded legs, big cartoon eyes, and smiles...they're actually deceivingly friendly looking.) Emerson thinks these spiders are his friends. He likes to smile and coo at them. He certainly didn't gain his love of spiders from his mommy, but I guess it's okay he thinks they're his friends because maybe it will help him and me later in life. I hate killing spiders! If I get brave enough I get a huge wad of toilet paper and/or a shoe to smash it and then I flush it down the toilet.

The bouncer has this awesome vibrator setting that lulls him right to sleep. He just loves his bouncer. It's the next best thing after Mom or Dad or Grandma J or Grandpa J or Uncle Scott or Aunt Ashley or Uncle Brad or Aunt Natalie or Aunt Stephanie. You can tell that Emerson is well-loved at our house and he really doesn't spend too much time in that beloved bouncer.:)

Money, Money, Money!

I just wanted to post these because they're funny. Apparently money makes Emerson really really happy.

Photo Shoot

Emerson had his picture taken by Sami Stanton, my friend from high school. She did such a great job! I'm excited to see the rest of the pictures. Click here to go to her website. (You can look at Emerson's preview if you would like.) She does excellent work and I highly recommend her!

Emerson's Girlfriend

Binky Buddies

Here Sadie is putting the moves on Emerson. Too bad he doesn't even know he has hands yet.

She's going in for the kill....

Denied! (But not because Emerson doesn't like her--he just flails sometimes.)

Our pudgy little man

Emerson had a special friend come visit him from Logan. Our bestest friends the Humpherys came down from Logan and visited us the minute we got home from Richfield! We were excited to reunite Emerson and Sadie. Sadie is such a petite, cute little thing. Emerson is 2 months younger than her and he outweighs her by about a pound. It's crazy though because Sadie can hold things and is able to use her hands, and Emerson is still blissfully unaware that he has said tools, so he just sort of moves them randomly, sometimes knocking out friend binky and smacking himself in the face. (He's still cute though. I'll give him a couple more months.) Sadie has purposeful movements and it kinda freaked me out because she's Emerson's size and he has not mastered purposeful movements at all. It was just hard to wrap my mind around the fact that she's older by a few months even though they're the same size. I love my chunky little guy. It was so great to see the Humpherys. We miss you guys! We miss watching movies and making treats and sitting around! ;)