It wasn't long after getting home from Utah that we started to notice Emmy breaking out a little on her face. We didn't think a lot of it, but it kept getting worse. After some research and a trip to the doctor, we found out she had contracted a strand of Hand Foot Mouth Disease. She had bad sores around and in her mouth. Poor baby. Mostly she was just zapped of energy and we could tell her mouth hurt her.
She recovered after about 10 days, thanks in part to her searching for remedies under the sink in our bathroom.
When she couldn't find what she was looking for, it was back to watching cartoons.
Watching cartoons always made me feel better when I was sick as a kid. Emmy has fully recovered, by the way.
Fresh off our Christmas trip to Wyoming, we landed in Utah to bring in the New Year and to meet the newest member of the family, just five days old. Cohen Jacob Tarabilda was born the day after Christmas, and the family was gathering in Utah to meet him. He is already a chunky blond boy. It was such a blast from the past to be around a newborn again. He is a pretty cute kid.
But look at this girl! Grandma Buzz is always good about taking lots of pictures, and she snapped this beauty. It is my absolute favorite picture of Emmy. She just looks so precious. Those eyes. Those cheeks. Those lips. My heart...
Emmy loved getting to know her new baby cousin. Buzz rented out the Alumni House on 500 N. for all of us to stay in. It was filled with BYU memorabilia, had enough rooms for everyone, and provided a place for us to all be together. When Cohen wasn't with his momma, we would take turns holding him. It was what we looked forward to during the day. Emmy and I took some time right when we woke up in the morning to get some bonding time in.
Here is a video of Emmy trying to show some affection to Cohen. She is still learning how to be gentle.
Cohen is quite a bit different than Emmy was. He is incredibly active. I just remember Emmy melting into me when I held her. Cohen is constantly moving his arms and legs around, stiffening up and then relaxing every so often. It felt like he was always trying to break free of his swaddle, or my arms when I held him. He is probably going to be a freak athlete. Cory and I both enjoyed Uncle and Aunt duties.
Like I said, Emmy loved Cohen, but don't think she let people off the hook from giving her attention. She made sure Uncle Jake still gave her bites of his dinner. Buzz made her famous enchiladas, and had plenty of treats, cookies, and assorted gourmet hot chocolate flavors to choose from. There is something satisfying about everyone having a cup of hot chocolate together at the end of the day, when you know it is super cold and dark outside. We also watched movies, played Heads Up! and did puzzles.
In addition to hot chocolate parties, we were also having some pretty sick dance parties. Cohen even joined in and displayed some impressive moves.
Aside from hanging together at the house, we also got reacquainted with Provo. It was my first time back since leaving 18 months ago. Cory had been back already, though. I wanted to head back to BYU campus and take a look around. It seemed like I was at BYU for such a long time, and at the end I was so ready to leave. Coming back after all this time, though, made me really miss it. All the nostalgic feels were getting to me. We checked out the new Life Sciences Building. I was in Life Sciences, but this building wasn't finished until I left. It is massive and super impressive. I had a very strange desire to walk around and figure out where I which parts of the building I would go to if I was still a student. Also, I got a kick out of seeing all of my professors' names on the directory. Cory was patient with me, but eventually I had to leave my nostalgic fantasy world.
We also took Emmy to the Wilk to walk around the bookstore, and we got a picture with Cosmo at The Wall.
We also headed to Provo Town Center to walk around the mall. Emmy likes doing that, and it is a warm place to walk around and get the blood pumping. Right when we walked in, we saw some motorized animal scooters and Cory suggested that I take Emmy on a ride around the mall. I have to admit that I thought it would have been fun even without Emmy, but I let her tag along.
If you watch the video closely, you can see Emmy's facial reactions to riding around on our giraffe.
One of the nights, Jake and I caught a BYU basketball game at the Marriott Center. They have a huge new video scoreboard. BYU won and we saw Kyle Collinsworth record a triple-double, so it was a great game to go to. It was nice of the girls to stay home with the babes so we could go to the game. A different day we tried to return to favor by watching the kids while Buzz, Anna, and Cory all went to see the new Star Wars movie. I will never be able to do as much for Emmy as Cory does, but I think it is alright for Cory to leave us to fend for ourselves every once in a while. Mostly, Emmy took a nap while Jake, Cohen, and I watched a documentary on Jeremy Lin...so it was super strenuous.
We loved our time in Utah with family. Buzz always puts a lot of thought into bringing us all together. She has two grand-babies now! I won't speak for Cohen, but we know Emmy always loves her special time with Grandma.
Of course, congratulations to Jake and Anna. Cohen is just awesome. They were also such troopers for staying in that house with the rest of the family. Being parents for the first time and not even being in your home for the first weeks of your baby's life is not ideal, but they never complained. We are excited to see Emmy and Cohen grow up together.
Here is proof that Cory was there during the trip! We need to get some more pictures from Buzz that have Cory in them! All the time with family has been awesome, but after three weeks of being away from home, it was time to head back to Memphis. Emmy was very excited when we told her we were going back on a plane. We won't show her reaction of when we explained that meant we had to leave Cohen.
Considering the six week vacation I get from school at the University of Memphis, and the realization Cory and I had that I will never again have this much vacation time around the holidays until I retire, we decided to go on a super vacation. We decided to leave Memphis for three weeks and spend the first half in Wyoming with my family, and the second half with Cory's family in Provo. Anna is due to have her baby boy on the 26th, so the family is congregating in Utah. We actually flew to Utah and stayed a day before we headed up to Wyoming. Seeing Anna at the end of her pregnancy reminded me of Cory right before Emmy was born. It is such an exciting, though noticeably uncomfortable time.
Anyway, a couple of days before we left the cinematic event of the decade occurred. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens came out in theaters. We waited until we got to Wyoming to see it. I avoided the internet for the few days to make sure I didn't see any spoilers. We got off the plane, ate a late lunch, and then I sat with my family without any electronics on until we left for the theater. It was awesome. Merry Christmas to me.
Christmas Eve came and we kept to tradition and ate dinner at the Rib & Chop House in Cody. It was Emmy's first time and she loved it.
It was a cold night, and I have to say that I had gotten used to the mild Memphis winter weather. The snow on the ground and bite in the air does make it feel more like Christmas, though.
When we got home we all opened one present. Our pajamas! We changed and got a family picture. Emmy's stocking was also the newest to join the bunch on the mantle, down at the very end. I think we are a pretty cute family!
Every year my dad also hides a fake pickle somewhere on the tree in the family room for the grandkids to find. It was Emmy's first year participating, but Rhiannon won. She clearly was disappointed in the outcome.
I think it is an understatement to say that Cory and I were excited for Christmas morning. Emmy's first Christmas will always be special, but she is just so much more interactive now. I suspect that next year will be even more exciting, but this year was so fun because she was walking, and is much more aware of what is happening. We recorded her coming out on Christmas morning and her reactions to her presents.
So fun! You might remember our video from last year and me really wanting Emmy to at least grab some wrapping and tear it off her presents, but she couldn't really do it. This year she had no problem. It was mainly a challenge to keep her interested in opening all of her presents. As soon as she opened one, she was content to just read it or play with it, with no care for the rest of the gifts under the tree.
The routine consisted of Emmy sitting in my lap while opening the present. Then taking the opened gift over to Mommy for approval and further assistance to show her how to use whatever it was she had received.
Later in the afternoon, Grandma Wilma came over to eat dinner and spend the evening with us. My parents recently moved her up closer to them since my dad has a very close relationship with the care center. She now is just a two minute drive from them, but because of her limited mobility, and the fact that my parents' house is not wheelchair accessible, she had not been over to the house, yet. She made it over for Christmas, though, and it was great to spend part of the day with her.
The day after Christmas Anna had her baby boy! They named him Cohen. We couldn't wait to meet him and introduce him to Emmy.
On Sunday, Mom, Dad, Lacey, and I sang a special musical number, "Baby, What You Goin' To Be", in Grandma's church service at the care center. Of course Grandma was crying before we even started singing a note. Then she was was really crying once we were in the middle and near the end. It must have really been hurting her ears. We also sang in Sacrament Meeting earlier that morning.
We still had a few days before heading back to Utah, so we spent them playing games, watching movies, visiting Wilma, and keeping warm! We discovered that Emmy really likes Adele, and loves singing along with Gigi Page.
One day we loaded up in the car and drove to Red Lodge, Montana. Emmy's first time in Montana! It is a little town that has a couple of neat stores to walk through. The best, though, was the candy emporium. Barrels and crates filled with every type of candy, modern and retro, you could think of were in this place. Emmy was so curious and wanted to grab at everything.
All the excitement at the candy emporium really took it out of Emmy. She was having a hard time sleeping unless she was snuggled up with Mommy.
Uncle Chris had recently started a new job at a restaurant in town that had just opened up. He created a lot of the menu and manages the kitchen. He basically runs the whole operation, so we had to go down and try it out. I was a fan of the pizza.
Before leaving back to Utah, we visited Wilma one more time. We made sure to get a 4 generations picture, too.
We loved our time in Wyoming. I am obviously biased, but I love Christmas at home. Some may think that my parents can be over the top with the decorating and the festivities, and I would agree. Also, I love it. Next stop: Utah! To welcome the New Year!
We are going to be visiting family for the holidays, so today was our last Sunday in Memphis before Christmas. Therefore, Emmy wore her Christmas dress, and she is just about the cutest thing ever.
She is perfecting her walking ability, and kept me moving throughout the building.
It was a little bit harder to walk on the smooth gym floor, so she sat down and played with her best friend Cameron Houston, who was in a Christmas dress of her own.
We just wanted to share the cuteness with everyone!
My school semester is officially over, which means I only have one left. I already have a job when I graduate. My six-week long vacation just started, and Christmas is in two weeks. Life is pretty good right now! At Church we had our Christmas activity. The theme was "Journey Back to Bethlehem." The gym was transformed into the Bethlehem Market, and upon entering, we gave some canned food as our tax. We were given some fake money and could spend it around the market on food. Then we watched a reenactment of the Nativity. Emmy loved watching all the kids dressed as angels. The same night we headed to mid-town to my MHA holiday party. Emmy was pretty popular there, as well.
The next night we had another party to go to. It was an ugly Christmas sweater party at our friends', the Houston's house. We found some pretty good sweaters at Goodwill. Mine was actually a woman's sweater, but it worked. We ended up getting a babysitter for Emmy. She was not happy about it!
She is actually on the floor crying because Mommy was upstairs getting ready, and she wasn't allowed to be up there, too. At one point, I also needed to finish getting ready, so I ran upstairs and left Emmy to play with her toys. Literally less than five minutes later, we came down to find this:
Look at the guilt in her eyes. Emmy somehow found a Hershey's kiss, unwrapped it, and got it all over her face, the couch, and the carpet. I have no idea how one kiss could produce so much chocolate smear. We were already late, but we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. She keeps us laughing with her antics. It was her first chocolate of the Christmas season, and was clearly eaten with whimsical child-like abandon.
We had a great time at the party. We played some fun games, ate some good food, exchanged white elephant gifts (selfie sticks were popular) and Cory even won the ugly sweater contest. Ironically, you cannot see her sweater in the only picture we took (with the selfie stick). You can see my woman's sweater, however. Thanks to the Houstons for hosting all of us!
I was at work today when I got a text message from Cory with a picture attached. She said something to the effect of "This just happened." What!?!?!?! She chopped off all her hair! The craziest thing is that she did it herself. Later, she explained to me that she just was looking in the mirror and decided to do it. I couldn't believe she did such a great job. She was always one hot mama, but now she might be promoted to one hott mama. I added a "t".
Emmy has been loving her new car seat! It is super plush and comfy. This morning we all woke up early to head downtown. We volunteered with some of Dad's co-workers at the St. Jude Marathon! It was very cold outside, but we were all bundled up.
One of the water stations along the route was right outside the hospital Dad works at. Dad and two other students in his MHA program that intern at the hospital handed out as much water as they could. We ran out of water, so we just held up encouraging signs and cheered the runners on!
We are glad we could volunteer for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!
Another major milestone has occurred at the Gilmore house! Emmy has officially taken her first steps, without aid. She is almost 14 months old, and we have been wondering when she would pop up and start walking. We know quite a few kids that are younger than Emmy and already walking. We are convinced that she was so chubby she couldn't figure out her center of gravity until now. She has been pulling herself up on her feet for months, using the couch, furniture, walls, etc. to help her walk along, but when she runs out of support, she can't keep going.
We were at the mall earlier today, letting Emmy crawl around the play area. She always likes being there and observing all the kids running around. The way the play structures are laid out, and depending on where she crawls, we sometimes lose sight of Emmy. So Cory and I were sitting and watching, when she crawled around the other side of the little house with a slide. She likes going over there to watch kids slide down. All of a sudden, I looked over and I could see her head bobbing around. The only way that would be possible is if she was standing up, but I knew there wasn't anything over there for her to lean against, so my brain connected the dots and I shouted to Cory, "She's walking!" By the time we shot up and got over there she had already sat back down, so we didn't actually see her taking steps.
When we got home we decided to put her to the test and practice. We took a little video showing her walking across the room!
This year for Thanksgiving we decided to make the trip down to Austin to spend it with Cory's Dad's side of the family. We have never really spent a holiday with them, and we are within a day's drive of Austin. From Memphis it was about a 10 hour drive. We were concerned Emmy wouldn't be up for that, so we left home at about 10 pm and drove through the night so she could sleep. She slept a good bit of the drive, but was awake for the last 3 hours or so. The last hour and a half were brutal. Cory could not console her no matter what we tried. It was so sad, but we were so close, and exhausted. Cory barely slept, and I drove the whole way. When we finally made it, it was nice to have other people who could entertain Emmy while we recovered.
I didn't grow up with brothers, so it is always nice to visit Austin and have Logan want to play basketball with me, or play Mario Party with Davis and Noah. Even on my zero hours of sleep I was ready to hoop it up. Emmy watched Daddy and Uncle Buckets play for a while. I should have worn shorts...
The morning we got there Davis got some important mail. He received his official acceptance to the University of Texas--Dallas. If he decided to go there, we can have him over for some family dinners!
Later in the afternoon, after a quick nap and shower, we all had a fun time playing at the park across the street. Grandpa pushed Emmy in the swings and played on the jungle gym with her. She isn't quite comfortable going down slides face-forward legs-first by herself, yet, but she will go down backwards feet first on her belly.
While Grandpa and Mimi K kept Emmy entertained, the rest of us got in touch with our inner-child. Cory, Davis, and Logan all rode some horses while I dig some deep digging in the sand. It was a blast.
You may remember that last year, on Emmy's first Thanksgiving, we ran/walked a 5k with her and she won an award for being the youngest racer. It just so happened that Cory's family participates in the Shady Hollow Turkey Trot every year on Thanksgiving, so we could keep the very new tradition of a Thanksgiving 5k alive! We woke up on Turkey Day and put on our running shoes. Cory and I ran/walked while pushing Emmy in the stroller. Here are the Schiess/Gilmore family racers, post-finish.
We spent the rest of the day watching parts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the National Dog Show. I love watching the dog show. Then we sat around the dinner table and each expressed what we were grateful for before chowing down on Thanksgiving dinner. It was definitely a successful holiday.
Of course, the next day was Black Friday, and Cory and I thought about making some purchases. We have never braved the crowds, but had looked into buying a television for our bedroom. We thought we would go to Sam's Club or Best Buy to snag one. Well, Cory decided to check one last time online for the prices and discovered that for the T.V. we wanted, we didn't have to go into the store. We could get the discounted price and free shipping ordering it online. Deal. That's what we did.
Later, to get out of the house, we thought we would go to Buy Buy Baby and browse around. Little did we know, they were also having a Black Friday sale, and there were no crowds. We remembered how terrible the car ride was with Emmy, and quickly decided that we should capitalize and get a forward facing car-seat. Behold, Emmy's new car throne. It is huge and cushy.
When we actually got it home, Emmy was more interested in playing in the box. She made it her own little clubhouse.
With our trip coming to an end, Cory and I decided that we would try to go on a date while we had the free baby-sitting. We got Emmy in her jammies and handed her over to her uncles' care while we were out.
We decided to head over to Gourdough's, which is a place in Austin that uses donuts in all of their dishes. I didn't need much convincing when Cory brought it up. They had donut burgers, donut sandwiches, etc. We decided to just go with some classic dessert donuts, but what came out were large, gourmet masterpieces. It was awesome. The perfect way to cap off our trip to Austin.
We loaded up the next morning and headed back to Memphis. We drove through Dallas and scoped out our future hometown a bit, but mostly we were just trying to get back to Tennessee ASAP. Emmy loved her car seat, but not 10 hours worth.
After all of the travelling for my interviews, and my girls being in Utah for a week, it was nice for all of us to be home a relax for a couple of weeks. With the recent news that we were going to be moving to Dallas, it set in that meant we were leaving Memphis. We decided to start a Memphis Bucket List and try and hit some local favorites every once in a while. Tonight was Muddy's Bake Shop, said to have amazing cupcakes.
Emmy approved. She usually does approve of anything sweet.
While Daddy was gone for the week interviewing with hospitals, Mommy and I went to visit Aunt Anna and Uncle Jake in Provo. I had a great time. Mommy pushed me around BYU in the stroller , and I got to see where Mommy and Daddy met and went to college. We got to eat lunch in the Cougareat!
It was so fun to see Aunt Anna and hear Mommy talking with her about my new cousin on the way. My face says it all: I am ecstatic!
We also went to watch Uncle Jake's intramural game, but it was so cold outside! We finished off the day with some Brick Oven pizza. I tried to smile for the camera, but got a little distracted when someone said we were getting free root beer!
