Yet Another Birthday Party

On Emma's actual birthday, we celebrated down at Grandpa Tom and Grandma Terry's house.

You've got to love 2 toddlers trying to give each other a hug, especially when Emma is on her knees.

Patiently waiting her turn to use the potty.

"Break"

Even though we had this past week off, we were busy, as usual.

Andy took Emma to the Museum of Natural History one day. It was more for Andy than Emma, but she still had a great time...

...using a magnifying glass

...calling the wolf "Cooper"

...looking at the reptiles

...and other animals

She really enjoyed watching all of school groups that were there, too.

We read books at the dinner table...

We met Emma's friend at Monkey Mountain for an hour of fun...

Phew!

Busy Weekend!

What a fun weekend...and it's only Sunday! On Friday, we went to our friends' (Maggie and Chad's) house to celebrate the weekend and our upcoming break. (We have next week off---it's a winter break but the locals call it ski week.) Maggie and Chad have a daughter, Olive, who is just a week younger than Emma. They also go to daycare together.

On Saturday, after Andy got in a little skiing, we went to Emma's friend's 2nd birthday party.

Andy and Chad, skiing in Summit Park.

Aww...hugs! Happy Birthday, Addison!

playing with Avila

making a mess in Addison's toy room

playing with Addison's new drum set

Today, we are off to an engagement party for our friends, Jensen and Amy.

Good News! (and What Emma's Been Up to Lately)

Phew! It has been busy and crazy around the Tullis household these past few weeks. Back in January, I started the application process for the Instructional Design and Educational Technology M.Ed. program at the University of Utah. What a process! My goal was to have everything submitted by the end of January. Done! I had to take the GRE. (Yuck!) Done. In the end, I have been admitted into the program and I go back to school in the fall!!!!! I will be taking 2 classes/week. Each class goes from 5-8 p.m. The program lasts 5 semesters (with one being a summer session). I am really excited about this opportunity, and even more excited to be able to utilize it in my classroom/day-to-day work.

We also had parent/teacher conferences this past week. We both had some pretty late nights but do look forward to our week off soon. We don't have any plans to go anywhere...hopefully, just get things done around the house and RELAX.

Now, let's get to the most important part--Emma.

I can't remember what we were making here, but she loves to help in the kitchen.

She has been using the potty lately. She's not consistent, but it's a start.

eating like a big girl

We had the 5th grade circus yesterday. Andy always juggles in the pre-show.

Andy and Emma went to the Daddy/Daughter dance at school last night.

This is what Emma likes to do on weekend mornings--practice her writing.

My Old Treasures Are Now Emma's Treasures

My mom sent us a box of my old things--things I played with when I was a little girl. She also enclosed a few new things.

She made Emma's baby some clothes. Here, Emma was trying to get on her pajamas. My uncle made the cradle many, many years ago.

She fed her baby some juice and...

milk.

She gave her a binky and...

put her to bed. Emma's great grandma made the cute little quilt. Night! Night!

Sundance 2012

Even though we didn't get any tickets to films this year, it's always fun to walk Main Street and do some people watching. On Friday night, a friend and I went to the Music Cafe.

It's always fun to feel official! This is what got us into the Music Cafe.

We saw Josh Kelley perform. (He is married to Katherine Heigl.) He sings country, which I don't usually listen to, but it's still fun to watch performers live.

I took my friend, Dawn, to Main Street on Saturday. It was a snowy, snowy day, but still fun to people watch. We saw Richard Gere and we think we saw Clay Aiken. It was either him or the scary guy from Lost.

Playing Mommy

Emma absolutely loves her new baby doll from Grandma Sherry. It cries and makes noises when you give her a bottle. Although Emma takes her clothes off most of the time, she is a good Mama to her baby doll.

Go Badgers!

Okay, even though they lost the Rose Bowl (great game, though) we still support our Badgers...

I also will be posting some photos of Emma playing with all of her fun Christmas gifts she received. She loves her cleaning set from Aunt Tina.

Christmas Afternoon 2011

We had so much excitement on Christmas Day that I broke the posts into 2 parts: afternoon and morning.

We spent Christmas afternoon/evening at Uncle Jim and Aunt Robin's house. I brought along some fun games for all to play...

Who can pull out all of their tissues first?

Who can shake out all 10 jingle bells first?

Who can get their puffball to stick to their nose first (with the help of vaseline)?

Who can fan their ornament (using a gift box) to the finish line first?

Of course, it wouldn't be Christmas at the Whitneys without a little Beatles wii.

Another Ringo Starr in the making?

helping me sing some lyrics