School Girl Emma

So, we took Emma to get her picture taken at my school on picture day. She looks so grown up! I can't believe she's almost 3. Man time flies! :)

Some of my favorite things...

These are some of Emma's latest utterances...I just love them!

Email & Oatmeal...she gets those two words mixed up. When we're eating in the mornings, she says things like, "Mmmm, I love email!". Then when I'm working on the computer, she asks me, "Are you writing oatmeal?

"And it came to pass..." Shane and I have never been very good at consistent scripture study together, but we have been very successful for the first time as we've been reading together consistently for the past month. I totally thought Emma was too young to even notice or listen, but she loves getting out her scriptures with us (the BOM picture kind), and looks at all the pictures while we read. Last night, she was looking through her book before bed, and she began to read to herself..."And it came to pass...one big tub, soap all over...scrub, scrub, scrub." She combined a phrase from one of her other favorite books. Anyway, I just was amazed that she has connected that phrase with reading the scriptures, and I love that she tagged it on with the tub line. So cute. Anyway, her brilliance amazes me. :)

The Puyallup Fair

I have always loved the fair, I love watching all the people, the yummy food, all the animals, and I love the hobby shops and gadgets. But today, going with Emma, I think I fell in love with fair again through her eyes. She had so much fun today! She rode rides, she ate food! She saw the great big horses! We skipped naptime, but Emma still did great. Of course it was raining all day, but we just hiked around with our umbrellas and got soaked. It was a wonderful day. Ah...Seattle.

Our blog going private..

I love blogging, and feel that I can keep in touch with so many people, but Shane and I have become concerned about our privacy and all the pictures of Emma we are posting. So, starting next week we will be changing out blog to private. I still want friends and family to have access, so if you are interested in reading our blog, send me an email at therecklings(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll add you to our permission list. I still want to stay in touch! I just want to make sure that only those that I know and love are reading, and not just anyone.

We've had some devastating things happen lately in our extended family that is causing us to just be more protective of Emma. If any of you saw Oprah today (I generally don't watch Oprah, and am only occasionally a fan), but today her show was on sexual predators, and was absolutely worth watching, while extremely difficult and upsetting to watch.

There is a Senate bill (Senate Bill 1738--click here for a little background) that needs to be passed (by September 26th) called "Protect Our Children", that will fund the ability to go after more predators early on. The funding will be able to save more children, and track down those that are abusers. You need to write your Senators, and you can click this link which makes it really easy to do so. You can look up your Senators, and then copy and paste the email over (I've pasted it below), or write one of your own. It won't take long. I promise it's worth it!

I have never heard anything more upsetting in my entire life, than hearing a child that I love explain in his own words the abuse that he had been through. It is something that I will never forget, and if only we could have known earlier, we could have stopped so much pain. Sorry, for the depressing post, but please take a moment to write your Senators. It will change lives!

This is Bi-Partisan, nothing to do with Republican or Democrat...just a way to help save children who are suffering unspeakable things.

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Dear Senator:

I know that you believe, like I do, that we must do everything possible to protect children from sexual predators. That is why I am asking for your help.

Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.

As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the PROTECT Our Children Act (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch). This bipartisan legislation passed the House 415-2, but it is now the victim of petty partisan politics.

Now that we know where these children are and how to protect them, there is no excuse for the Senate to fail to take action this session.

(Your name here)

Stake Conference

Well, we just finished with a fantastic weekend. Our stake conference was amazing this time around. This year, they decided to ditch the Saturday night adult session of conference, and had a Wild West BBQ for four hours last night for the entire stake, their families and friends. They had blow up toys, balloons, face painting, live music (from stake members) dancing, and lots of games. It was such a fun time, and such a great way to bond as a stake. Then today we had a huge 10:00 session this morning (instead of breaking it up into two groups), and then we had an adult session this afternoon. It really was wonderful. I love having weekend that refocus priorities in life. The big themes this weekend were the Scriptures and the Savior's Atonement. And let me say that the music was AMAZING! You know sometimes, when you swear the choir is singing and it can't just be them? Well that was today. Anyway, a great weekend. I feel ready for the week to start tomorrow.

PS, we had our first fully potty trained day with Emma today. She wore her big girl undies all day today, at church, and even through nap. Go EMMA! :) I'm so happy.

My gardening helper...

Woo-hoo!

Just had to share, I sold my first two items on etsy today. :) One set of bows and one tutu set. I'm so excited! :)

Emma, the Supermodel

So, here are my first two tutu outfits that I made today. :) They are on my etsy shop. I still haven't sold anything there, but it sure is fun to pretend! I haven't lost interest in the bows I've been making lately, and I still love doing that. I'm loving these new tutus, I have a bunch of tulle on order in lots of colors. Isn't Emma a great model! :) She was a good sport!

Tutus...

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? Click here to see this girls ETSY shop. ADORABLE! I'm going to try and make some Christmas versions. AJ and I are going to do a Christmas craft fair around here. Too cute for words. I wish I had unlimited funds, I'd buy Emma one of each of these costumes!

Labor Day hike

We went hiking today with Emma and my family. It was a beautiful day, and very relaxing. It's been a crazy month, and it was nice to be outside and enjoy how beautiful it was together. We found this lake, and Emma could've stayed there all day throwing rocks in the water. The water was so clear and pristine. It was very fun, and even better, Emma was so tired after the long day, she went to bed early tonight. Ahhhh...relaxing.