David and Melissa

Announcing...Ella Rose!

2012-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 18th, 2012 at 8:59 a.m. Ella Rose Hunsaker joined our family!! She weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. We are so excited to have her here! Here are some pictures and commentary on the crazy and wonderful days that have followed since her arrival.

Ella Rose came 9 days early! Here's a little about the labor: Melissa began having contractions the evening of the 17th, but painful contractions didn't start until 5:30 a.m. the morning of the 18th. She labored at home for a few hours while Dave got things packed and dressed Emily and took her to the neighbors' home. We finally went to the hospital at 8:15 a.m. We thought we had plenty of time, but we arrived at the hospital at about 8:45 and Ella was born less than 10 minutes after we got to the delivery room! She was fast! Melissa did the whole thing natural again, and she was a champion!

She has long dark hair and beautiful eyes. Unfortunately, a few hours after she was born the doctors began to suspect that she had an infection. That's when the story took a turn we weren't expecting.

Ella spent 5 days at the hospital. She was in the NICU the whole time, tethered to machines by at least 5 different lines. Here's a picture of her bed with the fun welcome signs the nurses made for her.

Day 1

They suspected Ella had an infection and took a blood sample to test. They started her on antibiotics.

Lots of family came that night to congratulate us and see Ella! Emily got to come too, and we were so glad to see her.

Emily and the family got to wave through the window at Ella. Emily was SO excited.

Day 2
The blood tests came back positive--Ella had an infection. They told us we would be in the hospital for at least 10 days. They also drew some spinal fluid to see whether the infection had spread to her brain. Those results were good--no infection in the brain. The doctors decided if Ella continued to do well, we could bring her home in a few days and continue treatment here.

Day 3Ella got a PICC Line--a tube that goes through her arm up almost to her heart. It's like a more permanent type of IV. We (Melissa and Dave) were released from the hospital, but we decided to board at the hospital for a few more nights until we could take Ella home.

Day 4

Ella continued to eat well and show good signs. The second blood sample (from Day 2) came back negative, indicating that the infection was probably gone.

Day 5

Ella was well enough to come home with her PICC Line, but the doctors thought it would be easier to make the transition to home care on a week day than a week end. So we stayed one more night in the hospital.

Bringing Ella home...

On Day 6 we got to bring our Ella home! She had a PICC Line in her right arm, so we weren't able to put her clothes on all the way. You can see her line in the picture above. We were so excited to bring her home!...and to be home with Emily finally!

Here's Ella's setup at home.

Emily LOVES Ella. Of course there's a transition, but she's doing well and loves to see the baby, even though it's usually from a distance. Ella is cuter and cuter every day, and we're so glad to be home with our two little girls.

The PICC Line only had to be in for a few more days, and it's finally over! We were so excited to get it out. Now we have our girl line-free. It has definitely been an adventure, but we saw so many miracles along the way and we feel very blessed.

January

2012-01-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

January 2012 has arrived! AFTER doing goals and fortunes for 2012, we finally had our own Christmas as a family! Read on to hear about it...

New Year's Day was baby Charlotte's baby blessing. It was wonderful to get together with everyone on New Year's Day and celebrate her birth!

That night we had our Christmas Eve. Dave's family has a tradition where the dad rocks all of the kids on Christmas Eve and sings them a special song. So Dave got to rock Emily and sing to her by the Christmas tree. This is a really dark picture, but hopefully you can kind of see.
This really is a neat tradition. In fact, Dave's sister, Nettie Francis, just published a short Christmas story about it called Papa's Song.

On Christmas Eve Emily got to open one present--these Santa slippers! Aren't they hilarious? She actually didn't like them, but we got her to put them on briefly and snapped this picture.

Christmas morning! Emily got a big candy cane in her stocking filled with fruit loops. She LOVED them.

The biggest hit was this laptop computer from Santa Claus. Now she can sit on the couch and play with her computer while Daddy is "playing" with his (doing homework).

A pretty pink watch that opens and closes...

We had such a great Christmas, and that night we all slept by the Christmas tree. We tried to have Emily sleep by us without the pak'n'play first, but after about an hour decided we really needed the pak'n'play. :) Can't wait for Christmas to come around again next year!

Here are some other pictures of everyday life. Emily LOVES bath time, and we couldn't resist posting this cute picture of her getting ready for her bath.

Doing homework with Daddy...

Emily loves her Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You? book from Grandma Hunsaker. She can make all of the sounds.

And it finally snowed, so Emily got to use her snow suit. Here she is playing with Daddy in the snow.

Stay tuned for our NEWEST news, Baby Ella! Coming next...

December

2012-01-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

On to December! Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. Hope you enjoy this post of the fun things we did during the season!

Our cute, Christmasy house. This is probably the last year we can get away with really small stockings for the girls. :)

On December 6th we celebrate St. Nicholas Tag, which is a German holiday. St. Nicholas brings fun treats and leaves them in everyone's shoes, which are placed at the door the night before. Unless finals are looming and you're close to 8 months pregnant...then St. Nicholas sometimes uses whatever happens to be in the house--bananas and oranges.

We made lots of Christmas goodies for neighbors and friends. The chocolate pretzels are always Dave's favorite part. And Emily helped with the cookie decorating.

We got to attend the ward Christmas party, which included dancing! Emily was so cute dancing by herself or with Daddy in the middle of the dance floor. She makes life so much fun.

At Dave's office Christmas party, his boss gave us this snowman decoration. The snowman is soft and the same size as Emily. She LOVES it. She waves to it every day and sometimes gives it hugs. She calls it, "a-no."

December 15th, right on her due date, Charlotte Elizabeth was born to Katie and Andrew (Katie is Dave's sister). She came a little fast and was actually born at home! This is after her parents made it to the hospital with her to recover. What a funny story.

Dave's office had a Christmas lunch for full-time staff and spouses at Chef's Table. It was so good! We had never been there before, and it was really nice.

And of course December means going to Washington!! We look forward to this all year. Here's Emily playing with her cousins. We spent about 10 days there and had an absolute BLAST.

Visiting Aunt Sybil

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Pratt

Emily making her very own ginger bread house!

Emily playing with Uncle Chris. He flew her all around the house in this laundry basket. Can you tell she was the center of attention? :)

Visiting Grandma Bisson, who happens to live in the same city.

While we were there, Tammie and Brent came and took us to visit Tim and Tobi and their girls. We all had so much fun talking and laughing together.

Chris helping Emily use the roller...

Getting together with the extended Pratt family. Emily was an angel (although not pictured here) and wasn't super cooperative. :)

And of course we got pajamas on Christmas Eve! Here's the girl pajama picture. Grandma took a pair of pajamas and cut them down and custom made Emily's pair. They are so cute on her!

Christmas morning at Grandma's. Emily's still waking up.

The talking purse Emily got--complete with money, a mirror, keys, lipstick, and a bracelet. Who would have thought she'd have so much fun with those things at 18 months old?

Christmas dinner at the Nields'

Grandma had a doll that Emily called "baby." She loved carrying baby all over the house. Here is Emily dressed as Mary holding the baby for the Christmas program. She sang "Mary's Lullaby" for everyone while holding the baby.

Emily helping Chris with dishes.

We got a giant puzzle for Christmas! Here we are working on it on Christmas day.

Grandma helped Emily string fruit loops for a fun Christmas decoration. Emily was so good at stringing the few that were left after she put the rest in her mouth. :)

We were lucky enough to be in Washington for Jared's (Melissa's cousin) wedding! We got to attend the sealing and the reception later that day. Congrats to the happy couple!

On our last night in Washington, Grandma and Grandpa took us out for Chinese. It was delicious. Here are Daddy and Emily waiting for the food.

Saying goodbye to the Nields. When Emily came home, she often said, "Amie? Chris? Grandma? Grandpa? Spencer?" She misses all of you!

After coming home from Washington, we took a drive up to Ogden and stayed a few days with Dave's family. We helped Heidi and Joe make this gingerbread house.

We saw the published, two-volume dissertation that Doug wrote this year for his PhD. Congrats, Doug!

Emily tried on a cute outfit from China. It was adorable! She must have been born to wear Chinese clothes and speak Chinese!

Joe was nice enough to share one of his old capes with Emily and dress up with her. :)

On New Year's Eve we all made posters with our goals on them. It was so much fun!

And we popped balloons that had fortunes in them for the year.

Later that night, we celebrated until midnight with Jake and Sanita back in Provo. It was a party!

Stay tuned for our next post, which shows our very own Christmas back here in Provo!

November

2012-01-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

We can't believe that here we are in January and we are just now blogging about November. Wow. Time flies, and things have been busy. Emily is adorable and so much fun. Everyone in Sacrament Meeting that sees her turning around to look at them agrees. Here is what our November was like! Stay tuned....we'll have December, January, and BABY updates in just a few days......we hope. :)

At the beginning of November, we went to Ogden with almost all of Dave's family (his siblings, nieces and nephews, etc.) and had an early Thanksgiving Dinner. It coincided with his parents' home coming address in church the next day. It was so fun to see everyone and be together. There are 34 grandkids and 2 on the way, and we had to hold the dinner in the cultural hall.

Because we also don't all fit at my parents' house, we and the Hammers stayed at a neighbor's house. Here we are having oatmeal in the morning with the Hammers. It was so fun!

We had a great weekend with everyone, and then the Powells and their 3 girls stayed with us on their way back through going to AZ. We loved visiting with them as well!

Emily (in the green dress) playing with cousins.

We also got to go to the wedding reception of one of Dave's mission companions, Ryan. We hadn't seen him for so long!

Two of Melissa's cousins, Tricia and Nathan, also have birthdays in November, so we had a combined party at the Perrys' place close by. It was nice to get together.

THIS is worth blogging about. In November we got a PIANO! This was Dave's family's old piano, and his parents passed it on to us since they just got a new one. We are so excited. We both play the piano, and Emily loves playing it when she sees one, and this will be such a fun addition to our apartment.

Next was Thanksgiving! We celebrated Thanksgiving at our own place with Chris, Melissa's brother. Here are the awesome nut cups Dave made for everyone with Emily's help.

Yum!!! Words cannot describe how delicious...

....but this picture can. Emily after her Thanksgiving meal. (with the cell phone, of course)

The day after Thanksgiving is always Christmas tree time! Emily loved the tree, and it was fun to rearrange our apartment to accommodate it. We taught her to wave at the ornaments instead of touching them, and after about 3 tries, it worked! She would wake up from her nap and come out and wave at the tree.

Here's a little picture of our Christmas setup. Melissa does the fire place every year, and it was so cozy.

After having our Thanksgiving, we went to Ogden and spent some time with Dave's parents and some of his siblings. We put up the Christmas lights too.....in the warm, bright sunshine.

That night we went to Temple Square and saw the Christmas lights! It was beautiful and so fun.

Vocal Point leaves the Sing-off

2011-11-18T08:54:00.001-08:00

Family Picture

2011-11-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

October

2011-11-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here's our October update! Enjoy!

Emily is such a wonderful, cute little girl. She loves to read and can even read three letters in her ABC book! It's one of her favorite books. She's saying more and more words now, like apple, help, up, more, bread, juice, pingguo, bang wo, hao, mianbao, and wo ai ni. She loves to give hugs and kisses.

At the beginning of the month, we went to the BYU Homecoming Parade! Heidi and Joe came also, and we froze! Our favorite part was the Brick Oven float. They asked Dave to do 10 push-ups, and then gave him Brick Oven rootbeer. :)

The first weekend of October was, of course, General Conference for the LDS Church. Joe came down from Idaho, and the three boys went to Priesthood Session together! It was neat to all be together and then to talk and have ice cream afterward with Melissa and Sanita.

More pictures of General Conference. We had lots of family over for many of the sessions.

One weekend, we made donuts and had Heidi, Joe, Jake, and Sanita over to eat them!....at 11:30 p.m. :) It's always a party!

And of course we spent lots of time at Dave's parents' house to get it ready for them to come home from their mission. Here's Jake mowing the lawn.

Sanita picking plums.

One of the welcome home signs we left for Elder and Sister Hunsaker when they returned from their mission!

Andrew put up the Michigan flag to welcome them.

Emily LOVES Grandma's little kitten stuffed animals.

Dave washing windows.

Another sign...

The second week of October we got released from the single's ward bishopric. :( We were really sad. We've loved serving in the single's ward, and we will miss all of the singles. The night we were released, 40 of them knocked on our door and surprised us with tons of thank you notes and treats. It was so wonderful!

The next night, several of them came again and brought us Halloween treats they had made during family home evening!

Grandma and Grandpa finally made it home from Detroit! They came to visit us a few days after they got home. Here we are at the Cannon Center eating really yummy food. Emily walked around with Grandma and loved having Grandma and Grandpa around.

Emily with Grandpa

Check out Emily's STACK of dishes! Yeah, she had a blast at the all-you-can-eat Cannon Center. I guess we contributed to her stack a little too...

Emily with her famous uncle, Jake. He's on the Sing-off. Every time she sees the TV now, she points and says, "Jake!"

Emily was sick for a week or so and was really miserable. So here she is eating crackers and drinking juice with Dada on the floor.

We HAD to keep the Nield tradition of making popcorn balls for Halloween! Here's Emily helping Chris make the syrup.

Bronson and Tricia helping mold the popcorn balls

Wrapping the popcorn balls

Emily exploring the finished product. There was no way we'd let her eat any with only two bottom teeth still. :)

For Halloween Emily was a ladybug! For weeks now she's been wearing the bug outfit periodically. She loves it, and every time we put it on her she runs over to the mirror and laughs at herself. It was so funny!

The little lady bug trick-or-treating at Uncle Chris's apartment. He gave her what she really wanted--bananas! She goes crazy over bananas.
Emily also got to trick-or-treat to some other aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Later that evening, our singles surprised us again! They came over dressed up for Halloween. It was so fun to see them.

We didn't actually get to carve pumpkins until AFTER Halloween. :) So here's Emily carving her first pumpkin! She totally attacked it and pulled all of the insides out without hesitation.

The finished product. It has two teeth like Emily. :)
It was a great month, and we're so excited for the holidays around the corner!
We are only 3 months away now from getting our little Ella, and we're getting more and more excited.

The Way You Look Tonight

2011-10-06T19:29:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, we are posting Jake Hunsaker's latest and greatest debut in The Sing-off.
Sorry the picture is not up to honor code standards....We had no control over that part. But way to go, Jake! We are his biggest fans.

Vocal Point on the Sing-off

2011-10-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

Since September BYU Vocal Point has been competing on The Sing Off.
David's brother Jake is the one in the middle of this picture.
Their first performance is shown below.

September

2011-10-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here is an update from September!

Emily is as cute as ever. She is walking, talking a little (in English AND Chinese), and she loves to play with her toys in the corner and Skype Grandma and Grandpa. She makes us laugh every day.

One weekend we went with some of Dave's siblings to Ogden to help in Dave's parents' yard. We got a lot accomplished! Here is Dave weeding what's called the "Mom's Garden." Consider it a "before" picture and the following pictures are "after."

Yes, all of the brown spaces in these pictures used to be very green and very tall.

This month we also discovered the beauty of homemade cream puffs. They are amazing! We had so much fun making them with Chris, Melissa's brother.

Emily loves her bouncer. But even more than being IN it, she likes being NEXT to it but still pushing all of the buttons.

The Nields came this month to drop off Devon at the MTC. We had a big slumber party in our apartment with all of them.

And we all went to Golden Corral - one of our favorite traditions when they come to town.

Here's Devon all ready to enter the MTC! He's going to the Las Vegas, NV Mission.

Devon saying good bye to Emily

Devon at the curb drop-off

Did we mention Emily is cute and walking around? She looks like this tiny person toddling all over the place. She communicates really well too, and she even says "Baby Ella," which is what we think we'll name our new baby.

September also brings a host of opening socials. Here is Dave's MPA opening social. They always do a tug-of-war between the first and second years.

Our singles also had an AWESOME opening social. It was a carnival--complete with a corn maze made of sheets, cotton candy, games, face painting, and animal balloons!

With October approaching, we had our "Boo" family council. A boo family council runs like any other monthly family council, except that when Daddy says, "Boo!" everyone gets a treat. This is Emily's bowl of treats (honey nut cheerios). She loved it! It took a while for her to understand why she could only have the treat sometimes, but when she finally caught on she would say "boo" WITH Daddy! It was really cute.

We had Dave's cousin and her family over for dinner--Chris, Sky, and their little girl Emily. We had a great time catching up about what's going on in their lives. They're due with their second baby a month before we are.

Emily and her bracelets. We're not sure where she got this, since Melissa hasn't worn much jewelry since Emily was born. But for whatever reason, Emily puts these on and walks all over.

Daddy and Emily during scripture study. We snapped this because it looked so perfect--not representative of what usually happens during scripture study. :)

Here's a sneak peek of Halloween! Emily LOVES this costume!! She gets so excited when we let her wear it. Thanks, Lori!

All in a Summer...

2011-10-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we sat down and figured out our stats for the summer.
Our summer was crazy!
So from April 1 to mid-August, here is our summer in a nutshell:

We hosted people in our apartment for 75 days (65% of our summer).
Of the remaining days, 11 were spent out of town.
When we were not hosting people, we hosted 5 meals at our home, feeding a total of 45 people.
We babysat other kids a total of 22 days.
We planned 1 wedding (the groom's half, anyway).
We moved.
We started full-time employment.
Dave took 6 finals.
We discovered we are expecting our 2nd baby!
Emily turned 1 and started walking.
Melissa turned 23.
Dave turned 24.
We celebrated Father's and Mother's Days.
We celebrated our 2nd anniversary!
And
We went 1 whole month without sugar, exercising 5 days per week.

We had a great summer! But we don't think we'll do it again until next year... :)

It's a...girl!

2011-09-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from the ultrasound, which we got on DVD. The face is on the right, and you can see the arm bones and a bit of the legs. It was so fun to find out that we're having another girl! Congrats to all those who guessed correctly. :)

August

2011-09-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

No, we aren't announcing our baby's gender until Tuesday or Wednesday this week. In the meantime, keep voting in the right column of our blog! We wanted to get an update out about August, though. So here goes...

Update #1: Emily is adorable. She responds in sign language to English AND Chinese, she took her FIRST STEP and now walks a few steps here and there but mostly still crawls, and she loves talking on the phone to people! Every day with her is so much fun. We love being parents.

This month Jeremy and Jessica visited us for an evening. We had a delicious dinner and then played Password, which was lots of fun. We stayed up late talking and laughing.

Melissa's brother Chris was in a musical show this month, and all of the proceeds went to the Huntsman Cancer Institute. So we went to see him play his trumpet. He did such a good job! We made him this cake to say congrats on his performance.

Here's another cute picture of Emily in her BYU shirt.

For finals in August (even though we didn't have to take any) we hosted a finals breakfast for the singles in our ward. We had about 13 people come, and we served pancakes and juice. It was so fun!

Macey's had their case lot sale this month too! So we got our 3-month food storage up to date! It was so much fun. It's all organized in various places throughout our apartment. It's so nice to feel so prepared and have so much food on hand! We had a good time buying it and putting it together.

Jake and Sanita gave us tickets to see Josh Groban in concert in SLC! So we went for a date. Thanks to Tricia for babysitting. We had a really good time just being together and going to such a fun event. Thanks, Jake and Sanita!

Here's Emily's play corner. She pulls out her books and looks through them, and she plays with all of her toys here too. One of her favorite books is Clifford! She gets so excited when she finds it, and then she points at the picture on the front and says "Duh" for dog.

One Monday night we hosted a Family Home Evening for our apartment complex. We get together once a month on a rotating basis, which is so fun. We all played Pounce and ate popcorn and other snacks. We love our neighbors!

One night while Tricia was staying here there was a loud knock on our door, and we went outside to see this! It was a fun chalk message from our singles. We felt so loved. Thank you!

This month we dried food for the first time! We got a dehydrator for pretty cheap from Macey's and then dried the apricots we got from Ogden. So fun! They were so good, and we even made fruit leather!

Tricia (Melissa's cousin) helping with the dehydrating. She stayed with us for two weeks while she got ready for school.

And we got to babysit Joey this month too, which is always so fun! He and Emily have a blast together and follow each other all over. They are so funny together.

We should probably mention that Dave started school again (just 6 credit hours) at the end of the month. He has some great classes and is still loving his job! Things are going so well. Check back this week for our baby's gender!

Guess Our Baby's Gender!

2011-08-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, our ultrasound is only two weeks away, and we just put a new poll on the right side of our blog that allows you to vote on whether you think our baby will be a boy or a girl. Please vote! And then leave a comment if you'd like to tell us what you think we should name him/her!

July Part 2

2011-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

Our second half of July is finally posted! It was quite a bit more relaxed than our first half. We had lots of fun! Here are a few snippets.

July 21st we headed to Rexburg, ID to attend Spencer's (Melissa's brother) graduation! We are so proud of him for his hard work.

It just so happens that Dave's brother Joe is also in Rexburg, so we got to spend some time with him the morning of the 22nd before graduation.

He showed us around his work, which we had never seen before!

We spent all day going around BYU-I campus. It's so beautiful! We even had a REALLY good smoothie. Here are Melissa's brothers Chris and Spencer with us.

While on campus, we were randomly asked to take a survey, and then they gave us two Viking Bars for taking it! They were so good. The weather was beautiful, so we just sat on the lawn and ate them.

Here is Spencer with his parents at graduation. Congratulations, Spence!

Emily trying on Spencer's hat...

We drove all the way home on Saturday the 23rd and made it back in time for our singles water activity that night.

The next weekend, we went to....Idaho! Again! We went to Twin Falls for Jeremy and Jessica's wedding. Jeremy was one of Dave's companions in Malaysia. We left right after Dave got off work, so he was really happy when we FINALLY found a Subway on our way. :)

The wedding was beautiful. We stayed in Jerome with one of Jeremy's sisters, and they were married in the Twin Falls Temple Friday morning.

The happy couple. Jessica was baptized a member of the Church a year or so ago. We are so proud of Jeremy and Jessica.

Dave and Jeremy. It was such a happy day.

Waiting while the family got pictures.

Later that day, Jeremy and Jessica took us around Twin Falls (yes, on their wedding day). They said they had time, so they drove around with us and showed us Shoshone Falls! It's beautiful! We had such a good time with them.

We went back to Ogden that afternoon. It was so hot because we didn't have air conditioning, and we stopped a couple of times to help Emily cool down. And for those of you who are worried about Gordy, he hit I think 243,000 miles on that trip. :) Yes, we worry a little about him on long trips, but he did just fine!

We stayed in Ogden that night and mowed the lawns the next day.

We also picked apricots off of one of the apricot trees that was ripe.

Our harvest. It was a great weekend and a great end to our July.

July Part 1

2011-07-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

We decided to break July into two parts since so much has happened this month. Here's a glimpse of our life July 1 - 15th. Enjoy!

July started with our apartment looking like this. :) We moved the last couple of days of June, and July 1st Dave came home from work and we worked like CRAZY getting all of this put away and unpacked because the Nields were coming that night!
Below you'll see the finished product. :)

Emily did really well during the move. We had to be careful about what she could climb on / climb in / eat / suck on / crawl through, etc.

Finished product pictures: Here is our living room!
(You'll see below that these are our new couches.)

Our kitchen. Melissa doesn't LOVE the color of the counter tops, but we can live with them. :)

Emily's room, complete with her Emily sign from Uncle Doug. Her new crib (shown below) is on the other wall.

One of the nights after we moved in, we decided that the old white rack in the bathroom left from the previous people had to go. It was the only storage space in the bathroom, so we looked online and found that Walmart carries this white space saver to go behind a toilette. To make a long story short, we bought it at about midnight and put it together until 2 a.m. It looks awesome! And it was only $30!

Amie was such a big help during the whole moving ordeal. So on July 1st we took her to play at Trafalga to say thank you. We had a great time on the go karts and in the XD theater. And it was free for us because of our Seven Peaks passes!

We rushed home from Trafalga to be there for our new couches to be delivered! We got a great deal on these too. Here is our first picture as a family on our new couches! They're the first we've ever owned!

The Nields came that night, so we added 4 people to the household. It was so much fun! And the next day (July 2nd), Devon, Melissa's brother, received his endowments in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was so neat to have everyone there for it. Once again, thanks to Amie for babysitting Emily.

July 2nd also happened to be EMILY'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!! So that afternoon we celebrated. Here are some pictures. She had a fun cake with animal crackers and flowers around it made by Mommy. She got to eat the top circle.

...which she loved. :) We also played lots of games like "fill in the blanks for one of Emily's favorite songs," and "who will Emily crawl to first." We even did a relay with diaper changing and bottle drinking!

That night we went to Uncle Brett and Aunt Beth Ann's place for dinner! It was delicious, and we had a great time talking to them.

We also went there so that Mom Nield and Beth Ann could work on Jake's wedding cake. We should mention that we spent part of that day running around frantically to finish things for the wedding.

Thank goodness for Sunday the 3rd--a day of rest.
Dave was glad his month of conducting was over.
Monday was the 4th, which is Dave's birthday! Big 24!

We went out at midnight to sleep on the parade route (without Emily). And we had a great time watching the parade, seeing the air balloons, opening presents, and spending time with family.

That night we had a party! We went to Chick-fil-A for Dave's birthday. It was so much fun! And then we went to the big Sandy, UT 4th of July celebration. Why? Because Dave's brother Jake (the one getting married in 2 days) was singing with Vocal Point. Almost all of Dave's family was there, including his parents who flew in from their mission for the wedding, and Jake's fiancee's family, which we met for the first time.
The fireworks after the show were AMAZING, by the way. We decided to go every year.

The NEXT day, we picked up flowers, tux, table cloths, vases, etc. for the wedding. You can see our apartment here with all of the flowers everywhere. Mom Nield worked hard putting together the bouquet, corsages, and boutonnieres.

Here is the bride's bouquet. It turned out beautifully! That night, we went to Bountiful and went through a session at the temple with all of Dave's family. All 11 kids are endowed, so we all went through with the spouses as well--about 23 of us. It was so neat, and we had dinner with everyone at Chuck-A-Rama afterward.

The next day was the wedding!! It was one of the CRAZIEST day of our lives. It started around 5:30 a.m. when we got up and packed our car and a van full of stuff for the luncheon. We set up for the luncheon in Bountiful that morning at 8, went to the sealing at 10:30, did pictures at the temple, and then fed 96 people at the wedding luncheon!
From there, the Nields ran and got the cake from Alpine and then met us in Taylorsville for the reception. Our day finally ended around 11:30 p.m. when we finished delivering presents to the new couple's apartment.

All 31 of the grandkids on Dave's side were there, so we took a picture of them around Grandma and Grandpa.

We thought this was a cool picture of the parents taking pictures of all of the grandkids.

The cookie table at the wedding luncheon

The serving table

The wedding cake at the reception

The happy couple

Delivering presents after the reception. We went home SO exhausted after this. We can't believe we survived that day.

A few days later we finally got around to having Dave's birthday pie! :)

Thank goodness for the Nield family! They totally helped us pull the wedding off. They stayed a week after that too, which we were so grateful for, and we all went camping! We made foil dinners.

Emily loved camping, and Grandma and Grandpa Nield loved being with her.

Emily learned to eat a banana like a big person! Well, as long as someone's holding it.

Coincidentally, Dave's work required him to take a 3-credit class that week--all in one week. So he went to class for 8 hours every day, did his homework, and then drove to the camping site each night to be with the family. Then he'd wake up and leave at 5:30 a.m. the next morning to do it all again. It was well worth it.

More pictures of camping...

After camping and before the Nields went home, Grandma and Grandpa wanted to get Emily a crib. It was so much fun shopping for the crib and picking out the sheets (princess, of course). Emily LOVES it. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

Here's a better picture of the crib.

On Friday the 15th all of the Nields left. :( We had such a good time with them and will miss them! That day, Katie and Andrew brought Joey (Emily's cousin) over for us to babysit for about 24 hours while they went on an anniversary getaway.
We have to share the story about that night. Joey woke up at about 2:00 a.m., so we checked his diaper, gave him a pacifier, and put him back down. At 2:30, he still hadn't stopped screaming. So we got up, intending to move him to the living room. He had had a huge blowout. It was all over his blanket, pajamas, and the pack'n'play. We finally got him changed and back down at about 3.
Luckily, Emily didn't wake up until 8 a.m. the next morning, but when she did, she too had a blowout! It was all over her crib, her new sheets, and her pajamas. We just laughed and had a good time cleaning up.

The next day, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. From 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 midnight, we cleaned. We did 8 loads of laundry, finished unpacking, and got SO much done in our apartment. It felt great! To celebrate, we got Kongs at Macey's. :)

The next day, we visited one of Dave's old roommates whose wife just had a baby. It was so fun to see little Michael Sheffer. He's so cute, and it made us excited to have another little one!

The next week we went to Applebee's....just for the fun of it. We figured it would be a good celebration for making it half-way through the month. :)
And the best part was that the manager accidentally made Emily cry during the meal, which meant FREE ice cream for us. Thanks, Ems.

June

2011-06-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

Life just gets busier and busier! June was fantastic, and here are some highlights of that month. Lots of family and fun!

We did have some time to relax. We love summer! One day, we went to the park with a family in our ward, and Emily got to hang out with their little girl. We played games and talked and had a great time in the sun.

Emily got her own swim suit! Finding it at Walmart was actually a miracle story that we can tell you if you want to hear sometime. :) She is so cute in it! We took her to Seven Peaks with our season passes. She didn't love it, but she'll get the hang of playing in the water. :)

June was also the prep month for Jake's wedding. We mentioned in the last post that we volunteered to act as the groom's family during the planning, so we have been busy with planning the wedding luncheon, sending announcements, scheduling the activities surrounding the wedding, and preparing for all 50+ of Dave's family members to come into town! Here we are labeling announcements.

One day we got to babysit Joey, Emily's cousin! We took them to the park. Emily finally can fit into the swing (sort of).

Here's Daddy tickling Emily's back. She is so ticklish and thinks it's hilarious.

During June we also put our apartment contract up for sale. Here is one of the pictures we posted on the web to advertise the apartment. We finally sold it a few days before we planned to move! It was a miracle.

One of the fun things we did this month was help Dave's boss plant flowers in her yard. It's a tradition now, and we have so much fun! She has a beautiful home and yard, and we had treats along the way too. :)

The finished product.

After we were finished planting, she took us out to eat at Cracker Barrel! It was SO good. Emily fell asleep in her high chair. It was so cute.
We should also mention that we planted our own garden (small pots) this month! We were inspired by this article.

June was also Father's Day! This was the pile Dave woke up to that morning.

Daddy and Emily on Dave's first father's day.

Jake went to Nauvoo two weeks before his wedding to perform with Vocal Point. Here he is all decked out on the morning he flew out. It was a little stressful getting everything done for his part of the wedding preparations before he left!

At the beginning of June, Melissa's sister Amie came! She came for three weeks to help out because we were moving, planning a wedding, hosting people, helping take care of Dave's parents' yard, and....MELISSA IS EXPECTING!! We are due in January, and Amie has been so much help as Melissa has gone through the first trimester. Lots of what she did while she was here was babysit children Melissa had agreed to babysit. Here's Skyler, one of those that Melissa and Amie babysat.

Emily's first animal crackers. She LOVED them! And she can get through those surprisingly fast for not having any teeth.

The third week in June we went for the weekend to do Dave's parents' yard.

That weekend, Sarah came to visit us! She is David's niece, and she came to check out BYU. We had a great time with her going to the Cannon Center and all over campus and looking at the education program she is interested in.

We worked hard in the yard and then came back that night to participate in a single's dinner/activity. When we finally got home, we were so tired and hot that we went swimming! Emily tried out her new baby tube, which Dave got for Father's Day. :)

Two days later, we started packing up our apartment to move. It's always sad and exciting to move to a new place. Our new place is two bedrooms, and I'm sure we'll have some pictures of that in our next post!

May

2011-06-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

We are finally getting May posted! It was a busy month full of lots of fun things.

First and foremost, an update on Emily: Emily will be a year old in July! She is absolutely adorable and makes us laugh all the time. She says "uh-oh" and "Dada" and "Mama" and even "hi" sometimes. She just started pulling herself up to stand by things. She loves to read books with Mommy and chase Daddy by crawling after him on the ground. She claps, folds her arms, and does the actions to "Five Little Monkeys." We should also add that she is still wearing some 3-6 month clothing. :)

This month Melissa got her teaching license officially! She earned it a year ago, but because of a mix-up with the Education Department at BYU never actually got it until now. So we celebrated!

We are now officially BYU alumni, so we got invited to an alumni event! It included a free baseball game, and we decided to go because we've never been to one before. It was so much fun! Emily didn't love it, but we did!

We also celebrated Mother's Day! It was Melissa's first Mother's Day with Emily, and Daddy helped Emily write a card for her. She got lots of fun things that she had asked for, like an ice cream scoop! Daddy also made her a flower that you can see on the table.

May 15th was our 2nd anniversary! We celebrated the day before by going to the temple and going out to eat. Thanks, Katie and Andrew, for babysitting! We wore the same clothes to the temple that we wore to the temple on our wedding day.

We spent one weekend at Dave's parent's home helping in the yard, since they are on an LDS mission. We loved being in the yard, since we don't have one.

We took Dave's brother Jake out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants one evening to say thank you for driving us to the car shop when Gordy had to get some small repairs in order to pass the safety inspection. We had a fun time with Jake, and just for the record, Gordy (at just under 240,000 miles) DID pass safety AND emissions and was registered for another year! Yay!

And a few days later, Jake got engaged! He is marrying Sanita, and we were lucky enough to be in on his proposal preparations. ;) They are getting married in July! So we volunteered to be like the groom's family, since Dave's parents are away. It will be an adventure for all of us!

Two of the Francis girls, Sariah and Naomi (Dave's nieces), came to stay with us on the 25th! They stayed some nights with the Richards family and some nights with us so their parents could go to a conference in CA. Their 6 brothers and sisters went to other people's homes. We had such a fun time with them. This is us at a hot dog roast at the Richards' house.

They loved coloring and having Melissa put their hair in tiny braids. We had a great time with them.

The next day, the Powell family (Another of Dave's sisters) came into town! They stayed with us too, and we had a blast. They have three girls--Abby, Vierra, and April. This is Dave telling them a bedtime story before bed.

Here's another picture of us with the Powells. We miss them and wish they still lived closer!

That weekend, April was blessed in Grandma and Grandpa Powell's home ward. So we all went to participate. It was a beautiful blessing.

After the blessing, since the Francis family and the Powell family were all in town, we had a big luncheon together. We were in charge of coordinating the food, and it was an adventure feeding 29 people! Joe also came into town from Idaho for the occasion.

Here is a picture of all the nieces that were together that weekend.

And Joe took the occasion to make us all a traditional Norwegian cake while we were there too! It was actually really good.

And when Becca's in town we HAVE to sing together while she plays the piano. It was fun to do that again!

Well, that was our month! Here's one last cute picture of Emily standing by the couch. She is so small, and she looks so cute standing.

April

2011-05-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, here's our update from April!

We had to put this picture first. Emily May is as cute as ever. This is her new Easter dress that Grandma Nield got for less than $10 at the end of last year's season! She looks so cute in it. Emily learned to crawl this month too!

At the beginning of April, the Nields came to visit! We love having them come! And they loved seeing Emily May.

We had a BIG slumber party in our little apartment. It's a good thing Dad worked on getting us all to bed, because otherwise we would have stayed up partying all night. :)

Grandma with Emily

April was full of school activities as well. Dave put on his last big Stand for the Family event with Melissa's help. There were over 70 people, and we served dinner and had a speaker.

Tricia stayed with us for a week after the Nields left, and she made us Cold Stone ice cream! :)

A close-up of the action

That weekend Uncle Joe came to visit us! He loved playing with Emily, and we loved seeing him since we don't get to very often.

It finally started to warm up somewhat at the end of April, so we went to the park near our apartment. We thought Emily would LOVE the swing, but no reaction whatsoever.

Dave's final projects all came due in April, one of which was presenting his statistics findings on college student voting behavior to a representative at the Utah capitol with his team. We took this picture, since this was where we took a picture together during Dave's internship two years ago when we were just engaged. His presentation was a huge success, and he pulled an A out of the class. :)

That night, we left the capitol and went to help out at Andrew Townsend's wedding reception. It was so fun to see everyone there! And Andrew and Ashley looked so happy.

The next day (Saturday) was the first day of finals. Dave wanted to get all of his finals done that day because he was starting his full-time job on Monday. So he got up early and spent from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on finals. He took FIVE in a row and finished!! That was his last full-time semester!

That Monday (Dave's first day of work) we invited any singles in our ward who wanted to come to our apartment for breakfast. We told them it was our finals present to them to get them ready for a week of finals. We served breakfast from 5:15 to 8 a.m. and had over 20 people come! We considered it a success, and we had lots of fun.

Dave started his full-time job that day! He's loving it, especially the part when he comes home and has no homework to do.

That week was Melissa's birthday! Dave got the day off work, and we had a BLAST. She got a candy card from Chris, and a glue gun and new dish rags and an ice cream scoop from Dave--all the things she had asked for. :) She's also wearing her new earrings from her mom! Thanks, Mom!

We had free passes to Trafalga, so we spent the afternoon there while Katie and Andrew babysat. Thank you!

We had so much fun watching the XD theater, riding go-carts, and playing air hockey.

We also got some fun outdoor Velcro/ball toys, and we went to the park and played with them.

We just had so much fun together all day.

That night, we used a gift card from Katie and Andrew to go to Sizzler! We are converted. It was so delicious, and Melissa even got a free rootbeer float for her birthday.

Here's a picture of Emily May playing the piano! Don't worry; Daddy is right behind her and only let go for a second. :)

On to Easter! That weekend was Easter. We celebrated by having a nice Easter dinner on Thursday and reading about the last supper and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then the Easter Bunny came on Saturday, and we got so many goodies in our baskets, which were homemade by Melissa and Chris. Chris was staying with us while he was between apartments.

That afternoon, we had an Easter Egg hunt at Katie and Andrew's house! Emily LOVED the Easter eggs with cheerios in them.

So did Joey!

Yes, it took 6 adults to count the eggs we had found to see if we'd found them all. :) Thanks, Jake, for providing the candy!

We also had a small Easter egg hunt in our living room, and it was so fun to see Emily catch on and get excited about opening each egg.

Emily May can also stick out her tongue.

The last weekend in April, Doug, Heidi, Joe, and Emma came and stayed at our place so we could have a family triathlon that weekend.

We all got awesome t-shirts (thanks, Richards fam) for the race, and they all said funny things on the back. Here's Emily's.

Jake and Heidi were the brave bikers (in the snow, we might add). We won't say how many minutes behind Heidi Jake finished. :)

Here are the tired runners! Andy pushed Joey the whole 3 miles.

...and the swimmers. Joe and Doug tied (thanks to Doug's flippers). :) We all had so much fun and laughed a lot. We were the official cheer leaders / photographers. We provided water, juice, snacks, and medals for all of the participants.

That was our month! We are so excited it's SUMMER!

March: Emily and Friends

2011-03-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, we are finally updating our blog! Just a quick recap on the past couple of months - we have been terribly busy trying to balance work, master's degree, club leadership, being a mom, trying to be social, and fulfilling church responsibilities. We are so happy it's FINALLY SUMMER!!! Here are some main happenings from March.

We watched our friends' little boy for a couple of days while they went out of town. Emily had a blast making a new friend! It was like a vacation for us, since we stayed at their house and ate their food.

Emily and her other friend Skyler continued to have fun a few times a week as well. Emily loves to feel his soft hair.

And Emily made two more friends when we watched our neighbors' two kids while they went out on a date! We had a blast. Emily's social circle is getting bigger than ours! :)

And of course Emily loves playing with cousin Joey, her closest cousin, when he comes around.

In March we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with green eggs and ham! And that morning the leprechauns also left some chewy Werther's Originals around the house. Mmm!

Emily visited Uncle Chris at his lab on campus and brought him dinner too! Did you know that the Clyde has a vending machine that sells random electrical parts instead of snacks?

On the 21st of March, we celebrated the first day of spring! Lollipops grew in our one-pot garden, and we stood eggs on their ends.

And Dave pulled off a successful Stand for the Family event, with over 70 people in attendance. Here's a picture of him conducting. We were so glad it was a success!

Of course our favorite times are when we can just be with Emily and play and laugh. We thought this was the funniest video. Emily laughed and laughed at this lady bug that she and Dave were playing with. And then she couldn't reach it on top of her head! We got a kick out of that.

More updates coming soon...

January/February Update

2011-03-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

The past two months have been CRAZY! Here is a small portion of what we've done:

Emily May is as cute as ever. She rolls all around, picks up things off the ground, eats whatever she can get her hands on, waves, holds out her hand to play her hand game, gives us things when we say "thank you," and smiles and giggles all the time. She also is becoming VERY clingy to Mommy.

In January we attended a fun single's activity where we drew big pictures to get to know each other. Here are some of the singles with Emily (she is the star of the single's ward).

Of course at the beginning of February we celebrated Chinese New Year! We went to a CNY party at Jasen's (Dave's MPA teammate) apartment. It was so cool for Dave to eat all of the authentic Chinese treats again.

We also went to visit our good, good Chinese friends Jing and Quan! They gave us some more Chinese New Year treats and got to see Emily. We haven't seen them for several months, and we're so excited that they are expecting!!

We also went to a single's FHE activity that was an indexing contest! It was so much fun--a three-legged race involving indexing, jump roping, stuffing our faces with PB&J's, and carrying marshmallows on spoons. These are some of our great singles. They are awesome.

Daddy and Emily playing. This is one of Daddy's favorite times of day--when school and work are over and before homework begins for the night. :)

This is another Chinese New Year party we attended! Heidi was there too because it was for MPA's and MBA's. It was absolutely delicious.

And of course we had to do pictures with the Chinese hats.

The Nields and Hunsakers both sent us things for Valentine's Day! It's so much fun to get mail like this. We loved all of the Valentine's decorations, cards, and gifts.

Happy birthday to Heidi! Here she is with the lady bug cake Katie made for her. We hosted a big fun party for her at our place.

Happy first Valentine's Day! This is Emily's first valentine from Daddy on the morning of, and she's sporting her pretty valentine PJ's.

Dave gave Melissa a nice valentine card and a new Primary Children's Songbook so that we can finally play them on the piano! That evening when Dave got home we had a candlelight dinner and had our own dress-up valentine dance.

The last week in February we took a quick surprise trip to Washington! We decided to go two days before because we found out Dave's cousin was being baptized there. Katie and Andrew and Joey went with. All six of us crammed in the Ford Taurus--three people on the bench seat in front, and one person in the back with the two babies in their thrones... I thought the older people were supposed to have the comfy seats.

We stayed with the Nields, which was so much fun! They of course loved having Emily and Joey.

We were also able to see Grandma Bisson, who lives in the same city as the Nields! She was so surprised to see us, and it was so good to visit with her.

This is Heather's baptism. She went off to college and decided to be baptized a member of the Church, and we wanted to go support her as she made this big step in her life. Her parents were there too, and it was so good to see them! We haven't seen any of them for about 10 years, and we're so glad to be back in touch with them all.

Back to January....

We went to see our old friends the Dilsavers! Ben was in Melissa and my Family Home Evening group when we first met, and his wife was Melissa's visiting teacher in that same ward. They have a new baby too!

And here's just a picture of the fam all having family dinner. We have a blast together! It's so nice to be close to family and be able to get together every once in a while.

Family Picture

2011-01-31T21:05:00.002-08:00

This is our newest family picture. Thanks Doug!

After Christmas

2011-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

Two days after Christmas we flew to Washington to visit the Nields!

The airport was packed. We were so glad that Emily was there so that we could be in the family security line instead of the normal one (which you can see backed up behind Melissa).

We thought we'd document changing Emily's diaper in the airport. Which we have now done countless times!

Flight number 7 for Emily. :) It was a little tiny one and we got to walk up the stairs into the plane.

When we arrived in Washington, it only took walking through the front door to find out Emily would be spoiled. In the middle of the living room was her princess pac'n'play with princess accessories added on by Mom. Inside the pac'n'play were some toys and a princess wand for Emily to wave.

The day after we arrived we celebrated Christmas! Even Santa knew the importance of Emily's visit to Washington. Yes, the stocking in the middle is hers, and no this is not a joke.

The other side of the room looked like this. Don't worry, not all of these are for Emily. Others did get presents too.

Pure brilliance. This is the present Amie made for Dave. 10 boxes of Mac'n'cheese made into one GIANT box of joy. The labels and instructions were all uniquely (and hilariously) modified. What could be a better present for Dave than a big box of cheesy goodness.

While in Washington, we saw Grandma and Grandpa Pratt! They loved Emily.

We also saw Aunt Sybil, which was so much fun as well.

Dave got this nice new shirt and tie for Christmas too! Here he is dancing with Emily at a reception for one of the Nield family's close friends.

During our stay, the Nields hosted a big get together for the cousins. We got to see so many people that we don't see often. It was wonderful.

And we saw Grandma Bisson! She is doing so well in her new place. We talked and talked, and we even gave her a giant Skipbo card deck for Christmas so that she can see easier when she plays. :)

Here's Emily with her Great Grandma Bisson.

Back at the Nields, there was never a dull moment, especially for Emily. Here's Mom putting Melissa's NEWBORN shoes on Emily. Emily just barely fits them.

And we must pay tribute to the gingerbread houses. On New Year's Eve night we made these. Everyone got to make one. This is Melissa's...

...This is David's...

...And this is Emily's! Yes, Mom made her a pink princess castle gingerbread house to match all of the other princessy things.

We were so sad to leave when the time came. We flew home on New Year's Day. Here is Emily saying good by to Grandma and Grandpa Nield.

Emily's flight # 8......We are pros at this.

We were sad to say good bye to everyone, but we were happy to be back home again! Emily was very happy to get back to her routine. Here she is playing with some of her new toys.

And of course she loves her new bouncer from the Nields! But if you look close at this picture, she's actually playing with the tag. Yes, on all of her toys she likes the tag best. Go figure.

Thanks, everyone, for hosting us and making our Christmas beak so memorable!

Christmas!

2011-01-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

On December 25th, we celebrated our second Christmas together and our first Christmas with Emily! Here are some highlights.

Santa Claus came! He left us all stockings full of goodies and beautiful presents by our fire place. Melissa and I woke up at 3:00 and then at 5:00 and then again at 6:00 when Emily woke up! And we could FINALLY go out to open presents! We get a little excited on Christmas. We read the Christmas story by candlelight and then took our candle out to the living room to burn all day, reminding us of the real meaning of Christmas.

Emily May learned to open presents! Santa left a little tangerine in her stocking with some other candy.

While we ate our cereal from Santa, Emily May excitedly (ok, she looks really bored) drank water out of her new sippy cup!

After opening presents, we had a really relaxing day. Here are Emily and Daddy vegging on the bed, watching a new movie and having popcorn.

Emily also got a cute onesie that says "My First Christmas."

Another shot of Emily practicing with the sippy cup.

Dave's boss, Lori, gave Emily a new bath toy that has a big lady bug and three little ones. It was an absolute hit. She plays with them almost every day.

Santa brought us Monopoly! We played that night and Melissa creamed Dave.

And of course we slept under the tree that night--all three of us in a row. It was another magical Christmas.

Before Christmas

2011-01-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

We are finally blogging about our fantastic December! It was a full month with lots and lots of fun.

Of course December started with the advent calendars. We had three, to be exact--one chocolate calendar, one chain count down, and one chain with treats for each day from Mom Nield (not pictured)! We loved opening all three each day.

One day we came home from shopping and found a small plastic bag on our front porch. Inside was a note from someone, presumably in our singles ward. It was addressed to Brother Hunsaker. It said that a few of the people in our ward had pooled their money and gotten a gift card to Kohl's for Dave to go and buy a new suit. With the note was a gift card to Kohl's for $250. We almost started crying we were so touched. So that evening we went to Kohl's, which was having a huge sale on men's dress clothing, and got $500 worth of clothes--new suit, shirt, shoes, socks, tie, and belt. Here is Dave in his new suit. It was such a magical evening. We had lots of fun! Thank you to whomever did that for us. You'll never know how much it meant to us.

Here is a cute picture of Emily with cousin Joey. They are so funny together.

On December 6th we celebrated the German holiday called St. Nicholas Tag! Everyone puts out a shoe the night before and in the morning St. Nicholas has filled it with yummy things to eat. Here is Emily getting her shoe. She got a little tangerine! She was so cute.

Dave had a staff Christmas party in December, and Santa came! Emily got to sit on his lap for the first time. She did so well. She played with his beard and didn't cry at all.

Finals ended at about 12:15 a.m. on December 16th for Dave. He worked really hard to have them all done early, and he was so relieved! We could not believe that the semester was over. It has been a terribly stressful semester, and we're so glad it's behind us. That very morning, after 3 hours of sleep, we went to the airport and went on a trip! Here we are in the Denver airport on a layover. Emily wanted the fries.

We went all the way to Chicago to visit the Hammers! We had so much fun with them. Emily had lots of fun with all of her cousins there. Here are Maddie and Jojo playing with her.

Emily and cousin Molly had matching outfits! They were so cute. They loved to sit next to each other.

Here's Dave reading to Jojo and Maddie.

We went to the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago with the Hammers, which was absolutely incredible. We absolutely loved it and could have spent days there. On the way back, we drove right into downtown Chicago! It was fascinating and lots of fun. Dave loves big cities.

When our visit was over, we rode a train into Chicago to catch a train to our next destination. The train to Chicago was the first train Melissa had ever been on. The conductor looked SO much like a conductor that we asked if Melissa could get a picture with him on her first train ride. It was so cool!

Once in Chicago, we saw the Willis (formerly called Sears) Tower and then got on another train to our next destination! This one was 7 hours long, and the scenery was snowy white.

We pretended to be on the Polar Express, and we drank hot chocolate while we were riding.

The train took us through Indiana and on to....

.....Detroit! Where we visited Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker on their mission.

They had such a fun missionary apartment.

And they loved spending time with Emily May.

We did missionary work with them, including making cinnamon roll wreaths for some investigators and members.

We also went and toured the Edsel Ford home in Detroit. This is the actual house that was built for his 7-year-old daughter's play house.

We went to Belle Isle together where you can see the skylines of Detroit and Canada across the river from one another.

We were sad to leave when the time came. And we were even more sad when Frontier Airlines said that it was $8 to watch a movie on their flight home! But then half-way through the flight they showed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" free of charge. :) Emily loved it. That was also Emily's first flight to be changed on an actual changing table in the lavatory! Before that we just changed her on our laps because there wasn't a changing table....

We came home and had Christmas on our own. This is Dave on Christmas Eve rocking Emily to the traditional Christmas song that his dad used to rock him to. It was so special having Emily there with us this Christmas. Being parents is awesome!

The True Meaning of Christmas

2010-12-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

November

2010-12-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

It's time for our November update! This month has been a great one to remember the things we are grateful for. Read the captions to find out what we are thankful for.

We are thankful for Emily! She is five months old now, and she is one little bundle of fun. Here's Daddy playing with her on the couch.

Emily went bowling for the first time this month with our singles ward. She's almost the same size as the ball!

Here is Dave holding Emily and Joey. Joey is always trying to reach for Emily whenever they are in close proximity of one another. We are thankful for Joey and all of our family that's close by too.

Emily loves to grab things! She grabs hair, food, faces, noses, toys, fingers, her feet, and Daddy's ears.

Even though she doesn't completely love her tummy time, she has fun for the first little bit.

Melissa is thankful for chocolate. :) And it looks like Emily is too.

Dave is thankful for Chinese food!!! Here we are with Heidi eating at her Chinese friends' home. They made us real, authentic Chinese food. Heidi and Dave were in heaven!

Emily wished she had been in heaven. She stared at the food the whole time and tried to eat the bowl (see above) whenever Dave brought it up to his mouth.

For Family Home Evening we made Thankful Books. These are books that we can use every year on Thanksgiving Day to remember the things we are thankful for that year. We will use them in conjunction to Dave's family's tradition of having three kernels of corn on their Thanksgiving plates and remembering three things they are thankful for.

This Thanksgiving was an adventure! We were going to go visit the Nields, but then a blizzard came through and blocked our travel. :( So we got to spend Thanksgiving closer to home with Dave's family! :) Melissa's brothers were with us too. We all had a great time.

Dave had a great time with his siblings. He is grateful for all of them--the four who were there at Thanksgiving and the 6 who were not. This is evidence that Thanksgiving dinner took its toll...

We set up our Christmas tree!! Emily even helped put candy canes on the tree. We love when our house is decorated for Christmas. We are thankful for Jesus Christ, whom we celebrate at Christmas time.

We are thankful for Emily's laughter. She loves to play on the ground and is such a happy baby. She laughs and giggles all the time. We love her big smile.

Emily's favorite thing is sitting in the corner of the couch and watching Daddy sing to her. She smiles and laughs and smiles and laughs some more. Here's a clip of that.

We really are thankful for so many things, and Thanksgiving helped us to remember those. We are thankful for our families near and far, our education, our faith, our country, and each other. We are reminded every day how wonderful life is!

October

2010-11-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

October was a really busy month for us, full of lots of fun and celebration! Here are some highlights...

At the beginning of the month, Dave's mission had a mission reunion. His mission president came all the way from the UK to be there! It was so neat for Dave to see his mission president again. They of course haven't seen each other since Dave's mission. His thick British accent was awesome.

Uncle Spencer came from Idaho that night and stayed for General Conference weekend. We loved having Spencer around, and we loved loved loved Conference. To read/listen to it click here. We loved listening to the prophets. It always brings so much comfort and direction and makes us so happy.

This month, Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker (Dave's parents) left on their mission to Michigan! Here they are entering the MTC. The sign the MTC puts up for young missionaries says "New Missionaries Enter Here." So Dave's parents made their own sign. :)

On October 9th we were in the BYU Homecoming Parade! This is our "float"--the Stand for the Family Club entry. The sign says "Fam-i-ly n. Currently being redefined. Help save the real definition."

Here are all of the people who marched with us (except Katie, Andrew, and Joey, who came later). We had fun balloons and cool t-shirts and lots of fun. The crowd along the route especially liked Emily.

We went to Dave's home to help with the yard work while his parents are gone, and while we were there we went to a corn maze.

Here is Emily being a ghost just outside of the maze. She was one cute ghost.

A few days later, we went with our married ward on a fun hay ride out to a pumpkin patch.

We had so much fun at the pumpkin patch! We got to go through a pumpkin crate maze for kids, and we picked out a nice pumpkin to carve. We also took this cute family picture on some hay stacks.

The Francis family came and visited us! We had no idea they were even in the state until they knocked on our door! What a fun surprise. All ten of them fit in our little apartment, and we had a great time visiting.

On October 17th, Dave was set apart as the second counselor in a single's ward bishopric. So we won't be attending our old ward anymore. It should be an adventure! So far it's lots of fun. Here we are at the singles' skating Halloween party. We dressed up like farmers, and Emily was our pumpkin. The bishop's wife is in her costume next to us.

Here is the bishop in his costume on the left. He was scary! He went around scaring people and never spoke the whole time. It was creepy! Emily did so well staying up until about midnight when the party was over.

On October 23rd Emily May rolled over for the first time! Here is a picture of that. We are so proud of her! And she has rolled over a few times since.

For Halloween we decided to make sugar cookies for all of the singles in our ward--all 142 of them. Melissa made 179 cookies total, and with Chris's help we decorated them. They are NOT all pictured. These are only some. It was a huge project! We delivered the 30 plates of cookies on the 30th as we trick-or-treated to all of their doors. It was Emily's first official door-to-door trick-or-treat.

The afternoon of the 30th we went trick-or-treating down main street with the Richards. The crowds were incredible, and the lines weren't worth the candy waiting at the end of them. :) So we didn't stay long, but it was sure fun! (By the way, we found Joey's outfit at the D.I. He's an elf.) :)

Emily May in her cute pumpkin costume! $3 D.I. special.

On the 30th, we also carved pumpkins! We had a little tiny pumpkin for Emily, but it was stolen off of our porch that very night. :( So we used the little candle holder pumpkin instead.

Emily May playing with her keys. She is so cute and cuddly, and she's talking and laughing a lot. This week we had her 4 month Dr. appointment. She is now 12 lbs. 8 oz. and 23 in. long. She's getting so big! But she's still in the 25th percentile for both weight and length, thanks to babies like Joey. :) She makes us so happy.

Dave's family in the Church News

2010-10-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

You can read the article here.

September

2010-10-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Fall! Our lives are as busy as ever. Here are a few updates from the past month. First, Emily is growing and growing. She is very cute. She loves to coo, smile, giggle, eat, and sleep through the night, which is great for us!

At the beginning of September, we attended the MPA opening social for Dave's master's program. They had a giant tug-of-war with the second years.

September 26th was Grandma and Grandpa Hunsaker's farewell! They are leaving on a mission to Michigan, and we are all so excited. We all had a great time listening to them speak. Nine of their eleven children were there, as well as most of their grandchildren. It was so much fun visiting with everyone.

This is a picture of Dave talking to Emily. He leans over her and makes noises, and she makes them back.

Dave's brother Jake is in Vocal Point! Here is a clip of them singing on Brigham Square. Aren't they good?

At the end of the month Dave successfully put on an opening social for the Stand For The Family club. Despite only 36 hours of advertising there were over 100 people there (thank you BYUSA...)!

This is a clip of what I described above--Emily talking while Dave leans over her and talks too.

That's it for September! We love the cool weather and the colored leaves, and we are so happy to be a family.

Emily's baby blessing

2010-09-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

The first Sunday in September we blessed Emily May. That means we took her to the church and Dave gave her a blessing, which officially declares her name and gives her certain promises for her life. This is Mommy and baby on that special day.

Melissa's whole family was there, and we took this family picture. Thanks, Doug, for the awesome photography!

Melissa's mom helped her make a beautiful, white dress for the occasion.

She was so cute!

Here are all of the grandfathers and uncles who stood in the blessing circle with Dave and Emily.

Another cute picture...


...and another one.

Here are some of the grandkids looking at little baby Emily. Thanks to everyone who came!

August

2010-09-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

In August we did something very scary! We took our little six-week-old baby on an airplane and flew to CA for a conference! Here are Daddy and Emily on the plane. She was so good, and the guy next to us didn't even say anything when we fed her AND changed her all without leaving our row... :)

We went to Manhattan Beach in L.A.! Here we are on a pier there eating ice cream. We even put Emily's feet in the ocean! She hated that.

The resort where our conference was held was beautiful!

The conference was in Murrietta Hot Springs, and we had the most amazing time learning about the importance of the family!

Wading in the hot springs

We stayed with the nicest LDS family while we were there. They were so good to host us!

Flying back home

When we got back, it was time to get ready for school. Dave got a new laptop for his MPA program!

Our friends, the Pearsons, came back from their internship for the school year, and we got to visit and catch up on all of our summer fun. They loved seeing baby Emily.

Dave leaving on the first day of school

At the end of August, Pa retired! Wow. Some of us kids went and experienced first-hand the difference he has made in so many lives during his career. And we met cousin Molly for the first time! Look at all her hair!

The rest of July

2010-09-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Mom and Amie were there for Emily's birth, and they made the house beautiful for her home coming on July 4th! They had made a beautiful cake for Emily, and Mom got flowers for Melissa. It was so nice.

And Mom made a banana cream pie for David's birthday! Thanks, Mom!

Leaving the hospital with our new little bundle!

Melissa and I went on a date that weekend, courtesy of Mom's babysitting, and it was so much fun! Carl's Jr...Mmm!

Mama and Pa opened their mission call that month! All of the in-state kids were there, and the out-of-state kids were all on cell phones (on the ground)! They are going to Michigan! How exciting!

Emily's first stroller ride

Dave and Andrew participated in the world's largest water balloon fight in July too! There were 3,900+ people, and over 120,000 water balloons. What a blast!

At the end of July we went to the Nield family reunion in Idaho! We stayed in a yurt, which is like a permanent tent. It was so cool! Here's Dave with Amie. Emily loved camping at 3 weeks old. :)

Emily also loved her first speed boat ride over to an island where we swam and played all day with the Nields!

Emily finally broke out, but she's still cute as can be.

Emily is Here!

2010-09-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

On July 2, 2010 at 6:23 a.m. our little angel Emily May was born! Melissa was a hero and delivered naturally, and we are so excited to have our little baby finally here! She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 18 inches long. She is a miracle, and we are so thankful for the hand of God that brought her to us.

Here is our cute baby on day 2!

There never was a prouder daddy. The nurses put a little red, white, and blue bow in her hair because it was so close to July 4th.

Emily is a wide-eyed, happy baby.

Emily and Daddy

This is a cute shot, but we noticed later that Emily's tongue is sticking out at Daddy! We are so happy to have Emily. She makes us happy every day, and we're so glad that we can be together as a family forever!

Hunsaker Reunion

2010-09-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

Three days after Melissa's due date, the Hunsakers had a HUGE family reunion! We were so glad that Emily delayed her birth so that we could go. It was the first time in twelve--yes, twelve--years that the Hunsakers have all been together! There were 2 parents, 11 siblings, 7 in-laws, and 28 grandchildren with two more on the way.

The reunion was held at the Hunsaker Homestead. Here are the brothers in age order. Of course, Dave is the shortest.

Emma and Rachel

Ruthie with her Burger King crown on after Leatherby's!

Sam and Eli

A fun cousin table waiting for Leatherby's--Rachel, Miriam, Kayla and Emma

This was the first immediate family photo with everyone together in a long time. We were all able to attend the LDS temple together for the first time as well! What an incredible experience.

...and we all ate out! THAT didn't happen very often growing up! What a treat.

We are all here--father, mother, sister, brother--all who hold each other dear.
Each chair is filled, we're all at home, we're all, all here.

After hearing Jake and Joe give reports about their missions in church, we all gathered for more talking and laughing at a local hall.

Some of the cousins fighting over German candy. Thanks, Jake! :)

Kayla, Emma, Rachel, Beka, and Eve

Popular Uncle Jake with Daniel, Beka, Eve and Ruth

Abby Lou!

Another candid photo of the fam

And, of course, the three bro.'s are happy to be back together after four years of missions. We had such a good time! Thanks to everyone who made it possible!

June

2010-08-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

June began the season of get-togethers and reunions!

The first week of June, Jake came home from his mission! We were so excited to see him, especially since Dave hadn't seen him for basically 4 years. Wow! So much has changed.

Our ward did an activity at the local park putting "skirts" (dirt circles) around the trees. We had hot dogs and hamburgers afterward.

During June we also finally got to taste some of Rebecca's amazing French cooking. She got back from France a few months ago and made us all a gourmet, French-style meal. Now she's getting ready to go back to France on he mission! Congratulations, Rebecca!

June was also Dave's first Father's Day. He got some new khakis, a new shirt, socks, fruit snacks and licorice! What more could you want? He also got his first card addressed to "Daddy."


On Emily's due date, Joe came home from his mission! The three boys were finally back together after such a long time. Good thing Emily didn't come on time! And the reunions continued, as displayed in the next post!

May

2010-06-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here is our May update. Enjoy!

This month we've been able to visit the Richards family a few times, and we love holding little Joey! What a cute kid. We can't believe we're next to be parents!

Every other week we have FHE with our neighbors, Jing and Quan. The Pearsons used to come too until they left for their internship. Everyone loved playing Jenga.

We had to get a picture with the Pearsons' little girl Emily, as well as their whole family, before they left. We will miss them!

Melissa insisted on posting this picture of Dave at work... And yes, Doug, Dave's "working." :)

This month was Mother's Day! Dave served Melissa breakfast in bed. Even if it is oatmeal, it was still really fun!

Wow! What a display of Mother's Day gifts for Melissa's first Mother's Day!

Of course Melissa's gifts included a flower, chocolates, baby things, and a card from baby Emily. :)

A picture of Dave doing what he does best...dishes.

Just after Mother's Day we celebrated our first anniversary! We can't believe it's already been a whole year.

That morning we went to the temple at the same time we were sealed to participate in sealings. What a fun time to remember our own wedding!

After the temple, Dave sang his song to Melissa - the one he wrote and sang to her at the wedding luncheon last year.

Dave's anniversary gift to Melissa was glass and matting for this picture of her in her wedding dress. She was so excited!

That day we also read our journals from our wedding day. It was so much fun to remember how wonderful that day was.

And we finished our fun anniversary with a nice dinner at Olive Garden. Wow! What a huge treat! Thank you to those who made it possible. :)

Aren't you glad you don't have to be with Dave in public places?

Oh, but our anniversary wouldn't have been complete without eating the top of our wedding cake! Yep. Frozen for a year, the cake was delicious. Actually, it was more delicious than we had anticipated. We eventually ate the whole thing! Thanks, Mom, Rebecca and Beth Ann!

A few days after our anniversary Rebecca threw a baby shower for Melissa! Dave was asked to stay for this competition. Now that Melissa knows how good he is at changing diapers, he'll never get out of it.

We love summer! Last week for Memorial Day we had a picnic with Chris at the park by our apartment. It was so much fun!

We also enjoyed babysitting Emma this month for a few days. It was good practice for things to come.

Thanks for reading. We love you all!

Dave's speech reported on BYU TV!

2010-05-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

Click on the following link to see Dave on BYU TV! Watch the May 23rd episode to see their coverage of Dave's Chinese speech competition.

http://www.byutv.org/byuweekly/