Sunday, August 26, 2007

Cousins & Pizza!

We had a surprise at church today and got to spend some extra time with everyone hanging out after church. Emily got to spend some time playing with her cousin Abby...


... and weeding the church flower bed.


We went shopping for school clothes for Ryan after church and then topped an already exciting day by having pizza night as a family! Does this picture give a hint of Emily's excitement at her first taste of pizza?



Here, we'll share a little more of the excitement of pizza and if you click on the picture below you just might see a hint of one of those new teeth that poked through a little while ago.


On a side note, I recently bought 2 new outfits for Emily and found myself looking at size 12 mos and thinking "Wow, this girl's getting really big!" Then, I caught myself smiling because after all she is 15 mos. old now. (She was 9 mos. old when we brought her home in February and she was still able to fit into mostly 3-6 mos. clothes because her waist was so tiny.) Emily still isn't chunky or pudgy by any means, but she is starting to fill out. Her arms, legs and tummy used to remind me of a teenage girl's - very long and slender (but not scrawny or sickly looking). Her hair is also starting to grow longer and thicker even though most of our pictures in the recent entries don't really look like it. We get a lot of mixed reviews on what color most people think her hair will be. The majority of people say it will be blond, but she has very long, dark eyelashes. I tend to think her hair will darken as she gets older. Her eyes seem to be changing in color a bit too. When we first met, they were mostly gray with a hint of blue... just like Tom's. They still look very gray, but some days they have a little more green to them.

Emily is still a very cuddly little girl. She just recently started patting my back and rubbing my shoulder when I first pick her up out of her crib or as we're snuggling before I put her to bed for the night. She also still loves to give big hugs and now shares them with Dad and Ryan.

She's also starting to develop an independent streak... which is normal for this stage of her development (so I keep telling myself to be patient, it's a good thing). Every now and then Emily decides she wants to go somewhere she knows she's not allowed to go and when she's caught and detained she throws a fit. She's testing her boundaries and learning that they are fairly consistent between both Mom and Dad. This "fit" usually involves flopping herself onto the floor and laying her head down gently in a dramatic show (and sometimes peeking up to see if we're watching!) When this happens she cries hard and sometimes flails around a bit, kicking and twisting. Her face usually turns red, she pours on the waterworks and her head gets real hot and sweaty. I'm really hoping this is just one of those phases she's going through. These little episodes don't usually last that long and my diversion and distraction techniques usually do the trick. Woohoo for child development and all those college classes!

Party at Aunt Shell's

Aunt Shell and Laura had a pool party this weekend. Aunt Shell took some great pictures... maybe she'll read this and share them with me so I can post some for the rest of Emily's fan club (hint, hint).

Here are some post swimming pictures. (By the way... Emily really enjoyed the pool!)

Emily with her best buddy and favorite brother in the world... okay, so he's her only brother but what's not to like?!?!


I'm not exactly sure who the guilty party was, but someone decided Emily should wear her shorts on her head - and she seemed to agree. She left them on her head for quite a long time. Hmmm, maybe Grandma and Grandpa play this game with her while they're babysitting?

Here's a picture of Max's excitement at Emily taking over his living room floor. Doesn't he look just absolutely thrilled?


Yeah, she doesn't look too bummed out about wearing pants on her head, does she?

A Day With Dad


Emily hangs out with her daddy once a week now that I'm back to work. It's wonderful that they get to spend this time together. She also got to play with Daddy's new hat. She LOVES to put hats on her head.

Sleepers - 8/13/07

We had a rough night last week. I had put Emily to bed as usual and she fought it with everything she had... which is not normal. Most nights Emily will either lay down and fall asleep fairly quick or she will fuss for just a few minutes as she watches me walk out of her bedroom. On this night though, she cried - hard - for about 20-25 minutes. She cried herself beyond the point of being able to calm herself back down so I went in to rock with her for a while.

We rocked for a while but she would not go back to sleep for anything. I ended up rocking her for about 45 minutes until we both finally fell asleep. Dad came home from work a bit late and this is what he found...



Oh, and call me slow, but I happened to catch a peek of Em's mouth tonight (8/26) while she was laughing and I realized she has 2 new teeth that look like they might have broken through the surface a little over a week ago... hmmmm. They're both on her left side and look like they might be molars. Do you see the connection? ;-)

Emily & Ryan


Catching up on postings this evening... Here's a cute picture of Ryan and Emily from Saturday, August 4th. She really does love Ryan a lot and is so excited when he joins us on the weekends. I kinda think he's got a softspot for her too. ;-)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Our Travel Map

I know, I know, we have a lot of updating to do on this blog so you can see how Emily's doing. However, I found a really neat website that I thought was fun. I know a couple of family members who could really get into this... (Michelle, Laura, Mom, Dad....)

Get Your Own MapView Larger Map

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Lauren's Early B-Day Party

My cousin Karen and her family were still in town on Friday and the family got together to celebrate Lauren's 1st birthday a few months early. Here are some fun pictures of the evening!






Giggle Monster

I know a few of you check our blog first thing each morning to see if we've posted anything yet. Here's something to brighten your day! (I apologize for the video being dark, but the main thing is to make sure your volume is turned up!)



(The summary of what just happened... Emily gets a little slap-happy when she's up past her bedtime and especially when Daddy is making faces and funny noises at her!)

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

More Vacation Pictures


Here are some more pictures from our trip to Townsend, TN a few weeks ago. Most of these pictures were taken in Cades Cove... a beautiful area in the Smoky Mountain National Park where there is almost always an abundance of wildlife to photograph. And, for your viewing pleasure, I've also included my obligatory picture of Emily... a close-up taken on the front porch of our cabin.














Emily and Lauren

My cousin, Karen, and her daughter, Lauren, are in town this week and stopped by for a visit with Emily and I yesterday afternoon. It was great to catch up with each other and to let our daughters have some time to play together without lots of family around. Lauren is quite shy and by toward the end of the visit she had warmed up to us enough to leave Mom's lap and play with Emily on the other side of the room.

p.s. - Still no word yet on the results from Emily's MRI. I'm going to call them today to see what I can find out.




Apparently Emily needs to collect a sample of everyone's hair or perhaps she's just jealous that most people have more than she does.


Not exactly sure what she's doing in this picture. She might have been going for an ear and Lauren caught her. ;-)



Emily and Kael

Last night we spent the evening with our friends Keith and Jessica and their daughter, Kael. What a fun night and the girls got along great together!









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