Thankful!

Thanksgiving is a few days away! It is so hard to believe that 2 years ago we were just telling our families that I was pregnant. I am so thankful for our little 17 month old mess! She is still into everything and starting to say more words. She absolutely melted our hearts last week when she laid down on a pillow in the living room and said, "Night Night". She now says it in her sweet little voice every night before going to sleep. She is also saying please and making the sign at the same time...equally adorable! Her main vocabulary consists of mama, dada, milk, bye bye, night night, please, and baby. Surprisingly, "No" isn't in her vocabulary yet. I'm sure it is coming soon! Right now, she just shakes her head when she doesn't want or like something. Her latest trick is to get into somersault position and wait for someone to flip her over. We aren't sure where she learned this one, but it is pretty cute! I've posted some recent fall pictures below.

We bought Emmy a ladybug costume for Halloween, and she absolutely HATED the headpiece. She doesn't like hats or headbands, so this was not a huge surprise. She screamed every time we tried putting it on her, but we had to snap a picture anyway!

 

Emmy and R.L. at the Reston Zoo. We thought she would love all of the animals, but she was a little scared. She did love the ducks, and she kept "talking" to them.

 

 

Saturday night out for dinner.

We had so much fun seeing Angie, Sid, and Elizabeth when they came in town. We went to the pumpkin patch, and Elizabeth was so cute taking Emmy by the hand!

 

Emmy and her friend Ben going for a ride!

 

One of my fall favorites!

 

Emmy Summer Updates

Emmy is 15 months old today. Since I haven't posted what she is doing lately, I wanted to take some time to do so. Emmy literally started walking almost on her 1st birthday. She was taking a few steps here and there, and while we were in Forth Worth, she started taking off. I'm not sure whether she was just ready or that my grandparents have carpet and that helped her to walk. Needless to say, she was excited to walk to everyone and has been all over the place since. RL and I will say, "I'm gonna get you", and she will take off almost in a run now. She is so cute trying to run, waddling back and forth! She is waving hello and goodbye. Her wave looks like a Miss America wave, and she gets a big grin on her face when she waves. It is pretty cute. She claps her hands, kicks her feet, just started giving hugs, and even more recently has given kisses to mommy. Her kiss is a wide open mouth coming straight for my mouth. It is the best and makes me so happy!

She doesn't have too many "words" yet, but says ma, da da, and the beginning sound to many words (Buh for book, bunny, bath and ball; duh for dog; nah for snack; muh for milk). I've tried sign language to avoid those frustrational moments when she cannot tell me what she wants, but it hasn't taken too well. I'll keep trying! She is learning her body parts, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, head, fingers, toes. She says "mmmmm" when we ask what a cow says.

We are absolutely in love with this stage. She is such a sponge, soaking in everything around her. She amazes us with something new all the time. I wish we didn't live so far from our family and close friends so everyone could see her more often! We had a great summer of traveling and relaxing some too. We are ready for fall now!

Here is Emmy at 12 months at the airport on our way to Fort Worth to visit. First Steps!

 

 Happy Fourth of July in Fayetteville with family!

 

Beach trip with the Gearharts in July!

 One of my favorites! My dad pulled her down to the beach every day in the wagon.

 

A great ending to our summer...and our first trip to the Homestead.

Happy 1st Birthday...3 months later!

Yes, it has been three months since Emmy's first birthday. Our little girl is almost 15 months now! I will post updates on her in my next blog, but I want to share about her big day first! We decided to keep her party small, just a few couple friends that have babies. I got in trouble by several friends that weren't invited, so we ended up inviting more! Next time we will know that everyone wants to attend first birthday parties! The weather was beautiful, and we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and the babies played in the playroom and in the baby pool, well sort of! RL filled it up too cold and they all cried when they got in! We all got a laugh! It was really fun having everyone over and getting the babies together. We don't do that often enough! RL and I made cupcakes, and I must admit they were really good! We also made Emmy a "smashcake". She wasn't at all sure what to do when we set it in front of her and started singing. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and stared at the cake. We had to put some on our finger and let her lick it. Finally, RL handed her a big hunk of cake and she started digging in. A couple minutes later, I took it away fearing how much sugar I knew was in it! Here are some pictures of our sweet little one year old's big day!

Gone But Never Forgotten

I have so many things that I would like to post, from Emmy's first birthday to all of our summer trips. For now, something takes precedence. I want to post a tribute to my Grandaddy. Grandaddy passed away on August 19, 2012. He was 88 years old. He was one of the most amazing men I have ever met. Anyone that knew him, would definitely never forget him. He was a family man... kind, sensitive, passionate, smart, and devoted. He never met a stranger, and he was so proud of every member in his family. Growing up, Jessica and I spent so much time in Fort Worth visiting Grammy and Grandaddy. They took us on our first beach trip...Galveston, Texas! We spent countless hours playing in their pool and having tea parties on their deck. Grandaddy was always a big part of it all. He was an amazing cook. His breakfast spreads were unbelievable, and we had to have his tapioca pudding every time we visited. There are so many things I will never forget about my Grandaddy. I am a better person for knowing him, and I feel so fortunate for having him in my life for so long.

I am especially fortunate that he got to meet his great-granddaughter, sweet Emmy, two different times. We visited in September when she was just 4 months old, and we visited again about 6 weeks before his passing. We happened to be in Fort Worth on Emmy's first birthday. Even though I know Emmy will not remember these visits when she gets older, it was so special for all of us. We captured a few pictures of Grandaddy with Emmy on our most recent trip. They are below. We will never forget such a wonderful man that made this world a better place. I love you, Grandaddy.

Grandaddy holding Emmy in June

 Grandaddy and Emmy, Emmy 4 months

 Celebrating Emmy's first birthday, June 30, 2012:

Grammy, Jennifer, Emmy, Grandaddy, Alex, and Candy

 My Amazing Grandfather

Sweet Emmy Lou

Ahhh! Our little girl is already 11 months old! It seriously feels somedays like I was just pregnant and awaiting her arrival. Time flies so fast! We are really starting to see a personality in Emmy lately. She is full of energy, spunk, and into everything! We laughed at her one week appointment when our doctor said she was opinionated, but we can see it now! She is crawling through the house, pulling up on every piece of furniture she can get her hands on, and opening any cabinet that she can. We FINALLY finished babyproofing our cabinets last weekend. She is really frustrated when she tries to open those cabinets that she could get into before our babyproofing.
Emmy had her first trip to the beach in May for Leslie's wedding. She seemed to like the beach, and I figured out that it is best to take her out when she is fresh from a nap!
Emmy is a great eater, and it happens to be her favorite thing to do these days! She is eating sweet potatoes, broccoli, carrots, tofu, chicken, tilapia, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, grapes, bananas, strawberries, peaches, and anything she can get from our plates too!
It is almost my summer break, and we are looking forward to a trip to Arkansas and Texas to see family and our annual trip to the beach with the Gearhart family. It will be nice to have some time at home with Emmy too. Here are some picture from the past couple of months...

She had something in each hand and literally bent over face first to put the cup in her mouth!

                         Sweet beach baby!

       Mommy let me eat spaghetti for the first time.

      Did I mention she is into everything?



It's been a while!

Wow! I knew it had been a while, but didn't realize it had been 4 months since I have last posted. A lot has happened in 4 months! Emmy has started eating solid foods! We started with rice cereal, then baby food fruits and veggies, and now Emmy is eating baby food fruits and veggies, cheerios, chunks of banana, yogurt, and Baby Mum Mums. She is quite an eater and hasn't met a food she didn't like yet! Wonder where she gets that gene? She has six teeth! There are four on top and two on bottom. She probably drools about one gallon a day!

Emmy is no longer scooting on her belly to get around. She is crawling all over the place and pulling up on any piece of furniture she can. She is into anything that we leave lying around. Her favorites include newspaper, water bottles, remote controls, phones, basically anything that isn't a toy of hers. Her latest favorite trick is pulling up on the coffee table and pushing all of the magazines onto the floor. We have had to move most things out of her reach.

She has so much energy and is so much fun right now. She is babbling all the time, and she is slowly learning to wave bye bye. She loves strolling down to the park to swing in the baby swing. She giggles and babbles the whole time she is in the swing. She lights up when her daddy comes in the door from work.

RL and I had our first trip away from her at the end of February, and Cici came to stay for 4 days. Emmy did great, and we had a nice trip to Cancun with our college friends. We were ready to get back to see our sweet girl.

We are already looking forward to the summer so we can travel to see all of the family and some friends too. Here are a few pictures from the past few months. Sorry there are so many, but it has been a while! These were all pretty difficult to get because Emmy does not sit still for a picture!

Emmy tearing open a Christmas gift from Nana.

Emmy in Clarksdale, MS at Christmas time at a bar owned by one of RL's friends

 Thanks to Aunt Casey, we got some great pictures from a photographer in Hot Springs. These are three of our favorites. The bottom one is with her cousin Elizabeth...so sweet!

Emmy and Buck playing in February

Emmy's first Valentine's Day

"Helping" mommy put away the groceries. Or is she showing off that she can pull up in the refrigerator?

We love strolling through the neighborhood. And it is finally nice enough outside to go on walks!