Christmas

Emmi's second Christmas went pretty well. For the first time since we moved to NC we decided to stay home. Granted we missed seeing friends and family, it was good to not have to travel and we got to enjoy the comforts of our own home. After the new year, we'll also have a lot of visitors. Taryn's cousin's Beau and Alana, my best friend/Emmi's God Father Phil, and my nephew Justin and Taryn's bro Joey will all be paying us a visit. We'll also be expecting a visit from my Dad as he will have no excuse as we will be paying his travel expenses.

As for Christmas. Santa brought Emmi a pimp Radio Flyer wagon. One of the all wood ones that weighs like 300lbs. Will she be able to pull it? Probably not until she's like 17. But you know what? That's all right. I wanted one but never got one. *My parents got me a wheel barrow. Do you know what it's like, when you're 6 years old, have no friends, and sit in your yard, by yourself, in a wheel barrow, and get mocked by other neighborhood kids in their Radio Flyers? Yeah it's damaging. That wasn't going to happen Emmi. I wanted her to have a wagon that would run over small children and animals. Taryn will probably post pics of it later.

Now on to Santa. What's up with this guy? He delivered the wagon, but didn't put it together. I don't know if he had to lay off some Elf's or is waiting on his economic stimulus package or what. He left it up to me. Dude is getting lazy. Good thing is there are no left over spare parts. Can't really guarantee that it's assembled correctly, but on the short trips up and down the street, it managed to stay together.

As for Kona's Christmas present, Santa and his parents were really lacking this year. I did manage to take him out yesterday and do one of his favorite things......mountain bike. I did receive one comment that I'm sure we'll be hearing more of. "Hey look, it's Marley!!" in reference to the moving Marley and me. Yes, it was kind of cute but I forsee this being said to me so many times when I'm out with him, that I'm going to want to start throat punching people. Yes he's a yellow lab, yes he looks like the dog in the movie, yes he's kind of goofy......but his name is KONA. I can see that the market for yellow labs within the next month is going to grow exponentially. I'm glad we're ahead of the curve and got KONA prior to it being the "in" thing to do. Maybe we can actually market him as that dog "Marley" and have him do guest appearances at bars and whatnot. Maybe make a little money off of him.

Think that's all I got for now. Maybe I'll chime in next week with my new years resolution...

*Disclaimer: My parents actually got me a Radio Flyer wagon. I posted that merely for entertainment purposes. As for the whole no friends thing.......let's just say it's hard to pull yourself in a wagon.

Quick update

Emmi has a cold again. :^( We are busy putting our house together. Need to still send out thank yous from her b-day presents(sorry), get our Christmas shopping done(packages may be late), get a tree, drive around to check out lights, and then relax.

So here is a family pic when we saw Santa. Emmi was so scared that she started shaking. As you can see she was OK if we kept some distance between her and Santa but she would not take her eyes off him.

Where you can find Emmi...

We have been living upstairs since we are having the hardwoods installed on the first floor. We have been able to capture Emmi in her new places...

Upside down (this is one you can find her in often now)



In the desk drawer

In her bureau drawer that she pulled out

On the fouton that she climbed on

Homefront

Here is a pic of the hall before & after. Just doing some finishing work today and then we can live like normal people again. :^)

When do you think Emmi will walk???

Last night she blew us away by taking a couple steps. She did this multiple times. It started with she thinking it was so funny to put her hands on the floor and look under her legs. So Jacob grabbed the video camera to capture the moment. Well that is when she just stood then walked. Check out the video.

She is not walking yet so get your vote on. Post a comment. Where you see it say a number then comments below this post. Click there and it will bring you to another screen where you can put in your vote. Please be sure to include your name.

Dentist, Standing & Craziness

Emmi had her first Dentist appt today. She was a rock star in more ways than one. They were even able to clean her teeth with the cleaner stuff. Everyone was impressed. We dont have to go back for another year although I may send her in 6 months since I had crappy teeth. Go Emmi!!!

She also is standing more and more on her own. At first it was random look she stood for a split second type thing. Then starting this weekend it was one of those moments where Jacob and I looked at each other in amazement as she was just standing drumming on her drum. Or yesterday she was just standing as I came around the corner. What do you think, will be have a Christmas walker?

Then on the home front we are in the middle of chaos since we are getting hardwoods installed on our first floor. It is coming out great. Here is a sneak peak with the little bit that was done as of yesterday.

Happy Turkey Day

We had a great time with Grandpa, Gramma Sharl, Uncle Joe, Voie Jason, Aunt Sara, Cousins Benjamin & Tyler. Dinner was at the Goguens with some great times in the yard playing to burn calories before we ate. Here are some pics:
Emmi sure does love the wagon while cousin Benjamin gives her a ride(check out the smile on her face). Then she also loved their push car for riding in as well.

Here is the beginning of the meal with her crazy Daddy.

Here is the end of the meal.

Then to end different day she got to ride on Grandpa's shoulders.

Beautiful Fall Day

Today was a beautiful day in the mid 50's. So we decided to spend some time outside raking leaves, even though our helpers are coming in Tuesday. My Dad, Step mom and Lil' Bro usually help with this chore but we got a head start. Here is Emmi checking out the piles for us.

Emmi is fighting a little cold. Thursday night was not a good one for her as she was up multiple times which changed our plans of going to Altanta this weekend. Just Jacob went since he had a mtn bike meeting he had to attend. But Emmi seems to be on the up and up since that one night. We also found a new tooth on the bottom.

One down many more to go

That is right she is no longer a baby but a toddler as of today. We went to the doctor and she weighed in at 21 lbs 6 ounces. She is 30 inches tall. The doctor was impressed with her confidence as she rearranged the furniture in the doctors office while she was bored listening to him. hehehehe

Tid bits of information of Emmi's life so far. She has never had formula, she never had baby food from a jar, she primarily eats table foods now, she has 6 teeth, she can say words like Mama, Bubba, Dadda, Bica bak, and other random babblings, she pulls herself up on everything, walks when holding her hands or behind push toys, she just lights up when Kona comes into the room, still naps 2 times a day, climbs whatever she can, still no vaccines, had only one fever, I think 3 colds, and is just the love of our life.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!!!!

It's my party.....

That is right, we had Emmi's party this weekend with a spaghetti feed and carrot cake. There were about 30 people who came to celebrate. Here are some pics we got and also a little video.

Of course she had to end the party right. :^)

Deep In the Heart of TX....

That is where Emmi and I were on Saturday & Sunday this weekend for Cousin Amanda's wedding reception. She got married on 10/14 in Hawaii but had a reception at Joe T's in Ft Worth for those of us who couldnt make it to the wedding.

I was worried about our flights since you just never know. To get there Emmi was falling asleep before we left the ground and slept for a good 45 minutes. She then was great the rest of the flight playing with magazines and random stuff. Of course it was crazy busy once we got there. Emmi played with her second cousins and fit in great as they are in ages of, 1.5 (Jamison), 2(Preston), 3(Noah), and 4(Tristan). Plus all my cousins were around so the extra eyes was so nice.

I only brought my point and shoot camera so my pics arent that great. But here is one of my Cousins Amy, Amanda and Tristan(Matt's Daughter) with Matt waving.



Here is Emmi eating her fajita chicken, and rice.

Here she is with Grandpa. She did great considering we didnt get there until 7:00 their time which is 8:00 our time when her bed time is typically 7:30ish.


The flight home was good. It is always interesting when you are trying to nurse your baby as you take off sitting in the middle seat. Emmi didnt nap until we were decending. So needless to say the flight was busy for us. :^)

While we were away the Daddy kept busy by riding his bike in the mtns, painting the hallway so that is almost done, and doing trailwork.

Thanks everyone for a great weekend.

She's a rocking

While I was in the office I could hear Emmi talking and just being loud having a good time. When I walked in to her room this is what I found her doing.

Bathtime fun

What a cute little face.

Here are a couple pics we took of Emmi last night in the tub. I have taken 3 different classes on how to use my camera and yesterdays was lighting so had to play with the flash last night. :^)

Halloween

Well Trick or Treating was very eventful as we hit 3 houses. :^) She got a balloon and I got candy at one house. We took pics after we got home so Emmi was done so the pics arent that great. But here she is in the pumpkin costume that I made.

This is what she did last night with the costume. Guess it makes a good pillow to watch TV on.

Sew what?

I had a couple mommies over on Saturday night for a craft night. I had decided I wanted to make an outfit for Emmi. So here is a sneak peak since she was fast asleep when I finished.

Her crawl is super fast now, no more army crawl unless she is holding something and trying to crawl. This weekend she pushed her push toy across the room, it stopped at the footstool we have against the couch. She managed to climb on the toy, to the footstool on to the couch. Emmi is taking things to new levels. In the past day or so we have caught her standing for a second or two. Totally random and only on a few occasions but we know what will be coming.

Now that her outfit is done I will have to snap some new pics of her to post up in it. :^)

Pumpkin Patch

The Mommies group I am a part of met at the Pumpkin Patch today. There was a hayride which took us to where the animals were. We saw rabbits, cows, ducks, pigs, and goats. Then when the hayride was over we each got to pick out a pumpkin and could check out a tractor. The tractor was just like the one Jacob used to ride on as a kid at his Pops house. Here are some pics from the day.

As a side note my friend Ashley also let us try her Beco Butterfly carrier while there. Becides the jogging stroller we arent stroller people and we often carry Emmi everywhere. I am in love. I never should have messed with the Bjorn. You can wear it on your back or front. You can use it until they are 45lbs (not sure if Emmi will let me carry her that long). We are on the hunt.

Other random photos to share....

This is what she did with her Halloween decals that are suppose to go on the windows.

Emmi has a new best friend.

100.7 Fever

No that isn't a new radio station. It is what Emmi's temperature got to be yesterday. All day she had a runny nose, as did I. But then around 5:00pm she was very cuddly and warm. So I gave her a bath which seemed to help as she played for a little bit after. But then it got high again when we normally would feed her dinner. She would just lay on one of our shoulders and fall asleep or stare off. Since this was her first fever I was nervous.

We took her for a walk outside around 8:00pm since it was cooler out. The AC in the house was cranking. I just kept trying to nurse her every few hours. Then she came to bed with me and Jacob eventually joined us. It was like a light switched at 11:30 when she was ready to play. Thankfully it broke. She got up two times through the night. Today she she seems fine although she does have a slight stuffy nose. While I have the full blown congestion. :^(

To see your child really sick(she has only had 2 runny noses up until now) for the first time definitely isn't easy. We definitely consider ourselves lucky since she is almost 11 months old with her just having her first fever.

On the go....

Here is a video of her pushing her push toy, sorry was taken later day so the light isnt perfect. Of course we staged it since those first moments never happen with the camera rolling, but she will do this on her own.

Cabbage Patch Kids are her new thing thanks to Memere as you can see she is pushing one and there is one on the floor. For those of you who grew up in the 80's, I am sure your parents, grandparents, aunts, etc stood in lines at the toy store to get you at least one. I was fortunate to have 4 growing up. I recently found out that the "Hospital" where they are born is in Georgia. You know Emmi is going to go there once she is old enough. So go out and get your 25th anniversary Cabbage Patch Kid as they just came out with them.

The Daddy ran away....

but now he is back. It was his first weekend away from Emmi where he was driven to Snowshoe for some Downhill biking with the boys and a free place to stay (can't beat that). Emmi and I kept busy by going to a birthday party. Went running. Went to the playground with Uncle Jason and the boys. Just normal stuff to keep busy.

Over the weekend Emmi pushed her push toy across the living room twice. I didnt capture it on video but hope to soon. She also is doing the normal crawl randomly. She will take a few crawls with a serious look on her face while doing it but then drop down to the army crawl since she can go so much faster.

Emmi loves to read books and empty bookshelves to find the right one. Today I set her up to read to Mickey just so I can show you how big she has gotten. Remember the early pics of her barely half his size.

Then here is a pic of her with American Chop Suey face which shows her 5 teef.

Tutu, bows, and toof oh mi....

Emmi continues to climb the stairs, two times this weekend. Then if that wasnt enough the gate for the top of the stairs was leaning against the spare bed. She proceeded to try to scale that to get on top of the bed. Little monkey she has become.

Her 5th tooth is coming through. This one is the top front left side when looking at her. Good thing otherwise she was going to be a vampire for Halloween since the other teeth on top are really showing through.

She has rediscovered her bouncy seat. It is designed to become a toddler rocker. Here she is sitting but often she is standing in it. Yes she gets in and out of it herself.

Here is the little princess after I finished her Tutu. It is on the longer side so it will be much better when she can walk.

I spent one night this past weekend making hair bows. Her Godmother who is also super crafty, painted an 'E' for her hairbows to hang from. The picture doesnt do it justice. Thanks Alana!!!

Big weekend on the Stairs

Munchin has gone to new levels this weekend. She mastered the stairs, at least going up. She had climbed the first two stairs to the landing a few times but hadn't attempted the full set. Luckily I was upstairs at the time to grab the camera with Jacob right behind her.

Emmi turns 10 (mos) today!!!!

Today is Emmi's 10 month birthday. The other night Taryn was mentioning how she's jealous of people that we know having easier times than us with a new born. I was in the middle of working out so I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about the hardtimes we had. So in the 30 seconds of rest from me trying to do more damage to my joints, I thought about it...........What I came up with was only two "tough" nights. The first was the second night Emmi was home with us. Nothing real exciting. She just didn't want to go to sleep. Finally, Emmi and I were able to put Taryn down and get some sleep about 5am. The second time was when we had gone home for xmas last year. We were staying at my aunts and Emmi was a little off having been in a car for 12 hours. Taryn looked at it as screwing up Emmi's schedule. I looked at it as a test to see how tough Pumpkin was (she was only 5 weeks). She passed the test. She was so excited when I told her she passed, she proceeded to projectile vomit all over Taryn. Taryn thought it was gross. I looked a it as a badge of honor. If I were Taryn, I wouldn't have washed that shirt. I would have formed it into some sort of baby-vomit mache mural in honor of Emmi. I would have then placed it on our front lawn, lawn jockey style. Passer-by's would realize the baby puking power that lives at the twelve-oh-seven.

We have since graduated from baby vomit and runny poo's to solid poo's and eating oatmeal cookies whole. Not sure what the next 2 month's will bring. That's right all you math geniuses, in 2 month's Emmi will be 1. I think she'll be walking by then. And when I say walking, I really mean pillaging small villages.

That being said......happy birthday Pumpkin!!

Hair bows, cookies and a load of other stuff

We think Emmi is going to be a vet. Here she is checking Kona's teeth:

Taryn also went to a hair bow making party (yeah, I didn't know there was such a thing either) and made Emmi some bows:

She's been practicing with the sippy cup:Taryn made Pumpkin some oatmeal cookies. We put them in the snack trap but she would rather eat them off the floor. Think she likes the extra value of dog hair which it adds: