iPhone Friday 4/29/2011

Hi all! We have had a fairly uneventful week around here, which is always a nice thing. My parents came into town Tuesday night, so Emmy played hooky on Wednesday with Mimi.

This first pic is Emmy with her cousin Hays at the zoo last Friday . Hays' daddy is my brother Jay and today is uncle Jay Jay's birthday. Happy birthday!



Fell asleep 10 minutes into the trip home after the zoo.



On Friday, right before the storms rolled in.



I have better pix from Easter on the big camera, but this is the best pic I could get of Emmy on Easter.



My crazy sleeper.



And the trend continues.



Happy Friday!

Easter 2011: Egg hunt and Egg dyeing

So Easter 2011 is off to a roaring start.
This morning we hunted eggs in Owasso with Jackson, Jarrod and Kim (Jarrod is Chris
 bro).  While we were there, we ran into Anna, Ashley and Jon (Ashley is Chris' mom's half sister?  So Chris' half aunt?  I don't know..., we just call Anna a cousin)...SO MUCH FUN. I have a plethora of good pictures from that event, so that will need to be a post all to itself.

After egg hunting, we went back to Jackson's and Emmy took a power nap there.  After she woke up we headed towards home but stopped by Barnes and Noble first.  We picked up a bunny book, an Easter book (actual religious explanation for kids) and a Pat the Bunny stuffed animal.  The first two purchases were intentional, the third purchase was a result of weak parenting.  hah!  She found it on the rack, picked it up and WOULD NOT let go while we were there.  I made the executive decision that Pat the Bunny would be going home with us.  She better not get accustomed to these purchases!!!!

After B&N we headed home, picked up dog poo, burned some sweet gum balls in the chiminea, Emmy mauled gave the puppies some lovin, had leftover pizza from Hideaway for dinner then Emmy went to bed.

This is where the fun part of my night begins!  I headed to Reasors to do some grocery shopping!

Say whhhaaattt?  You don't consider going to the grocery store at 730pm on a Saturday night fun?  Tisk tisk.
Well, after I got home I dyed some eggs...only 10.  I started with 13 but 2 got cracks while boiling (even though I followed Martha Stewart's directions for perfect boiled eggs) and then I dropped another.

Here's what I ended up with...

 I'm fairly pleased with them, but the purple didn't color well over the pink.

Oh well.

PS: I'm going to digress....the Easter book that we got Emmy is GREAT!  It almost brought tears to my eyes because it's such a simple yet effective way of telling the Easter story.  I pray so hard, although not often enough, that my daughter comes to know Christ early and loves Him without restrain.

Goggies

Sunglasses aka "goggies", are the new MUST HAVE in this household. Morning, lunch, bedtime- doesn't matter.

Full time, working outside the home remorse

Yep.

It's true that when Emmy was 8 weeks old I was extremely ready to get back to work. Let's face it, new babies aren't the most interactive beings. I was ready for some human interaction.

But here we are, a year and a half later, and now I find myself wanting what I never thought I would. There are days, especially like tomorrow that I wish for the greener grass on the other side of the fence.

My Emmers is sick. She had a 103* fever right before bedtime. So tomorrow, chris and I will split shifts. I will work in the morning them come relieve him at lunch.

Part of me wonders if she would be sick less often if I stayed at home. But then part of me wonders if I have enough patience to handle the demands of a toddler.

Sometimes I think that she would be talking more and understanding more because of increased one-on-one time if I stayed at home. And sometimes I wonder what undesirable things she would be saying and doing as result of mimicking me.

Most often, I feel quite confident in my decision. But when my baby girl actually cuddles with me because she feels so cruddy- that's when it's hard to go to work the next day.

iPhone Friday 04/13/11

Wow, the last week has REALLY flown by! At the end of last week, we traveled out to Asheville, NC. I spent the weekend at the Grove Park Inn and Chris and Emmy went to stay with his aunt and cousin in a town about 50 mins away.

Austin and Emmy.



My delicious flat bread pizza at the Market Place in Asheville.



Grove Park Inn. You've gotta put this on your "go see" list. And while you are there, spend a few extra bucks and get a massage too!



On the plane back home, this picture must be from one of the five minutes that Emmy was happy. it was our fault, tried to fly too late at night.



With Mimi and Papa on Brookside



Chilling at the doctor's office for an asthma checkup. Everything looks good!



My roses are budding and blooming. Wahoo!!!!


Happy almost weekend all!

1 year + 8 months

This is almost too scary to type, but I will be throwing a certain toddler a 2nd birthday party in less than 4 months!  What in the world???

Here are some highlights from this past month:

• All four incisors are coming in.  The fourth molar also came in, but that may have been a month or two ago.
• Seems like Emmy is picking up new words everyday.  Some of my favorites include: goggy (glasses), poop poop (although it's only used correctly 1/10th of the time), gab-gaw (grandma), ock (sock), mar-mar (in reference to her birthmark)
• Favorite Song: Wheels on the Bus, and she demands that everyone around her do the motions to the song
• Favorite Food: nothing in particular, she hasn't been eating yogurt as much as the past
• Favorite Obsession: taking shoes to their rightful owners
• Favorite Book: Goodnight Moon
• Favorite Word: NOOOOOOOOO (with the attitude of a teenager, oh dear- what are we in for?)
• Emmy now sometimes enjoys brushing her teeth since we got her a kids' spinbrush
• We started swim lessons at Miller Swim School.  Emmy is doing sooo well- she's learning to kick and row with her arms (she already had the blowing bubbles thing down).
• Health has been ok overall.  We still do the steroid inhaler twice a day, Nasonex in the AM and Zyrtec at night.  I think we finally found a winning combination.

As I say every month, this one has certain been fun.  But I will throw in that it has been a little difficult.  Stern talks and time outs don't seem to be working in the discipline area.  Chris and I have much learning to do so that we can carefully and effectively discipline our daughter. It is my prayer that I can be a good mama to Emmy. 

Guest Poster

THREE NICKNAMES: Emmers, Stinker, Baby

THREE PEOPLE THAT MAKE ME LAUGH: cousin Jackson, Bumble Monster, neighbor Lucy

THREE THINGS THAT I LOVE: throwing anything and everything that I’m not supposed to throw, bath time, being outside

THREE THINGS THAT I HATE: vegetables, sleeping in on the weekends, being told NO

THREE THINGS THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND: why mommy feels the need to paint my toenails, why I have to sit still sometimes, why my clothes must match

THREE THINGS ON MY FLOOR: brush, books, 3 pairs of shoes

THREE THINGS I AM DOING RIGHT NOW: coughing, showing someone my birthmark, tooting

THREE THINGS I CAN DO: kick in the pool, run, put on socks

THREE WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONALITY: observant, occasionally demanding, always loving

THREE THINGS I CANNOT DO: somersault, pee pee in a toilet (although mama’s trying to convince me), sit still

THREE FAVORITE FOODS: cheese ravioli, spaghetti, greek yogurt & baked sour cream & cheddar chips

THREE FOODS I DO NOT LIKE: vegetables, vegetables, vegetables

THREE BEVERAGES I DRINK REGULARLY: whole milk, apple juice, smoothies

THREE SHOWS I WATCH: Rudolph, basketball, The Office

a little taste of NOLA

from left to right, top to bottom-as told by emmy

1. play with crayons
2. watch mom combine dry beignet mix with water
3. dump onto well floured surface, mommy needs help with what "well floured" means.
4. roll out to 1/8" thick, or just guess like mommy b/c she doesn't have that super cool rolling pin that has rings on the end that help you know how thick/thin to roll out dough. PS: i think her birthday is coming up
5. have the engineer of the house cut into 2" squares
6. get powdered sugar ready
7. drop into hot oil
8. ENJOY! whoops, this picture is out of order, oh well. this boring collage was needing another picture of me anyway.
9. plate food and top with PLENTY of powdered sugar. looks like mom did get this one right.

iPhone Friday 04/01/2011

Thanks to my sweet friend Sara for reminding me about his post, or lack thereof.

Emmy giving Teddy his sippy.






Key lime pie with mango sorbet from the Polo Grill. It was DIVINE, along with everything else. I think my fave part of dinner was the kalamata olives, or maybe the 1/2 sized bottle of wine, or maybe bread being offered with each course....






This was not staged, I promise. Miss Priss found this to be the only acceptable way to drink milk. Whatever works.






Watching a rerun of The Office where Dwight and Michael brought their Asian dates who were their waitresses to the Christmas party. Perfect TV while enjoying the fire. Only thing missing was chris, who had to work late. Boo.






And an oldie but goody, Emmy at one month. (had to throw in a pic of her when she was sweet and cuddly and didn't say NO with the attitude of a tween)





Happy Friday my friends.