It Finally Happened.....

Emerson finally discovered the ONE cabinet that doesn't have a child lock on it. I always only keep tupperwear in this one, but was thankful she hadn't found this cabinet sooner. Everyday now Emerson pulls everything out and spreads it across the floor.

Also, I finally caught on to Emerson's sneaky trick of pretending she is done eating while sitting in her highchair, while throwing the cheerios onto the floor. As soon as she is out and back down onto the floor, she goes crazy trying to eat every piece that she dropped, like I hadn't fed her or something. She is showing me that she likes to be in control of where she eats her snack!

This past week we had our good friend Sean Green in town, and fortunately it worked out for him to stay a couple nights with us. We had such a great time catching up with him and reminiscing on all the wonderful memories we have together. The first day he took a shower I noticed one of our floor mats was in the bathroom that wasn't there before. He confessed that he figured our towels in the bathroom were decorative and therefore grabbed a towel out of our linen closet before showering. As many of you know, Sean is like 6'6 I think and the fact that he had actually grabbed a small floor mat is hilarious. He said by the time he got out of the shower to dry off it was too late, so he used the mat to pat dry. The thought of such a big guy using such a small floor mat to dry off cracked me up! By the way, our towels are not decorative :). Thanks for the laughs Sean! We still wish you and the kids were there too Christina.

In To Everything.....

Lately we have been keeping a close eye on Emerson. Ever since she is mobile she is in to everything. I can barely keep up with her when she is crawling, she is so fast! It doesn't take long for her to make a mess....

I found her climbing up into the bookshelf, after she moved her toys off of it, to get to the wires that are behind it.

I love this picture because it's like she knows she's been caught!

One of the only ways I can get anything done these days is by putting her into something that has straps. She gets pretty comfortable in her swing these days.Another thing I find funny is that Rilyn always is in our bed by the early morning, most of the time I am already up with Emerson. Every time I go into our room though I find it amusing that no matter what, Jeff and Rilyn are on the edge of our king size bed. He always complains that he is falling off the bed, and I just remind him that it won't always be like this that his little girl likes being cuddled up right next to him :).

It's Not Halloween Yet, Is It?

The other day Rilyn was playing in her room and then I realized it had gotten pretty quiet. I called and asked her what she was doing and she told me it was a surprise. Lately, most of her surprises these days aren't the good kind, but I figured I would wait and see. Just then she ran out in Emerson's caterpillar bunting costume from last Halloween and said "Surprise!". I thought it was hilarious. I was surprised she actually got the costume on herself. She had a great time crawling around on the floor like a caterpillar, until she decided she was too hot being one. Kids, they always seem to keep us entertained! My little caterpillar and Duckie, of course!

Emerson watching her Sissy entertain her as well.

I am assuming this is normal, but lately Rilyn is all over Emerson, mostly in a "loving" way, giving hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, she is too rough most the time, squeezing too hard or running straight into her when she goes in for a hug. Emerson is definitely taking much more of a beating than Rilyn ever did. She has definitely learned quickly to become one tough little cookie. Notice in this picture how Emerson is thinking....okay, okay, easy.......

Then in this next picture Emerson's face is priceless, she is all scrunched up, preparing herself for Rilyn's "love".
My little Boo-Boo.

The Adventure Of Our Friend Duckie

I have to start by saying this situation was inevitable, I am just surprised it didn't happen sooner. For all those who have ever been around my daughter you know how her best friend is her Duckie. He goes practically everywhere with us and sleeps with her every night. There has been many times I have told myself that I should keep a back-up Duckie in case of emergencies, but of course, never took the time to order one. Well, it finally happened, Duckie became lost and Rilyn was panicking. Our house was turned upside down, and no Duckie was to be found. I had to think quick, so I grabbed the computer (thank you internet shopping) and told Rilyn to come look. On the screen I had pulled up the site that sells the blankies and had Duckie in our shopping cart, but to Rilyn all she realized is that she could see Duckie on the screen. I told her that he wanted to go on a vacation, but would fly home since she missed him so much. I then grabbed my Southwest Visa, which has the airplane on the card and told Rilyn that Duckie was going to fly home on that plane in a couple days. She totally bought it, THANK GOD!! For the next couple days she would ask if Duckie was getting back yet and I was so thankful that it only took 3 days to ship and arrive. The "Big Day" was so exciting, when the UPS guys rang the bell Rilyn knew right away it was Duckie! She open the packaging and pulled Duckie #2 out, but noticed he looked a little different (clean and new). I mentioned how he was well rested and had taken a bath and that seemed to be enough reason to fall in love again with her friend. Now, within hours I hear a squeal in our bedroom and then Rilyn comes running out yelling "my Duckie, my Duckie" and I see she is holding her old Duckie. Isn't this always how things happen? As soon as the new Duckie arrived, she found her old Duckie after 4 days of him missing! I quickly placed the new Duckie away and was surprised when Rilyn didn't mention anything about there being two Duckies. Crisis adverted! Life is normal again......for now :) Duckie #1 and Duckie #2, pretty obvious the difference between them.

The ultimate hiding spot, Duckie was stuffed in the side pocket of Emerson's swing.

A love reunited.

More Pictures From Nana's Visit.....

We kept my family busy while they were here between going to the pool, movies, playing in the sprinklers, going to Jeepers (an indoor "amusement park"), the mall, out to lunch, out to brunch, dance class and just having fun hanging around the house. My girls loved all the attention they got, it is definitely nice for them considering it is always usually just us. It always makes me sad though when our families leave, I wish we lived closer to both our families!!

Nana, Gramps and Grandma Mary's Visit

Here's the first batch of pictures from my parents trip out here for my Mom's birthday. We had a great time, with days packed with fun filled activities. In this picture my Mom let Rilyn use her camera to catch a picture of me and my Grandma. Rilyn loves looking at her pictures after she takes them, that is her favorite part.

Rilyn is patiently waiting for Nana to make a wish a blow those candles out so that she can finally have a piece of the cake she has been wanting forever!
Happy Birthday Nana, thank you for spending it with us!

I think you can see she is enjoying her cake! Breakfast brunch for my Mom's birthday. Yes, we sat outside in the AZ heat, but surprisingly with the breeze, shade and misters, it wasn't too bad. We would've waited for indoor seating if we didn't have two kids that you never know how long they will last. :) Here is a bunch of pictures from our morning "photo shoot". Everyone wanted a picture with the girls.

More pictures to come.......

Emerson Is 9 Months!

Emerson is now 9 months, so sad that in a short three months my baby will already be 1! We had her well baby check up yesterday and she is coming in at a healthy 19lbs 9oz. and is nearly 30in. long. She is still off the chart for her height, which the Dr. said is unusual for her not to be topping off at this point. What was she trying to tell me, that we might have an amazon child on our hands?? It is funny to see her in her carseat with her legs halfway up the back of the seat. Either way, our little one is growing and continuing to bring us so much enjoyment and happiness each day. She has been on the move now for quite awhile and is extremely fast at getting wherever it is she wants to go. She cruises along all the furniture in search for anything and everything that she shouldn't be getting into. She is a great eater and definitely prefers finger foods to baby food. Her favorites are black beans, kiwi, bananas, quesadillas and yogurt. She still loves to follow her sissy around and Rilyn can still get her to laugh the most. There are only two teeth on the bottom, but we can see four on the top that are coming in. On most nights she goes to bed by 8pm and wakes around 5am for a quick snack before snoozing again for another hour. Her smile continues to melt our hearts and more than anything we wish we could just slow down how quickly she is growing.
This is typically what I see when I walk into her room to get her :)