Merry Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas is in just a few days. And I can't believe I haven't posted since December 4th. Oops! Michael's out of school for the next two weeks - really looking forward to him being home. I, the lucky one, have bronchitis. But I'm already feeling better. I lost my voice earlier this week. I don't think Michael minded all that much. ;) I haven't wrapped any presents yet! Eek! Have to start that tonight.

Emma is now 10 months old. She's so big! I'm finally putting shoes on her, which for some reason make her seem even bigger. We got her the cutest pair of Ugg-like boots! It's been quite the battle though to get her to wear them. At first she'd ball up her feet so the shoes whouldn't go on. She's getting used to them though. On the 15th (the day she turned 10 months old) she got her Christmas picture taken. I love it. Again, she looks so big sitting in the chair. Notice the lovely bruise on her forehead? Nice, isn't it. I swear, sometimes I think she's really a boy. She is always getting bruises from running in to things, falling. She's always climbing, moving, walking. Doesn't sit still! She's got two teeth on the bottom and one has broken through in the top. We think the other front top tooth is coming through but it's hard to tell because she hates us to touch her mouth.



Today, we went to see Santa. Yeah. Emma didn't like him. Not at all. The instant I sat her on his lap she freaked out. Big fat tears. So I picked her up and we calmed her down. We let a few people go in front of us then we tried again. This time it was a family picture. I had Michael sit down then I told the photographer to be ready and to take it as soon as I sat down. I think I sat, literally, for no more than 10 seconds, if that. As soon as I saw the camera flash, I said "That's good!" and jumped up. Everyone in line laughed. :) As you can see by Emma's face, she was getting ready to wail! (You can click on the picture to make it bigger.)


She's walking now. Loves to walk with her push toy. She's starting to get the hang of turning when she runs into something. There's something so funny about watching her walk - she doesn't bend her legs and she takes these giant steps.


Michael's birthday was earlier this month. We had our family over to celebrate. We went to the Christmas concert at our church then came back to our house for DQ ice cream cake. Yum. (Again, no idea why the picture is sideways!)



We can't keep her off the stairs. If we put up the gate, she just stands there holding on to it. And she's fast! And is you come up bedhind her to get her down, she squeals and climbs faster - she totally thinks it's a game! Especially when Michael does it.


These are just a couple funny pictures. She has a basket of toys in the kitchen she plays with when I'm in there. This red pan is from her pots and pan set. Very cute. Plays music. Anyway, not sure exactly what she's doing with the pan, but it's funny!
Her other favorite kitchen toy is a wooden spoon. Looooves the wooden spoon. She's starting to bang the spoon on the pot like a drum. And she will crawl with toys in the hand. Like the lid to the pot - she holds it by the handle and crawls so it makes a nice loud bang every other step.




Emma is a jumper. I've mentioned this before with the Jumperoo. But now it's her crib. She loves to hold on to the rail and jump and jump and jump. Every morning, after naps, before naps if she doesn't want to go to sleep. She jumps.


We're heading to my Mom's Christmas Eve after church. We'll have a quiet day Christmas day with just the three of us. And then Tuesday Michael's family will be over. I'm really looking forward to Emma's first Christmas. I'm excited to start some new traditions. I got her some pajamas to give her Christmas Eve, I plan on giving her new PJs every year. We're going to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Christmas Eve and then the story of Jesus' birth on Christmas morning. And I think next year we'll make a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. Oh, and I picked up a Santa hat so I can take a picture of her every year in it.

That's all I can think of now. Merry Christmas and God bless!

She's had a rough couple days...

(Disclaimer: I have NO idea why two of my pictures are sideways. I don't know how to fix that, so if someone has a tip, I'd appreciate it!)

Well, Emma's had a rough couple days. She has a cold/cough. She's been in a pretty good mood, but she's coughing up some junk and her nose is very runny. Sunday, she fell down a couple stairs. She was okay, no bump, but it definitely scared her and I'm sure it hurt. Then today, she pulled a stool on top of her, smacking her in the head. She has a pretty bump/bruise. And tonight, she knocked over our floor lamp. Yep, that broke. But Emma didn't get hurt so it's okay. And in the grocery store this evening, she tried to climb out of the cart! She was belted in and still managed to get onto her knees and lean out. Crazy kid! She's an escape artist. She's rarely still anymore. If you try to block her in somewhere, she finds away around or over it. I've got a looong few years ahead of me...

We got our tree up. We went and picked it out on Sunday and got it all set up last night. Emma LOVES the train! She kept trying to pick up the cars while Michael was setting it up. Tonight They sat and watched it, she kept smiling, especially when Michael blew the horn. But the sitting nicely and watching it only lasted a few minutes, then she was trying to grab the cars again.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Picking out the tree:



Daddy messing with Emma:



Putting the angel on the tree:



Emma trying to grab the cars off the track:

November round-up

So, I’ve pretty much ignored most of November. I guess I need to do a recap.
Some highlights this month:

*Emma turned 9 months old.
*She waves and claps. She waves all the time, at herself quite often, when she's eating.
*She claps! In the cutest way, too. She takes her right hand and pats the top of her left hand.
*And speaking of patting, she pats everything! The couch, us, the bathtub, highchair, stairs. It's cute.
*She’s a speedy crawler, now. I love the sound of her crawling on the kitchen floor.
*She’s climbing stairs. It seems to be her favorite activity. Especially if Michael chases her. She climbs up a couple, looks back to make sure Michael is there, then squeals and climbs up another step.
*She loves to pull herself up to stand. She crawls under the kitchen table and uses the chairs quite often. She also likes to use us to pull herself up. She’s starting to “cruise” a little bit.
*She got a nice big bruise on her cheek the day she turned 9 months old. Which also happened to be a day before her check-up. Apparently the bumpers only work if you put them on the fireplace, not leave them in the box sitting on top. They were promptly applied.


*Because of said bruise, we didn’t get 9 month pictures done. We’re getting Christmas pictures taken in a couple weeks though. I did try to take 9 month pictures myself. Didn’t work out so well as you can see.



*Emma got a cool new toy, it's right up her dad’s alley.


*Celebrated Emma’s first Thanksgiving at Michael’s parents’ house. It was a really nice day and we had a good time. Emma sat in the high chair that Michael and both his brothers used when they were babies. Pretty cool.



*I went shopping on Black Friday with my mom and sister. I've got 4 people done - very excited about that.
*We (meaning Michael, mostly) put up our lights and I’ve got the Christmas decorations out. I’ve got one more room to do. We’re getting our tree this Saturday.


*Emma finally likes food!!! She’s eating the fruit puffs and cheerios. She’s also eaten turkey, veggies and bread.
*Michael and I attended his 15-year class reunion. We bowled. Love bowling. I had sore bowler's thumb the next day though. I swear, it's an actual condition
*Emma took a bath in the tub tonight without the safer bather baby tub for the first time. She loves bathtime. Splashing, crawling, playing with the toys.
*Another attempt at getting a picture of her, this time in her 9-month shirt. Didn't work. But it's funny.

Definitely not a fan of the leaves

So yesterday we decided to put Emma in a pile of leaves. I thought it'd make for some cute pictures. Yeah. She's not a fan. The instant her butt touched the pile she started to cry. Big fat tears rolling down her face. Then Michael got in the leaves with her, holding her so she wasn't actually sitting on any leaves. Yeah, didn't work. She absolutely hated it. It was a good idea though, right?

Our little pumpkin

While we didn't take Emma trick-or-treating, we did put her in her adorable pumpkin costume to hand out candy. She didn't mind it, she even wore the hat most of the time. She did have a little trouble crawling, as the pumpkin belly got in the way and the pants made her slip around on the floor.

Here's our little pumpkin:



Standing with the help of Daddy.


In the candy already.

(note: she didn't eat any!)

She crawled!

Our girl is no longer stuck in reverse!

Tonight she crawled forward! Woo hoo! It was very exciting. We were downstairs playing and Emma was on the floor facing a the tv and a basket of toys. I glanced up and that's when I heard her moving - I heard her little knees and hands patting the floor. I looked down and she was crawling toward the toys. I couldn't believe it! I let out a yell and started laughing. Then she smiled and started laughing too. It was so cool! I of course grabbed the video camera since Michael was at open gym and didn't get to see it. I'd pick her up, she'd crawl forward, I'd pick her up again, she'd crawl again...

Here she is in action:

Camping and some other stuff

Nothing like not updating for 11 days...oops! I guess I need to do a recap of the past week and a half.

We went camping with Michael's family. We go every year the same weekend. This year we got a cabin since we have Emma and that was really nice. Michael missed the tent, but me? Not so much. The weather wasn't as nice as it's been is years passed. There was actually snow on Friday. But since we were nice and cozy in our warm cabin, I didn't mind too much. Oh wait. That was me, Emma and Abby! Michael and Marty were out in it somewhere. :) We didn't sit around the campfire as much this year and we ate all our meals inside rather than by the fire. But we still got to go for walks, play bocce,roast marshmallows and make pizza pies over the fire. Emma was a champ! She stayed right on schedule with her naps and bedtime. I was a little worried about it but she had no problem sleeping in her pack and play.

We got a new stroller before going camping and it's awesome. Perfect for things like this when you don't need your big travel system stroller. As far as we could tell, Emma liked it too.


Emma loves riding in the backpack. She gets so excited and likes to hit Michael in the head. Which is always good for a laugh.


Aren't her arms funny? She had so many layers on they stuck straight out. She's like that boy in A Christmas Story! She was talking - a lot - that's why her mouth is open.


The trees were gorgeous!


We put Emma in a swing for the first time and she loved it! She laughed and squealed and grinned.


We went for a walk down to the lake Saturday afternoon. And it was quite bright so Emma had to wear her shades. For all of 2 minutes before she pulled them off and tried to eat them.


That's it for now. I'll post the rest of the camping pictures in a day or two.

She'll sleep anywhere

So Emma's finally getting a tooth. It is slowly, really really slowly, making it's way in. Which means we've had some rough nights the past week. She'll go to bed, then wake up a couple hours later and refuse to go back to sleep. Full out crying fits. So Tuesday night I brought her downstairs and put her in the pack-n-play (Michael's idea) with some toys, hoping she'd fall asleep. She did. Around 1 am (over an hour later) in the funniest position. Take a look:



Not sure how she slept like that but she was out. When I picked her up to take her to bed, she was limp, I'm not sure her eyes even opened. If only I was that flexible...

Funny faces

Emma is always making the funniest faces. Here are some that Rebekah captured the when she was here.
 
 
  

We had a visitor

Well, I'd planned on posting these pictures a week ago - oops! Last weekend, Rebekah came to visit. It was so much fun. It was great to see her. We hung out, scrapbooked and of course took pictures. She took some amazing family pictures for us on Sunday - I love them! So Rebekah - thank you again. :) I was sad to take her to the airport Sunday evening, I wish she could've stayed longer.

Here are some of my favorites from last weekend.

At the crop on Saturday with Jen, Marie, Rachel and Wendy. It was Rebekah's first crop.


These are the pictures Rebekah took on Sunday (except the one of her and Emma, obviously, I took that one!)








Rebekah got Emma the prettiest sweater. Turns out it matches this dress she has on. Rebekah had no idea we had the dress when she got the sweater.




In Emma news, she's finally getting a tooth! Woo hoo! Her lower right tooth is cutting through. It hasn't seemed to bother her too much except at night. It's 11:30 and she's just getting to sleep. She's still scooting around backwards, unable to figure out how to go forward. :)

Today we went to the farm to get pumpkins. It was a gorgeous day and the farm was packed. We got three pumpkins - a big pumpkin for Michael, a medium sized pumpkin for me and a baby pumpkin for Emma. This evening we went to my nephew Michael's soccer game.