birthday girl cont...

since emi doesn't like cookies or cake...

we decided to go with something we know she likes.

ice cream! so we got an ice cream cake to celebrate.

eddie was so nice and kept relighting the candle so she could blow it out.

 

over and over and over...and each time she was so happy!

 

 she loved it!

present time!!

she loves those karen katz books 

and we thought no hitting and no biting would be good for her.

she thinks it's funny to bite and she has recently started hitting (to get a reaction we think)

she was so excited about everything.

i have a feeling this christmas will be so much fun!

 

she just had to try it on. 

 such a ham!

she loved the ohhh's and awww's from gma and gpa.

she was so funny and was loving every second of it.

thank you gma and gpa!

she will love the membership to little gym! 

can't believe she is growing up to be such a little girl, so fast...

birthday girl

the day before her birthday two big boxes arrived for emi.

i thought for sure she would be all excited.

she was like what? even looking at the doormat rather than the boxes.

after eddie showed her i think she understood better.

the birthday girl after her bath.

 

then it was time to open presents from momo and poppy (eddie's parents)

 

she loved the backpack, and it will be perfect for church.

 

all ready to cook dinner :)

 

trying on her new helmet...which she had to do herself!

poor thing won't keep her bow in anymore.

took her about 5 minutes...

 

she was so excited to get on, she didn't give eddie time to tighten the seat or handle bar.

she was squealing with excitement.

in case you were wondering...

it's a bike made to establish balance, it doesn't have pedals.

so once she has the balance down. she won't need training wheels.

{the picture all the way to the left says weee!... cause that is what she kept saying}

thank you! she loves it!!

 we are celebrating emi's birthday with my family tomorrow

since my mom was out of town and emi doesn't know the difference.

so more picture and an ice cream cake tomorrow.

twenty four months

i wish i had access to our desktop to be able to add pictures over the past two years.

i guess i will have to add some when we unpack.

emi is now a toddler, no longer a baby

she's talking more and babbling less.

she had her first hamburger this past month, along with a taste of macaroni and cheese.

she has become a super picky eater. i never know what she is going to eat.

she loves freeze dried fruit, honey roasted peanut and sunflower seeds.

she doesn't like chocolate milk, cookies, soda or cupcakes.

loves to chew on ice!

she is starting to be in the, me do it! stage. 

for example: she has to think she opened something. or put her own shoes on.

she says: no, no! stop please!! stop!

i have to wait until she fails over and over at something to finally offer help that she will accept.

emi likes to say, mom where are you?? even if i'm standing right next to her.

i obviously say that to her a bunch. 

or sometimes she says something like, what are you doing?

 but it doesn't really sound like it.

she also says: there is it! but that too isn't audible.

she says, thank you daddy! anytime someone hands her something.

i would say she is talking a little more, but i wouldn't say she is talking.

she still hasn't attended nursery. i am hoping this will be a fresh start.

but she has some major separation anxiety!

which we think is her whole sleeping issue.

her sleeping issue is at a all time low. 

she now lays with both of us to go to sleep, for naps and bedtime!

i'm hoping to "re-train" her, but we'll see. 

we are staying at my parents until eddie finds a job and/or save some money to buy a house.

so it's a little complicated right now.

she loves kipper, oswald sesame street and she's starting to enjoy dora and blue's clues.

she copies a lot that is on t.v., like actions or dancing.

emi loves music. she loves making music.

she also loves her baby doll! i love watching her take car of it.

she feeds it, pats it, rocks it and shhh's it.

 i'm seriously so amazed at how much a child can grow within 2 years.

it's been a wonderful two years! 

Happy Birthday Emi!!

we've arrived

 

 after 4 long days we arrived in california.

we are all happy to be out of the car.

we still have to unpack the truck but we are happy to finally be here.

half way there...

roads from KY to NM pretty much look the same, in case you were wondering.

we drove south to avoid any winter weather...well it's been snowing in AZ

the ride has gone smoothly with emi watching kipper or nick jr. dvd's.

every time i have put on a disney movie...she says no, no, no, please!

 

we drive about 3 hours and then take a break...

either for lunch or an ice cream treat.

but emi and i stop about every hour and a half or this happens.

we've had an accident a day so far. i'm hoping today she will stay dry.

emi has been taking about 2-3 hour naps, so that has been nice.

she pretty much watches t.v. for 6+ hours and then sleeps the rest of the time.

if she stays dry in the middle of nowhere, without a bathroom for miles.

she gets a treat!

two more long days to go! 

2,388

that's how many miles it take to get where we are going. hopefully we can make it in 4 days like we are planning.

we are pretty much packed and all ready to go. we plan to drive about 9.5 hours a day which will probably be more like 12 hours... i have a feeling emi is going to say she needs to go potty just to get out of the car.

emi isn't quite sure what is going on. i have packed a lot of her stuff while she's been napping or sleeping. so when she wakes up she is a little surprised to find her things gone. and says oh no, and goes looking for something.

tomorrow we plan to run around the town one last time, since everything is packed up. Starting tomorrow we won't have internet or t.v. service...see you in california!

for the grandparents

most of the pictures i took of emi, she wouldn't even look my way.

or gave me an over the top smile, but a few turned out.

i like them all but the top 3 are my favorite. 

maybe next month when we go back for graduation i will try again...

some of the fun we had at the quigley's

playing in the snow, or what is left of it.

she would seriously sneak up to his room all the time and ride the horse jessica's dad made him.

watching wordworld together, so the mommies could get ready.

riding the horse at discovery gateway. i mostly took videos and this was the clearest picture of all the pictures i took.

emi got a little banged up. hit her face on the corner going up the stairs and tripped and hit her cheek.

playing with play-doh. i think we will have to get some. she loved it.

we had such a fun time with the quigley's. thanks again!!

visiting gma 2011

i loved watching emi and gg (great-grandma)interact.

they seemed to have a lot of fun together.

and it makes me happy to see them have a relationship

even if emi will spend a majority of her life without my gma :(

gma definitely enjoyed herself the 5 days we were with her.

we pretty much just hung around the retirement home and visited.

we went to the movies one day and saw just go with it.

by my fifth day i was ready to eat something besides retirement food

which is pretty much like hospital food.

 we also had fun visiting with emi's aunt and uncle...

gma learned all about new technology. this picture is of her using my camera remote.
she also did something she never thought she would see the day...
she skyped on my phone with my mom.
after that she suggested maybe she needed to get an iphone.
ha! i just laughed and said she barely remembers how to work the basic phone she has.

gg showing emi her newly painted nails. emi was jealous!
emi loved playing with gma's purses, jewelery, nail file, lipstick.
she would spend 20+ minutes raiding gma's walker, multiple times a day.

 

gma won emi's heart over when she let emi play with her lotion

and gave emi unlimited amounts of lotion.

they seriously had so much fun together.  they laughed about who knows what. 

i just sat there with a full heart watching my two favorite people

enjoy each others company and create wonderful memories.

i didn't take many pictures because i wanted to take in the interaction.

gpa on the other hand...well she was pretty much deathly afraid of him 

men have that affect on her. it takes her a lot longer to warm up.

this picture was taken on our 4th day there and she was still afraid to walk past him.

with some coaxing, she would give him a high five.

and on our last day there, she finally hugged him... but he never 'held' her.

i'm so glad we will be back next month...instead of the normal 4 months.

p.s. i upgraded my blogger template thing. and i'm obviously still learning how to use it.

sneak peek

we've been in utah for past week visiting GG.

today we took H and E out for a little photo shoot.
these are just some pics that didn't turn out so well.

they were hilarious! and we got some good pics.

we are sad we just have one day left but miss daddy a lot!

good thing we will be back next month for russell's graduation.