Emily is 3 Years and 9 Months Old!

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by- my big girl is growing up!  She is doing so much every day and is always making us laugh.  Here's the Monthly Update:

- she is still in love with her school but (finally) misbehaved yesterday.  When I got there to pick her up her teacher told me what happened and OMG.  You would not believe how upset she got.  I told Miss Teresa that I have gotten not-so-good reports from her teachers before and Emily hadn't seemed to care one way or the other, so I think she must REALLY, REALLY value Miss Teresa's opinion because she was falling apart yesterday knowing that Miss Teresa wasn't happy.  Of course I busted out my Mom Look and she cried so hard and told me, "Don't make that face at me!" She wanted to know if I was disappointed in her and I said I was disappointed in her actions and I hoped she wouldn't do it again.  Poor girl just cried and cried.  I honestly think she's learned her lesson, lol! 

- she continues to boss us every minute show Leadership Potential.  This month it's still a lot of putting us down for "nap" all over the house (oh, and also anyone who comes to our house, too) but now we have added in the fact that ONLY she should be talking, EVERYONE else needs to be quiet.  This is especially important in the car and even moreso if Paul and I are actually trying to have a conversation.  She will be back there going, "Emily is being quiet [HA! what a joke], she gets a sticker...Audrey is being quiet, she gets a sticker...Daddy is not being quiet...Mommy is not being quiet... 'Daddy and Mommy, you are not being quiet so you do not get a sticker! Now everybody BE QUIET".  She'll keep saying it over and over even when she is truly the only one talking (because Paul and I have given up decided to play along).  Honestly it is cute the first couple of minutes and then it gets really, really old.  Can't wait for Audrey to start talking too and then Emily will be the only one "earning" her sticker. Ha!

- She has decided that feeding Audrey is pretty fun and actually does a really good job of giving her little bites and being gentle. 

- She is continuing to add more words to the list she can read.  She now knows how to identify/read I, at, the, go, Mommy, Daddy, Emily, Audrey, Abbie, Katie, and sometimes me.  I am so proud!

- She has decided that she really, really wants to have Audrey go to her school with her.  I think there are a lot of siblings in her class and she sees them all going in and out with younger and older kids and is a little jealous.  Too bad Audrey's name is not even being considered for the baby or 1 year old rooms...the earliest I wanted her to go was when she was 2.  Poor Em has some time to wait until her sister can go too!!! She actually told Teresa that Audrey was starting there this Monday...where does she come up with this stuff??

- She is making lots of friends at school and we are making friends with a lot of families in our area.  It is so nice to find whole families to hang out with!  Emily has really enjoyed having people over to the house and playing with new kids, and Paul and I are enjoying making new friends.

- She has become all but obsessed with my in-laws moving here.  They close on their house here in a few weeks and then will need another few weeks to get it ready before they even start the moving process. I just don't have the heart to tell my girl that it will be another couple of months before she can go to their house after school, go get ice cream in the afternoons, spend the night, etc.  She is SO excited for them to move here and I know she will be ecstatic having them so close.  I think the whole family will enjoy it!

- She is trying so hard to understand the concept of time better.  This morning we had this conversation:
Emily: "Mommy, I want ALL of these Barbies." (She was looking on the back of the box of the Barbie Paul bought her last weekend."
Me: "Ok, well, you can ask for them for your birthday."
Emily: "In 3 months?"
Me: "Yes, in 3 months. You know, when Mommy was a little girl, I LOVED playing with Barbies just like you do."
Emily: "And I played with you?"
Me: "No, I didn't know you then...you weren't born yet."
Emily: "I wasn't Borned Out?"
Me: "No, you weren't Borned Out yet."
Emily: "When was I Borned Out?"
Me: "You were born on October 21, 2007."

*short pause*

Emily: "HEY!! I KNOW THAT DAY!  OCTOVER 21ST IS MY BIRTHDAY!  THAT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!"
 Seriously-----she is a laugh a minute right now!

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite photos from the month-- there's plenty more in the albums in the Picasa link on the right.  Thanks for checking on my sweet girl!

Photo Break!

2 of my recent favorites....how did we ever make the world's prettiest girl....TWICE??  :)

Everybody look at us, cause we're sailing on a boat....

We took the girls on their first boat ride last Saturday.  Our friend Aaron's parents, Dave and Sheila, have a boat and they let Aaron, his wife Terri, and their 2 kiddos bring it to the slip near our house.  We had a scrumptious dinner (bbq chicken and lots of veggies from Aaron and Terri's garden) and then drove down to the river access and loaded the kids in the boat.

Let me just tell you, this is probably going to be the only summer we don't have some sort of watercraft-- we had SO much fun out there!  Emily absolutely LOVED the boat and had a blast watching the waves, letting the wind go in her hair, and "driving" the boat. (Thanks to Aaron's quick reflexes for correcting her HUGE turn to the left that nearly capsized us all!) 

The pictures speak a thousand words...sorry some are very overexposed-- it was super sunny, even for 6pm and they looked a whole lot better in my viewfinder than when I actually uploaded them.

I love this picture..."Boat shmoat" hahah!

A jet skier who came and rode in our wake.

WINDY!

Our house from the river.

Crazy driver!

She's probably telling him to let go.

Cooper proved to be a much calmer, safer driver than Emily.

Aaron, Cooper, and Ashtan.

Wild things at the bow of the ship.

4th Of July Fun!

We had the best 4th of July weekend!  My bff Adrianne and her sweet family (husband Sam, 3 year old daughter Wynn and 1 year old daughter Auden) came to visit and stay with us.  We had such a great time! 

On Saturday the girls all played and Emily got to have her first "real" sleepover with Wynn (I'm guessing the sleepover Emmy and I had a few months back doesn't really count!)  They loved staying in the same bed, even if they had to be separated about an hour after we put them down...sweet girls were just too excited to rest! 

The moms and dads hung out, drank wine and beer, and watched the boats on the river.  It was so nice and it felt like we'd known each other forever, despite the fact that it was mine and Paul's first time meeting Sam.

Then Sunday morning we got up nice and early and the girls played some more.  After morning nap (for the babies) we headed to a local restaurant on a barge-- the food was amazing, and it was a really neat experience to eat right on the water.  Our poor waiter was TERRIBLE- literally forgot something every time he came to the table...oh well.  The company was great and so was the food and the girls really enjoyed getting to watch the boats up close.

After lunch we headed home and put all the girls down for nap.  Almost everyone napped, which was so fortunate since we went to a huge picnic and fireworks show that evening.  Our very dear friends Aaron and Terri, whom we've known since we lived in our first house, invited us out to their neighborhood.  We had delicious smoked salmon, ham, all kinds of picnicky side dishes and Terri's incredible hash brown casserole...mmmm! 

We waited for it to get dark and Emily got to see sparklers with Daddy:

Then Aaron put on an amazing fireworks display, complete with music!  It was so much fun and Emily really, really enjoyed getting to watch them. 

This weekend reminded us of how lucky we are to have such great friends to spend time with.  Our children are so fortunate to have friends of all ages and we are so happy to have a strong support system here and friends who would do anything for us (and we for them!) 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!!

Audrey is 10 Months Old!

I woke up this morning and asked Paul if he could believe our sweet baby was 10 months old today!!  She is growing bigger and better all the time...We just love her and her sweet disposition so much!  Here's what Audrey is doing right now:

- She learned to wave "bye bye" this month and now waves to everyone, everywhere, all the time.  It's so cute!  She totally knows she's cute when she's doing it too- love it!

- She is constantly helping me getting better at photography by sitting very still (sort of) and smiling a lot for me.  She doesn't even complain very much...yet!

- She is ALMOST crawling.  I am super excited and super nervous all at once.  I know when she's mobile she will point out all my shortcomings with babyproofing this house...probably very quickly!  Right now she will cautiously get herself into crawling position but then she bellies out and does a swimming motion- it is really funny to watch.  She will get it soon, I'm sure.

- She is eating mostly table foods now-- I did get an AWESOME deal on HappyBaby pouches which I love because they give her some unexpected veggies (she loves the banana, beet and blueberry pouch and the apple and yellow squash one) so we're going to finish those up, but she's mostly getting our food, just broken up.  Now that we have health insurance locally (it was still based in NC with Paul's old position so we'd be out of network here) I'm willing to try more foods for her.  I wanted to make sure we had good insurance that was based here just in case she had a reaction, but so far, so good!  She loved turkey the other night and ground beef too, and also loves any sort of fresh vegetable.  She is
a great eater....if anything, she's too good of an eater- she is insatiable and wants all of it yesterday...definitely has her daddy's level of patience. ;)

- She has learned how to go from lying down to sitting up, but not sitting up to lying down.  This is causing a little bit of a problem for us at nap and bedtime now because she will just sit in there instead of sleep!  I've tried going in and lying her down but she just pushes herself back into sitting.  Silly girl!

- She babbles constantly and a few times I swear it has sounded like she said a word (like "hi" to Emily's teacher the other day). 

- She loves to practice standing up- she is constantly grabbing my hands, pulling herself to standing, then sitting herself back down, then back up, down, etc.  It gets tiring after a while but I know she's getting stronger.


- She absolutely ADORES Emily.  We're talking, stop-everything-hold-the-presses-my-sister-just-walked-in-the-room-will-she-play-with-me-will-she-will-she-will-she??!!!  Anytime Emily is around she is just spellbound.  Emily is getting better about wanting to spend time with her, too, so this is great!  I love watching them interact. 

- She is still so cuddly and I'm so thankful for that.  By this point a lot of babies are so bent on being independent that they won't let the mommy hold them, etc....Audrey wants none of that!  She loves for me to hold her, rock her, stroke her hair. I love it!  Yes, some days it's super annoying because she doesn't want me out of her sight, but I am trying to remember that this phase won't last forever and I should soak it up while I have her snuggliness to enjoy. 

That's all I can think of for now.  Check out the new pictures in the Picasa albums and thanks for checking on my sweet girl!