Emliy is 4 Years 9 Months Old!

Hi everyone! It's that time again- the monthly update on our big girl!  Shockingly, this month I have very few photos to share (read-- I hardly used my camera at home this month!)  It's been pretty busy around here and very, very, very, very rainy (did you get that part?? It's like the rainiest July on record, I swear!)  We've been cooped up inside or playing at friend's houses for the whole month and I simply haven't been taking as many photos as normal.  Hopefully some good weather is on the way- we need to PLAY! Here's what's been happening this month:

- We bought Emily a kindergarten readiness workbook from Sam's and she absolutely loves doing her "work".  She will happily sit and work on pages with you and loves to follow the directions in the book and learn new things.  So far, so good...and we are totally amazed at how she is able to defend her answers when we ask-- she has very advanced reasoning abilities, for sure!

- She stayed the night with Granny and Grandaddy a few times this month which was great- Audrey tends to sleep later so if Emily is not home, Paul and I get to sleep a little extra too!!

- She attended VBS at an area church in our town.  We have lots of friends who attend there and she went with our neighbors-- she had a great time!  She would come home each night and tell me all about how much she liked the games and stories and crafts.  Our church's VBS is next week so hopefully she'll love it just as much!

- She put my self- tanning lotion all over Audrey one day....that insured that Audrey got an IMMEDIATE bath, lol!

- She has all but stopped eating any cooked vegetables.

- She is in love with fresh peaches from the market down the road.

- She got to hang out with friends and stay up VERY late for fireworks on the 4th of July- and loved every minute! It was a great party and she had a fun time.

- She is love with poems from Shel Silverstein's books A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Which is perfect, to me, because I love them too! It's funny- most of these poems were written a long time ago and some of them are incredibly politically INcorrect...sometimes we have to adjust the language or the message but she enjoys the majority of them.

- She is more helpful around the house.

- She has decided (of her own volition here- we did not tell or ask her) to bring her own money to church now for her offering.  Absolutely melts my heart that she is willing to give to help others.  It's especially sweet when she talks about why we give an offering to our church-- her answer is precious!

- Our neighbors (2 of which are some of Emily's closest friends) have been on vacation for 2 weeks this summer and Emily is really missing them a lot!

- She has started to draw amazingly realistic pictures of people and things- she remember things like fingers, eyelashes, etc... It's amazing!  She loves to sit and draw with markers, cut paper, string beads, etc.

Thanks for checking in on our girl! More photos to come this month, promise!  There are some in the album that I had already posted so I'm not including them in this post. :)

Audrey is 22 Months Old!

We're just ticking along here-- Audrey is 22 months old this month and we just can't believe it!  Here's what she's like right now:

- she LOVES the word NO.  LOVES it.  Also nooooooo, NOOOO, nnnnnope, and NONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!  She is happy to demonstrate if you need an example. ;)

- she has been staying in more this month than last month- it's been SO incredibly hot outside and we've had a huge crop of clover pop up in our yard, which has brought around a ton of bees.  I've been afraid to let her play much outside.  We've also been having some work done to our backyard so we've not been able to let her swim much either.  

- while we've been inside playing she has learned to drive herself on her little car (backwards, but she can do it herself!), and she has been playing with babies a lot.  It's so sweet to see her taking care of them, giving them their pacis, changing their diapers, etc.  She loves her little babies!

- she learned to sing Happy Birthday this month, and sings it just about every day.

- she learned to go down the steps backward.

- she fell asleep in my arms once this month, and it totally melted my heart! It's probably the last time she'll fall asleep in my arms so I just sat and kept rocking her and savoring the minutes!

- she likes to play with Play-Doh now.

- she says "Yes ma'am" when you tell her something- it's hilarious!

- she went down the GIANT slides at our local bounce house place- crazy baby!

- she had her nails painted for the first time, and I thought for sure she would be too wiggly but oh no-- she didn't move a muscle!

 -she loves to play with the girls' dollhouse, and especially to wear a ponytail while she does it, just so she can look like she's about TWELVE and break my heart!

- we had a stray dog live with us for a few days and she ADORED him!  Too bad we couldn't keep that sweet old guy!

That's all the news to report for this month.  Thanks for checking on our sweet little lamb!!! :)

Emily is 4 Years 8 Months Old!

It's official- this summer is FLYING by!  How is it already the end of June (almost?!)  We are cruising on through the days and having a great time with our sweet girls. Here's what life is like with Emily this month:

- We traveled to Cincinnati for a few days for a vacation.  It was SO nice to get away and have Paul ALLLLLL to ourselves for a few days! We stayed the first night at Great Wolf Lodge where Emily swam like crazy!  She was a total water dog- never left the pool except to eat!  She really surprised us with how eager she was to ride the water tunnel rides- some of them are very fast and steep and she just yelled and laughed and enjoyed every minute.  I think we have another adrenaline junkie in our house!

   The second day of the trip we spent more time at Great Wolf and then had dinner out. We stayed that night in a Hampton Inn (after briefly checking in at the Kings Island Resort across from Great Wolf....absolutely DISGUSTING----- stained carpets, debris all over the carpet, including plastic trash and a SAFETY PIN(!!!!!!), broken furniture...it was AWFUL.  We checked in, saw the room, and then promptly demanded a refund and left.  I have no idea how that place is even open!)  Once we were safely in our nice, clean Hampton Inn room, we snuggled up and went to bed- we were worn out from all the fun at GWL.

The third day we headed out to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens.  We had a great time, even though Emily was completely exhausted and pretty whiny.  We made it about 2.5 hours before Paul and I had had enough of the complaining and decided we would just head home, haha!!!  Emily even fell asleep in the car on the way home and that NEVER happens!  Overall it was a fantastic trip and we all enjoyed the time together.

- She is reading more words this month and is constantly writing us notes and drawing very detailed pictures for us.  Growing up for sure. :/

- She had her first sleepover with her friends Lila and Caroline.  It was so much fun! We watched movies, did hair, danced, and played a ton.  Emily had a great time and was a terrific hostess.  She is already planning the next time friends sleep over!

- She has been still going to preschool each morning (well, most mornings...there are a lot of Home Days this summer, for sure!) so she can see friends and socialize. What's funny is that on the (rare) days that she is there after nap starts, she will nap.....but she never naps at home anymore.  As soon as we hit the driveway, all the kids in the neighborhood come running to get her and they play outside for the rest of the day!  I actually miss having her inside with me in the afternoons- we snuggle and watch movies, rest together, etc....but I am definitely second fiddle to the neighborhood kids. I guess that's how it should be. ;)

- She is growing- I had to buy size 6 panties (she probably really needed a 5, but those little boogers shrink SOOOO much in the wash- it's crazy!) She is in mostly size 10 shoes.  Any NEW clothes I'm getting for her are size 5-- no more 4 or 4T.  She is also about 41 inches tall- I'm amazed!

- She is very into accessories now- every day it's headbands, or bracelets, or a necklace, or fingernail polish, or earrings, or a handbag....or ALL of the above.  For a while there was a trend in her class to wear TWO headbands at the same time-- haha!!! They were all so in love with it for about, oh I don't know, a week.  Then they (sort of) came to their senses!

- We used sponge rollers in her hair on Father's Day because she wanted to "look extra beautiful" for her daddy and grandaddy (see Accessories, above, ha!)  I would LOVE to know if her hair will really hold a curl or not, but I haven't been able to tell yet because the few times we've rolled her hair, she has insisted on taking them out just an hour or so after...not long enough at all.  Maybe someday she will sleep all night with them in and we can really know!

- She thinks we're eating too much corn on the cob this summer and accused us of having it "every single day."  Which was a stretch...but not by very much. :)

- She is getting very good at helping with Audrey- they will play together now for a while and will play cooperatively- pretending to do the same thing (like they will both be a Mommy and have a baby, etc). 

- Both girls are spending HOURS in the pool and water tables both here and at the in-laws house.  They are having a wonderful summer!

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