Ba-Ba-Ba

Recently, Emory has began singing to all her stuffed animals. She hugs them, pats them on the back, and sings what sounds like the first three notes of "lullaby and goodnight" (don't think that is the real name of the song, but you moms out there know what I'm talking about). It is too cute and I had to get it on video. Enjoy!

The Mind of a 16 1/2 month old

She had to have the pillow in her lap to read her book. I guess she's seen me with a pillow in my lap so many times, she thinks it's the norm!

Not sure why but she felt the need to move all her wipes, one by one, into her bathroom.

As Chase and I have said..."I wish I knew what was going on in that little head of hers!"

This is what happens...

When you have a VERY independent 16 1/2 month old that insists on feeding herself yogurt. It was straight to the tub after this!

Short but Sweet

So Saturday may have been one of the longest days ever. I had worked Thursday and Friday and was on call Saturday. I had a feeling I would get called in and woke up at 4:30am and then couldn't go back to sleep because I kept expecting the call. Sure enough the phone rang a little before 5 to tell me that I was needed...yuck...the only up side is that it was overtime! Anyway, our original plan was to drive to Birmingham Saturday morning to visit with Patrick and Meghan while Patrick was in from Iraq for R&R. I had all our bags packed and ready to go in case I was called in, so Emory and Chase could go on without me. I drove down Saturday after a HORRIBLE day at work so I could meet up with everyone. Long story short, we got in at 3am after having a great time with wonderful friends.

Patrick we love you and thank you for all you are doing! We can't wait to see you again in 4.5 more months! Stay safe!

Adventure Science Center

Playing with the trains.

Aren't they cute?!

"Ummm, excuse me Emory I was playing with that." There were two beach balls and they wanted to play with the same one. Go figure!

Giving Garrett a bye hug. He didn't really know how to handle it! :)

I keep telling myself I'm going to be better about blogging but then I get busy and have two or three posts piled up for one day. Oh well!

Monday was another playdate with Garrett. Kate are trying to make this a weekly thing so that the kids can interact with each other and Kate and I get a little adult conversation, although all we do is talk about our kids. Anyway, this week we went to the Adventure Science Center, it's kinda a small scale McWane Center. The kids seemed to have a great time and it was nice for them to run out some energy indoors where there's AC! It is a little old for them in most of the areas but they enjoyed pressing all the buttons and going up and down the stairs. It's worth a second visit on a rainy or scorching hot day when I need out of the house!

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A Visit to Daddy

Playing with the cars. She even makes the "vroom" noise as she moves them around.

Monday after our playdate with Garrett, we went to visit Chase at his office. This visit was slightly more eventful then normal because a neighboring house was burning and there were several fire trucks right in front of the warehouse. Emory thought they were fairly interesting. Like I have said before, not exactly the adventurous type!

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Babies, Babies, Babies

Nolan

Kolton

Emory giving Kolton some lovin'. She kept wanting to show him his eyes. Overall she did well with him...when I wasn't the one holding him! :)

Everyone around us appears to be having babies. Seriously don't drink the water where I work. Anyway, two of our friends here in Nashville both had babies a week apart. Kolton, as I have mentioned before, was born 8/8/09 to Cheryl and Travis and Nolan was born 8/15/09 to Brad and Erin. Both boys are so cute...almost makes me want another...almost! :)

BRASIL!

So I have been to Brasil twice, once with my mom while I was in college and the other was with Chase in October 2006. Both trips were for Medical Missions with our church in Birmingham. The church had a trip planned the October before Emory was born but of course, since I was pregnant and we lived in Nashville, we were unable to go. :( I asked Karen Smith if she would get our baby (we didn't know it if was a boy or a girl at that time) a soccer outfit from Rio. We had bought one for our nephew when we had been down there and wanted one for our baby too. The whole team actually ended up giving us the outfit as a baby present from them. It was so sweet and now she is FINALLY able to wear it! Thank you again for getting this for her. Chase wants her to play soccer so maybe this will have some influence over her! :)

Friday Playdate

"Garrett, where did you go this time?!"

"Excuse me Em, coming through."

Blowing kisses!

Lovin' on Garrett

Mac and Cheese and grapes...she inhaled it!

Classic!

Today we met Kate and Garrett at Dragon Park to let the kids run off some energy. They had a great time and the park is mostly shaded so it wasn't too hot for them or us. Honestly I don't think they would have cared. Emory unfortunately is me, made over!! There isn't an adventurous bone in her body! She is SO cautious in EVERYTHING she does, sometimes I wish she was a little bit more like her daddy. My next child though I'm sure will have NO fear and I will wish they were more like me! Oh well! Garrett was running laps around Emory and not until the end did we get a picture of the two of them together! While we were at lunch, this little old man came up and asked us when the wedding was planned! He said "so 18 years?!" Umm, try more like 20+ years! Ha! Monday...Adventure Science Center!

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16 Months!

What have we been up to? So VERY much! Emory is growing up ENTIRELY too fast!! So here it goes...

- Cutting two more teeth and apparently these have been very hard for her. It has not been a fun week...too much drool, too much poop, and very fussy. She has been sleeping with us every other night because it's the only bed she doesn't scream in...seriously, she screams bloody murder for 10 minutes straight when you put her in her crib. I can't handle it, so we've been sleeping with hands and feet in our faces all week!
-She has become obsessed with throwing things in the trash, The other day I caught her trying to throw away one of my cookbooks. There's no telling what she has managed to put in there without my knowledge.
-She can say a few more words now, "hot," "ball," anything round is considered a ball, i.e. the lime she threw off the counter the other day, "no," not fond of this one, but she likes to tell the dogs no when they start barking, "no doggie," I have to admit it's pretty cute, "shoes," which is more like "sooz" but I know what she means, she LOVES to try and put her "sooz" on and she will even try and help you with your own. She will get upset if up don't put them on immediately! Also, "bow," "fish," and "plane" except plane sounds more like "dane."
-If you are holding Emory and she says "eyes" close yours immediately because there is a finger headed towards them!
-She wants to go down the stairs like a big girl, standing up and holding onto the rail! Not cool!
-I have discovered fisherprice.com which has games that respond to any key she hits on the keyboard.
-She still loves being outside but the bugs love her too. She has huge bites on her arms and legs from weeks ago! Off has become a staple!
-The baby doll obsession has begun! She has a few and she is constantly carrying them around and putting them in her little stroller to push them around the house. She loves on them and gives them kisses! It's pretty cute!
-She is such the little helper. Today she was trying to help me put away the groceries, which was great until she poured teriyaki sauce on my carpet!!! She did go get a towel and tried to help clean it up, after she had rubbed it into the carpet! Eesh!
-We are reaching the terrible twos and she's only 16 months! What am I going to do?! She has learned to attach herself to my legs when she wants a attention and I'm cooking dinner. this makes walking very difficult! We are going to have to start instituting time out I think!

Wordless Wednesday

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Happy Birthday!

Emory with Chase's cake after she helped me ice it! Right after this picture she stuck her hand in the side of the cake!

Helping make mashed potatoes for daddy's birthday dinner.

Adding the milk. She was a great helper.

Finally time to have dessert!

So we can now say we know someone with a birthday on August 8, 9, 10, and 11th! It has been a bust last four days with all the birthdays. Baby Kolton made his debut on August 8, 2009 at 4:26am. Happy Birthday to Jamie on August 9th! Happy Birthday to Cole on August 10th! And finally Happy Birthday to the wonderful man in my life! Chase has been off for the last four days and it has been so nice. I told him today we need to find jobs where we can be at home together all the time! He was able to work in the yard and hang out with Emory and me and we are going to miss him when he goes to work in the morning!

Happy Birthday Chase! Emory and I are very lucky to have you in our lives! We love you!

A LONG Work in Progress

I forgot to take a "real" before picture. Imagine dead bushes everywhere you see a blank spot. And don't even get my started on that thing on the left. I have NO idea what it is and how it got that bad. The guy that lived here before cared NOTHING for the yard.

After Chase had pulled all the bushes up and was laying down the "wall." We thought we might replant a few of the bushes but decided otherwise.

Waiting on the mulch.

The wall Chase built turned out VERY well.

The finished product. The bushes look so puny next to the house but I am sure they will begin to take over during the years we live here.

So we started this project a month ago. I say we but really I only watched, picked out the bushes and flowers, and refilled Chase's water jug. Chase did ALL the work. I tried to help but mainly just got in the way. It took a month to get this project completed but it wasn't from lack of trying. We still don't own a trailer so we had to borrow one from one of Chase's coworkers when it was available. A month ago, Chase pulled up all the bushes, a week later he went to Lowes and bought the landscaping stones to build the wall, that same weekend he found fill dirt to help build everything up to the height of the new wall. It stayed like that for about two weeks or so until we were both off and had the trailer available to us. So these last two days (while Chase has been off for his birthday) he bought top soil and laid it out, we went to Lowes (which is located right by our house now), picked out the plants, he planted them and laid the mulch today. It looks SO much better. Now I just have to keep it alive! I don't exactly have a green thumb so I hope I don't kill it all!

We still have a few things we would like to do to the yard but just don't have the time plus it's so expensive! Anyway, I would like something more attractive to put the water hose in so it's not on that ugly hose reel smack dab in the middle of my new bushes. It wasn't a problem before because the bushes were SO overgrown and ugly that they hid the ugly hose reel. Anyway, we also have two trees in the front yard that I would like to plant flowers beneath. Again time and money are always an issue. The other flowers my have to wait until next spring but I'm hoping to get the other thing for Christmas. :)

Karaoke Night

Watching the chef at the Japanese Steak House.

Singing with Tara.

Singing with momma.

Emory and Blair

Tara and Blair did most of the singing.

Friday, as we wasted time for baby Kolton, Cheryl and Travis' baby, to make his debut, we went out to dinner with a few friends and then went back to Tara and Jon's for karaoke. We had a great time, even Emory joined in on the fun and sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for us!

To Cut or Not to Cut

This is what it looked like when we took the pigtails down.

Side view after a nap.

Those are the curls after a nap.

Chase is convinced that Emory needs a haircut. Yes I know that it can get out of control sometimes but I REFUSE to have it cut right now! For one reason, I know she would NOT sit still and probably have a fit, second it curls right now in the back and I'm afraid if I have it cut it won't curl anymore, and lastly, if I cut her hair it means she's a big girl and I'm not read for that!!!! So she is just going to have a unruly hair and wear bows all the time!

The Many Faces of Emory

Mean Face

Happy Face

Complacent Face

Sad Face

Surprised Face

My Favorite!