Thanksgiving...blah!

My Thanksgiving was less than wonderful. I felt terrible...turns out I had Strep Throat. I am positive that those kids at school got me sick. I have had at least 5 kids with Strep in class and one that refuses to stay home. He wants perfect attendance. Why I don't know but he is making all of us sick!

Now that I have been taking medicine for 2 days I feel like a billion times better. I felt bad that I was such a terrible guest at Matt and Steph's house but I just felt lousy. The food was great and the kids had fun and that is what matters most. On the way home we stopped at my grandparents so I could infect the rest of the family before heading home (*wink*wink*).

Now look at little man's new trick. Yup! He can pull himself up to standing.

He's still not officially crawling but he can pull himself up on his feet. He is still moving like an inch worm (army crawling) on his tummy. He can get where he wants to for sure though and he is already torturing his big sister, but what are little brothers for?

Hayden stopped by for a little while on Friday to play with Emma. They had a great time playing dressup and Playmobile.

(Photo Removed Due to Grandparents Paranoia.)

Jammie Party with Hayden.

Emma wants him to come back, "Oh pretty please Mommy. I want him to come back." That is all I have been hearing today.

The Day of Sevens...

Today this little man turned 7 months...

and Josh and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary...

This has been a strange year for numbers. I was 30 weeks pregnant on my 30th birthday and now Ethan turned 7 months on our 7th anniversary. Anyone know if that means anything or just strange coincidences?

And the award for most teeth goes to...

Ethan Luke!

The poor boy has done nothing but teethe for the past month or so. His tooth count is now at 5 but soon to be 6! Every time I look in his mouth there is a new tooth in there. He now has his two bottom ones and three across the top.

Yesterday Emma, Ethan, and I hosted a little playdate. I am so happy that my friends have begun joining the dark side and having babies too. Jill Morse and I have been trying to convince our friends how wonderful it is to have kids and I guess two of them started believing us. Jill brought her two, Sam and Jack. Jill Richard brought her little cutie Eve and Emily brought "Little Anna" too. We have decided that Anna's new name is "Little Anna" because she is such a peanut!

Hanging Out
Jack, Eve, and Ethan

Emma and Ethan

The Babies
Clockwise starting at 12: Jack, Anna, Ethan, and Eve

Poor Jack was less than thrilled about it!

We had such a wonderful time. Sam and Emma enjoyed a little dressup too, but they refused to have any pictures of it taken. Maybe next time! We are going to try to do this again in January or so so keep checking back to see how our friends are growing.

Emma's Actual Birthday

Emma's actual birthday was yesterday on November 17th. I was upset all day because it is her first birthday that I wasn't able to spend the entire day with her because I had to work (booo!). Luckily though, Josh has Mondays off so he spent the day with her and made it really special. He didn't take any pictures of her during the day but I did take some of the important stuff when I got home.

Emma is a lucky girl and has a super sweet daddy. If you remember he bought Emma and I Mommy and Me ballet lessons for Mother's Day. Emma has really taken to it and loves it when Grandma Jean takes her every Wednesday morning. Josh thought that our little ballerina needed her own ballet bar in her playroom so that was his project eariler in the day. She was very excited to try it out.

Pay no attention to the mess in the back. I haven't cleaned the playroom up since her party.

Next it was present time. We just got her a few little pieces of furniture for her dollhouse since we had given her her big gift at her party.

Birthday Cupcake

A bedtime story from Daddy.

I still can't believe she is three although it feels like she has always been a part of our lives. Love you Emma Boo!

Next Post Preview: Ethan's Teeth. Wait until you see what that boy has been up to. Poor guy!

My Baby is Three!

The Birthday Girl!

Here she is just before her third birthday party. Today is her actual birthday. She was born on Thursday, November 17th, 2005 at 5:26 pm. My labor was long (like days! literally) but worth it!
We celebrated her birthday with our family this past Saturday. Emma looked adorable in her little outfit. I totally wish it came in my size too. Emma is one well loved little lady. Lots of people came to share her special day with her. Unfortunately, I forgot to take her picture in front of her pile of gifts this year as I had done in the past but there is always next year.

We let her open our gift before the guests arrived. It was a new Anywhere Chair from Pottery Barn Kids. I wanted her to be able to sit in it when opening her gifts so we had her open it early. We had given her a My First Anywhere Chair for her first birthday but she had outgrown it now. She has sat in that sucker everyday since she got it so we upgraded to the next size.

...and she loved it!

Before the party:

Cake Table

The Cake!
I am really proud of this one. It only took me three hours to make. Ugh! It was totally worth it though. I made it based on this cake (click here). Pretty close huh?

Ethan got in on the action too.

Emma said her favorite part of the the party was the Pinata. I think this next picture is funny. I have no idea what I was saying to Josh but I love how all the girls are paying attention to all of my very important directions. I wish my kids at school paid attention like that.
It was a pull string Pinata which was a little more age appropriate for Emma. It worked out great and we got our $20 out of it. It went down to the last string (Yeah Brianna!).

The Birthday Girl and her cake...

...blowing out the candles.

Bubba and Ethan

Time for gifts

Click on this next picture and check out the picture on the front of the package. Its really funny. Thanks Aunt Denise.

Emma LOVES Littlest Pet Shop and had to try out this one right away. Thanks Cumberland Cousins.

Dress-Up fun.
Isn't playing with someone else's dress up stuff always fun?

My Fancy Girl

I am still in shock that my baby girl is now THREE. I prayed a lot and waited a long time for this special little girl. I am thankful for every day that I get to look in those dark little eyes and know that she is my little baby. I am also really proud of the little girl that she is becoming. She is kind and respectful and usually remembers her pleases and thank yous, even if I am not reminding her. Emma is so good to her little brother too. Josh and I are so fortunate that we get to raise her each day.

Halloween Party and a Bathtime First

Lauren and Chris invited us to a Halloween party at their home this past weekend. Josh and I went as Barack and Hillary. It was pretty funny, to us anyway, because Lauren and Chris were supporting Barack and Josh and I were not. It was fun to tease them about their choice. Josh and I are pretty sad about how the election turned out even though it wasn't all that shocking. At least we got to cancel out Lauren and Chris's votes.

Anyway back to the party....

Here are our hosts.

It wouldn't be a party at their house without a little Rock Band.

The most docile puppy I have ever met.
Obama's turn

We definitely had fun, so thank you Lauren and Chris.

Now for my Girly Girl and Little Man.

Ethan always sleeps with his little butt in the air. Don't you just want to pinch it?

November 4th was a big day in the history of Ethan too. It was the night he had his first bath in the big tub. It is so nice to not have to fill the baby tub and the big tub anymore and just stick both kiddos in the same tub. Yeah for having a sitting boy!

Emma was very happy for Ethan.

Ethan couldn't even speak he was so excited for himself.

I was having a sentimental moment when playing with Ethan the other day. I thought that I needed to remember what his little fingers looked like when playing with his toys. Someday those fingers will be big and I will miss all those little folds and tiny nails. I really think that the second baby grows A LOT faster than the first.

Thanks for keeping up with our little family.

Our Halloween and some Randomness

We carved our pumpkins about a week before Halloween and I took a couple pics of the kids that day too. It was an absolutely beautiful day to take some outside pics.






Emma was a lot braver this year. She still would not touch the "punkin guts", but she would at least look at it and touch the top.

Even Josh got in on the action.

Halloween 2008

This halloween Emma was Tinker Bell and Ethan was Captain Hook. I would like to coordinate their costumes as long as they will let me. Emma fell in love with her Tink costume in August or so and has been wearing it a ton since. Ethan's was a little harder to come by. Once I found it on EBay though, I knew it was the one.

This is how Ethan and I went Trick or Treating

Poor Emma was running a fever all day on Halloween. My mom brought her and Ethan to my school so that I could take them visiting in their costumes. Emma looked miserable and I asked her if she wanted to just go home. I knew if I didn't ask she would have been really disappotined. She still wanted to make the rounds so I had her take some Tylonol and once that started kicking in she was in a much better mood.

My camera doesn't like taking night pics all that much. That is why this one is so blury.

Cutest Pirate Ever? I think so!

Here is the bonus pic...Ethan had his first "real" food the other day (10/27/08).
A Ritz Cracker