Merry Christmas!

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone! Emily definitely had a great time and is in toy heaven. She is loving all of her new toys. My mom and Larry came over Christmas Eve and we had a nice dinner and a lively game of bingo (Andy won $30 in an all or nothing game). Nana and Larry spent the night and were here to open presents with Emily. When we brought her into the family room, she went straight to the presents and was ready to go!

Then we went down to South Carolina for Christmas with Andy's family. We had lots of fun, enjoyed a yummy steak dinner, and got more toys!

Then we came back home and had a fun playing with all our new toys. And as you can see in the picture, Andy really enjoyed MY foot spa.

Cheese!!!

Emily is learning how to sit still and smile for the camera. It is the cutest thing. It doesn't always work, sometimes she still reaches to poke the camera lens. Here are a few pictures of her cheesing it up...


She is also starting to cruise a little. Here is a video of her walking along the couch.



She is becoming such a big girl and we can't wait to share Christmas morning with her. It will be such a treat!

Chopsticks

Last night we went out with SECU's HR department for a Christmas dinner. Yes, they actually invited me even though I quit about a year ago. It actually makes me feel quite special to know they haven't forgotten about me yet. Anyways, we had a nice time and enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing the other babies. Emily kept wanting to touch the babies. She loves pointing at everything these days, so she kept poking at Caleb's feet and getting excited. It was too cute. In the picture you can see that even though Emily hasn't mastered the spoon yet, she is very good at using the chopsticks.




Please ignore the fact that Emily is wearing the same red shirt in this and the past 2 posts. I think this shirt is so cute and very festive, so I put it on quite often. Andy usually doesn't pay much attention to what Emily wears, but today he said, "Is she really wearing that shirt again??" Don't worry.... I am washing in between wearings and it is just for the Christmas season.

Physical Therapy

I had Emily evaluated a few weeks ago with the Early Intervention program. They came to the house and used the Mullen Scales to evaulate her gross motor, fine motor, visual reception, receptive language and expressive language. Everything was normal except for the gross motor skills, in which she was significantly delayed. She is at the level of a 10 month old, which isn't too delayed in my opinion, but regardless they suggested physical therapy. They noted that she had low muscle tone, which is not surprising to anyone that has seen her bird legs.

Today was the first day of physical therapy. I really like it because they come out to the house. Today the therapist did a lot of playing just to get Emily warmed up to her. She showed me a few positions that will help stregthen her core muscles. She is pulling up on the couch and ottoman, but when she does she rests her body against the furniture and not really putting much weight on her feet. So we need to work on that. It was interesting to watch Emily during the therapy. Anytime she was not sure about something or frustrated, she would go for her favorite pink kitty and hold it. It has definitely become her security blanket. The therapist will be coming once a week and she thinks she will be walking by 18 months.

Saturday

Today was a very productive day for us. I got some Christmas shopping done with my neighbor while our husbands watched the girls. It was a nice treat to do some shopping without having to manage Emily or navigate a stroller through the mall. We also got to have a nice lunch.

Then we took our Christmas photo - which wasn't a total success. We will see if we can come up with anything better tomorrow.

Then Andy and I raked the leaves while Emily napped. By the way, what is the point of raking leaves when our yard will probably be just as covered tomorrow??? Here is a picture of Emily in the big leaf pile. She didn't stay in the pile long because she started to sink pretty far in and I think that might have traumatized her.

Then I finished hanging up the Christmas lights outside while Andy did some car maintenance. And here is a picture of our house glowing with Christmas lights. I added the garland and lights on the porch this year.

Layni Bug

Layni spent this past weekend with us. Emily had so much fun with her. Layni soon realized that she had to get down on all four to play with Emily. They were crawling around the whole house chasing each other and laughing. In the morning, I could hear some noise in their room and they were so cute talking to each other through the crib. Here are some videos of them having tons of fun.




Layni and I made some holiday shaped Jello jigglers while Emily was napping. Layni kept saying, "I think 'jelly' is my favorite food. " We miss you Layni!

Santa, are you under here?

I think I am about done decorating for Christmas. Which I guess isn't too bad since it isn't even December yet, but I have been working on it all week. It has just taken longer than usual, maybe it is the little girl I keep tripping over. But it has also taken a little time beause I have been tying ribbon to hang all the ornaments. Katherine suggested it as a great way to keep Emily from eating the hooks her poking her eye out. I think it has turned out really cute and gives a lot of color to the tree. As you can see in the picture, I am going with a red/silver theme.

Emily hasn't been too interested in the tree yet probably because she has been entertained all week with all the lights and decorations all over the floor. However she does love the tree skirt. She loves anything soft and cuddly, so she keeps laying her head down on the skirt and rubbing her face in it. It is so cute, but she never lasts long for a picture.

Thanksgiving Travels

We are back from our holiday travels. Emily is either so excited to be home that she was unpacking her suitcase as fast as she could or she wanted to go back that she was packing herself in the suitcase. She handled all the traveling pretty well, but she definitely had her moments since she was running on just one nap a day. Thankfully, today she was back on her two nap schedule.

On Wednesday, we drove down to my mom and Larry's house. Mom and I cooked a really good Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people!!! Of course we did have a few mishaps, here are a few:

• Mom bought black cherry kool aid instead of black cherry jello for her cranbery jello salad.
  
• When mom got back from her 11pm run to the grocery store, Larry secretly switched the jello in the grocery bag with another flavor they had in the house. For about 3 minutes we thought mom was losing her mind and had bought the wrong stuff -again.
  
• Mom cut herself 3 times with her new Cutco knives.
  
• Mom almost burnt the house down when she turned the oven on and forgot she had been keeping the roasting pan complete with the plastic wrap and label in the oven - burning plastic is not a pleasant smell.

Notice, that I was not the cause of any mishaps. Love you mom! Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving and some before and after pictures of my turkey. Not to brag, but I was very proud of my turkey. It was yummy!

Then Andy's favorite day of the year came... Black Friday!!! Nana decided she couldn't let her little grandbaby be woken up at 4:30, so she stayed home with Emily, who was still asleep when we got back. Since mom lives in a tiny town, there were no mile long lines to deal with. (We steered clear of Walmart!) We bought plenty of fun little things, however I must admit Black Friday is pretty much a boys' holiday, I couldn't find many girly things.

Then we headed down to my dad's house, where my sister was visiting. All the girls had a fun time together.

Then we had one more stop to get together with Andy's family.

And I love that my birthday is always around Thanksgiving, because I get to celebrate with all my family. I wasn't going to reveal how old I turned, but the picture gives it away. I am doing OK with this milestone, however please don't point out my gray hairs, that might send me over the edge!

Sunny day

Emily and I went out back to feed the ducks the other day. Unfortunately the ducks were gone by the time we got out there, so we just played outside since the weather was so nice.

Who needs toys???!

My husband often says that toys are a waste of money. This partly comes from the fact that he is the biggest cheap skate, but he also says kids have more fun with the most random things. Emily proved that to be true today. (But don't worry, I will never tell Andy he is right.)

She enjoyed playing with my laptop, paper towel roll, body sprays and toilet paper today. I thought I had the door to the toilet shut, but after a few minutes of too much quietness, I knew she was up to something. But I must admit it was pretty cute to see her pulling all the paper apart, luckily she hadn't thrown any in the toilet. I am sure that will come soon enough.

Emily's 1 year pictures

Emily's favorites

A few of Emily's favorite things these days are:

Her school bus riding toy. She just learned to push the buttons, and does it over and over again.

Her pink kitty. She squeals when she sees and will crawl as fast as she can to get to it. She loves to cuddle up to it.

The TV. She is starting to become quite the TV junkie. I usually have the TV on for background noise, but now she really watches it. I think I might have to start limiting the TV time.


Here is a video of her enjoying all three, despite the interruption from her dad.

Little Emily

Here is a picture of Emily in her new place favorite place. I had to clean all of the stuff off the bottom of the shelf, so she wasn't pulling it all out. So then she started climbing up there to play. She just hangs out on the shelf, laughing and kicking her feet. Of course, she usually falls out or bumps her head on the top shelf, so it doesn't always end that great.

One of my former coworkers came over to visit us with her new baby, Aidan. He is 2 months old and weighs just 2 lbs less than Emily! That is crazy! Our doctor suggested giving her some Carnation instant breakfast in her milk and yogurt made with whole milk, so I have started to do that. The other day I went to get her out of her high chair after breakfast and noticed brownie crumbs all over her. I questioned Andy on this and he had guilt written all over his face. I had to remind him that brownies for breakfast was not one of the doctor's suggestions. We are going back to the doctor next week for her flu shot and will have to see if she has gained any weight in the last month.

Halloween Fun

Go Heels! Emily was a UNC Cheerleader for Halloween, complete with face paint and pom poms. We went trick or treating with our neighbors, Avery, Laura and Katelyn. We pulled Emily and Katelyn house to house in the wagon. Obviously this was more for us parents than the girls, but they had a fun time too.

The next night we went to a haunted hayride with the youth at church. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and laughed at the screams coming from the hayride. But wouldn't you be screaming if you saw Andy coming at you with his chainsaw running???

Funny thing is Emily didn't even seem to notice his get up, she got all excited when he came walking up to her.

Trunk or Treat

Here are a few pictures of Emily this weekend at Trunk or Treat. Layni was visiting for the weekend, so we went to different trunk or treats on both Friday and Saturday night. Emily wore a dress up outfit of Layni's. I think it is a fairy princess type dress, but Andy thought it looked like a bad prom dress from the 80's. Either way, she was cute...

Her and Simon always have a fun time together. They get so excited when they see each other and starting waving their arms around. Usually Emily immediately goes for his pacifier and yanks it out. (We are afraid she does that so she can kiss him whenever she wants.)

10 Princesses

This weekend Nana treated all the "princesses" to fun outing at Princesses on Ice in Virgina. It was so much fun to meet up with the whole family. And Emily enjoyed most of the show and was a pretty good sport even though it was nap time. After the show, we had a fun lunch at Boar's Head Inn and then drove to Ash's house and spent some time at a really fun nature park.

I love this picture. It is so cute and amazing that everyone is actually looking at the camera, even the little two. Granted they aren't smiling, but we will take what we can get. It will probably go down in history at the most painless picture and we have definitely had some painful ones. (Don't worry Nana and Christine, I won't tell everyone reading this what happened after the last cousin photo.)

Here are some pictures of us enjoying the show.

I have been trying to post a video of my adorable niece Leland singing the Sleeping Beauty song, but can't get it to load. Check back later for it!