13 MoNtHs!!

The Many Faces of Miss Emslee Jo

At 13 months, Emslee is getting to be pretty mobile. She's walking, unsteadily, and not for long distances but seeing as how she took her first step in February, this has been a long time in coming. It seems that overnight she has begun talking. Yep, that's right. Talking. And not just jibberish either. I've been absolutely amazed at everything she suddenly knows how to say. She can say
Mommy
Daddy
Josh
Todd
Baby
Bobby - (she says this while signing please...so I'm guessing in her world it means please??)
I Love You (you have to listen closely for this one - it sounds a lot like i wug ooo)
Bye Bye
Thank you (also known as Aay ooo)
She is certainly growing up too fast! She is the cutest little pseudo-mommy. She drags her baby doll around by the arm all the time, saying baby baby baby and giving her kisses. She loves to eat green beans, macaroni and cheese, cookies, and her favorite drink is cow's milk.
She still despises her car seat, but we've finally gotten to the point that she falls asleep by the time I get to the corner on our street, so I can handle her fussing about it for the 2.5 seconds that she actually does.
She still has a Texas-size crush on her Uncle Josh. He can tell her she stinks and it still makes her smile. He just has a way with her, and she adores him.
We are so grateful for our beautiful little lady. She makes every day an adventure!

Things I've learned

I've been thinking a bit lately about how much life has changed in the last 13 blissfully wonderful months. I feel like I've learned a lot along the way, and figured I would jot it down so that I don't forget.
Watching someone else discover the world is WAY more fun than discovering it for yourself~A kiss can fix almost any owie~Motherhood takes the patience of Job~I have never felt so tired~I have never felt so fulfilled~Everything feels easier in the morning light~Every little girl needs her daddy to be her superhero~Sometimes the dishes don't get done, and that is perfectly okay~This is harder than it looks~This is easier than I expected~Pick your battles~So glad I have my mom to give me advice~Never doubt your instincts~Remember to count to ten~Emee shredded the toilet paper...again...calm down, it's not that big of a deal~Well-meaning strangers are not to be taken seriously~And even some well-meaning relatives~Nobody knows my child like I know my child~I have the best job EVER!

Emslee's Easter dress, times two

I made a dress for Emee, and I was intending for it to just be a spring-ish dress. When I got done I thought I could possibly use it as an Easter dress, but I wasn't quite certain. Todd and I were shopping in the mall while he was here visiting, and I found a cute little dress boutique that I couldn't resist. So for Easter Emslee (aka, lil Miss Spoiled) got two dresses, three pairs of shoes, and loads and loads of candy. She, of course, shared the good majority of that candy.

The Easter bunny must love this little girl.....this is what Emee found Easter morning.

Emslee modeling the colorful dress I made. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Emslee, Braxton, and Darby posing for an Easter pic. I love how Darby and Brax look so incredibly cute in this photo, and Emee is crying. *Sigh, my little girl.....

The beautiful frilly Easter dress I just love! She's only going to wear ruffles like this while she's little, so we better enjoy it while we can!

Happy Easter sweet girl!

Our egg hunting adventures

We had a lot of fun hunting for Easter eggs in Nick and Jan's massive backyard. Emee was so funny, she would only pick up two eggs and then she wanted nothing to do with the rest of them. Her hands were full, and she was satisfied. That's just fine, she is one little girl that doesn't need any extra sugar in her life. She's sweet enough already!

Emee getting ready to hunt with her Uncle Josh.


Grammie Jo and Daddy trying to convince her to put her eggs in her basket.

Karyn and Darby, also on the hunt.

Emslee holding her two prized eggs. Grammie was so cute helping her find eggs.

Easter

We had such a great Easter! Nick and Janica were gracious enough to invite the whole crew to come to their house, watch conference, celebrate Easter and the April birthdays. So fun! My only complaint was the snow. Blah. But other than that, there was a fabulous time had by all.

Of course, I have to have at least one shot of Nick being weird. Yes, that is a boiled egg in his mouth.

Karyn, Emee, and I dyeing an egg blue. By the time we were done, Emee was also a pretty shade of blue.

All smiles. Emee just loves her Kare-Kare.

Grammie Jo and Dabs getting ready to dye an egg. These sweet girls sure enjoyed themselves.

Fishy! Fishy!

Emslee absolutely adores taking baths. But then, I've never met a child that didn't. I love shampooing her hair and then sculpting it into all sorts of random forms. We have such fun! I'm so glad my little girl was blessed with so much long beautiful hair!

Happy 1st Birthday!

For Emee's first birthday, we had a ladybug themed party. The invitations, her dress, the cake, the decorations - it was all ladybugs. It turned out so cute! In honor of our little lady, we decided to serve "little person food." This consisted of pigs in a blanket, mini pizzas, chicken nuggets, fruit and cheese kabobs, baby carrots and celery sticks, and PB&J's cut in the shape of a butterfly. We played a game entitled How Well Do You Know Emee Jo? Yep, we made it up ourselves. ;) Jason wrote up a bunch of questions about Emslee and we played to see who knew her the best. I honestly don't know who won, but we had fun playing.
Emslee was such a good sport. And she was spoiled rotten! I am going to have to figure out where to store all her new toys. It sure was fun to get together with everyone and to celebrate her first birthday. We were so grateful to everyone that came!


The Ladybug cake...Katie, these pics are for you. :)

Emee with her gigantic piece of birthday cake. She really didn't know what to do with it...


For her birthday, Emee got her very first baby doll. She's such a cute little lady! The very first thing she did was pick her up and give her a kiss. About a dozen kisses followed. Such a little mama already!

A few of her party decorations


Emee sure loved all the balloons that were all over the house for her celebration. She had a lot of fun chasing after them!
Happy First Birthday Emee Jo!

And this is what happens when Josh is in charge....

So I left Emslee with Josh for a mere five minutes, and this is what I found. Ah, those chocolate spots will be fun to get out of her onesie. ;)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Emee celebrated St. Patrick's day for the first time, being stuck in the Albuquerque airport while we waited two hours for our delayed flight. Good times! At least she looked cute though!

Our little Chubaca

So I've mentioned on here a couple times Emee's Chubaca noise, and I finally got it on video. A special thanks to Josh for helping me get her to do it. Enjoy!

Happy 36 years!

I just wanted to give a little shout out to my parents. They are celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary this week. It's amazing that two people can still love and cherish each other after 36 years as much as my parents do. They are the epitomy of a hard-working, selfless, strong, and loving couple. Love you Mom and Dad! Here's to another 36 years!

Emslee turns 11 months!

This her new way of smiling for the camera - it involves closing her eyes. So cute!

She was doing the "So Big" move with her arms. She loves it!


Our little girl is growing like a weed! At eleven months, Emslee loves to climb up the stairs as fast as she can, she loves playing with her dad, and she adores her mom's chocolate chip cookies. She always feels that she needs to be the center of attention, and if even for a brief moment she feels you're not focused on her she will let you know she is not pleased.
Emslee has started making this noise that sounds surprisingly a lot like Chubaca from Star Wars. It is absolutely hilarious to hear. And of course, when you laugh at her, she does it more and more. She loves to dance, babble on and on, undress herself (uh-oh), and explore the world around her.
Emee took her first faltering, uncertain step on the 28th of February. She's not up and running yet, but she's getting there. Sooner than I'm ready for, I'm sure.
Emslee's favorite part of the day is around 6:15. That's when she gets to see her daddy, and you should see her face light up! She is completely enraptured with him. She also has a gigantic crush on her Uncle Josh. He always makes her laugh. Sadly, she has started to cry every time he has to leave for work.
Emslee is finally sleeping for 7-8 hours at a time at night - Thank goodness! Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese. Her favorite toy is her camera. Oh how we love our little girl!

Emslee's First Oreo

Before I had kids, I had all these lofty expectations for myself. I swore I wouldn't give my child any processed, refined sugars until they were at least a year old. I swore my child would NEVER sleep in my bed, I swore that my child would never make a scene in a restaurant or other public place.....ahh, the naivety of the inexperienced mother.
I honestly did think it would be fairly easy not to give Emslee sugar for at least a year. I mean, she didn't even start eating solids regularly until she was 8 months old. I only had four months to go. Not that difficult, right? Yeah, right. Each and every time any of us had a cookie, or candy, or soda, or anything that I didn't want her to have, that was the only thing she wanted. I finally relented and gave her an Oreo. She loved it! (and I was just grateful Jason was the one holding her when I gave it to her.) I'm such a cheater. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

This past weekend was Emslee's first Valentine's Day. It was so much fun to celebrate with her. I made her a Valentine's dress (I know, I'm sewing - shocking.) And on Saturday, Jason surprised us both with roses. He gave me a dozen red roses, and gave Emee a dozen pink roses. It was so sweet! I just love him!
We had a fabulous Valentine's day. And Emslee's dress sure turned out cute, if I do say so myself. :)

And it begins...

Thus far in Emslee's life, I have felt extremely grateful that she was not a child that was into absolutely everything. Life was pretty calm - I didn't have to worry about her exploring every little thing she could get her hands on.
Until yesterday....
I was having a super stressful day, trying to get caught up on bills, housework, and preparing for my visiting teachers and then my family to come visit. I turned my attention away from Emee for what seemed like just a moment and...


That's right! She found my makeup! Look closely. It is all over her! You can't even see all the spots on the carpet. It was EVERYWHERE! The best part was that Emee just started laughing and smiling. What a kid!