The Last Post of 2008!

What a year. Emerson has learned to sit up, crawl, walk, cut teeth, eat solids, feed herself, sleep through the night (FINALLY) and so much more. Chris and I have learned a lot about ourselves, parenting and each other as well. I am looking forward to 2009 and all the joys, challenges, opportunities and good times that will come our way!

This picture was taken on last new years, with any luck Emerson will be happier about 2009 than she was about 2008!

Mommy's little helper

It has taken me years to get Chris to load/unload the dishwasher but Emerson, on the other hand, picked up the concept in just 15 months! Tonight as I was unloading the dishwasher, I handed a few things to her and she put them away, in the right place. It was so cute! She is such a big (little) girl! She ate a few bites of my spinach salad then proceeded to eat 3/4 of my dinner, this is after she ate all her dinner! Just when I think she is so "mature" she goes over to a drawer where we keep bottles and baby dishes, she pulls out a pacifier and puts it in her mouth. I tried for months to get her to take one and she refused now she is so intrigued with them since a few kids in her class have one.


Here is our big girl eating at her own table!


Poor Daddy! Chris was watching tv and she climbed on the couch then surprised daddy by climbing onto his shoulders!!


ELMO!!!

Merry Christmas

What a great Christmas. We spent Thursday - Saturday in Owensboro with my family and Chris' family came Sunday. Em got lots of goodies and most of all lots of attention!! She h ad so much fun with her family!






The holidays are great but they can be exhausting!

Twas the night before Christmas

Christmas is tomorrow and I am spending every moment today getting ready. Initially Santa was going light but he decided to really reward the little princess with lots of goodies but the "granddaddy" of all gifts is the baby doll that arrives in June!

Hard to see it all but Em was not short changed!

It was so fun setting it all up! I am sure that it only gets more fun!

Let it snow, let it snow

Being that it is soo cold outside would a little snow hurt? I took these pictures of our mantle as this will be the last Christmas to have a 3 stocking mantle!

Baby, it's cold outside

Here are some more pictures of our family trip to Oprlyland hotel and Dickens of a Christmas!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

This year Santa made an early visit to our neighborhood and showed up on a firetruck!! This was Emerson's 2nd encounter with Santa although a little apprehensive about the man in red she agreed to sit in Mrs. Claus' lap. 5 days later is when she finally said enough with this bearded old man!!

Fala la la la la

I completed the 2 "pressing" items on my "to-do" list - Christmas Cards and cookies!! Now my tasks include: Wrapping Christmas presents, Christmas shopping and a few miscellaneous errands! The much needed vacation is really treating me nice, the holidays are so much fun!

Here is a picture of Emerson and her 1st encounter with Santa - Nov 29. I really thought this was going to be an easy year with Emerson and Santa!

Oh what fun!

Nothing warms the heart like watching a child's face light up with eager excitement as she hops upon the lap of ole St. Nick.
Today Santa came to school for pictures. Each time we see Santa, Emerson becomes more and more apprehensive but today was the worst. Being the "sympathetic" mother that I am, I stood in the corner laughing while saying "take more pictures, take more pictures". Some day she will laugh at this, right?????

Jingle all the way!

Jingle all the way to the post office! I completed task #1 - got my Christmas cards stuffed, addressed, stamped in the mail! I am 1/2 way to completion on task #2, knocked out the dreaded trip to Wal*Mart and bought all the ingredients for my cookies and candy!

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

I officially started my vacation at noon and am off till January 5th! Nothing could make me happier right now! I have a to do list and it does not seem that long therefore I am inclined to believe that I am missing several tasks.

Task #1 - Christmas cards, my goal is to have them out in tomorrow's mail.
Task #2 - Christmas cookies and candy baked and delivered by Friday.

I will let you know how I do! With any luck I will be motivated to complete these tasks since all of you will know that I am a slacker if I do not finish them!

It is so nice t have the house to myself!

'Tis the season

Over the weekend we went to see the lights at Opryland Hotel and and then to Dickens of a Christmas downtown. Overall it was a very fun weeeknd! Here are some pictures of GranMollie and her granbabies! You can tell that they had a good time!



Thank you Tiffany for the pictures!

Six things about me that you may not know!

Here is a fun little game that I got from my friend Rachel, she "tagged" me so now I must reveal 6 things that you may not already know about me!!

1. I love crafty things and making a replica of the over priced things you see at Pottery Barn or Kelly's Kids. Often times I will see a piece of home decor and think, why would you pay that much for that, I can make that at home for 1/16 of the price. Then of course, I never make the time. My favorite is getting ideas from children's clothing manufacturers and sewing a very similar piece. Please do not misunderstand me, I am NO seamstress but I choose the easy a-lined dresses and with the help of my mom and my friend Emily, I can pull it off, again, if I make the time!

2. At least once a week I steal an idea from Rachel's blog. I am always amazed by her posts, she is always doing some sort of craft, activity or searching for educational projects to do with her kids. She does it all, cooks (and posts recipes), crafts, childhood engineer, house manager, business consultant (Tony's practice) and is always so inspirational!

3. If I could do all over again, I would go to school to be a nurse rather than taking the easy way out with my "Corporate Communications degree". I love hearing Maurine & Sarah Chaldny's er stories. Now that I have had a baby and experienced the miracle of life I would love to be a labor and delivery nurse.

4. I am obsessed with dressing Emerson like a doll before we leave the house!

5. Sometimes I eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!

6. Christmas is my FAVORITE time of the year!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

Snow Day!

Emerson's first snow day - No School! This morning Chris took Emerson out to play in the snow before work. She had such a good time although at first a little apprehensive but she did warm up to the idea (no pun intended).

Since school was closed I had a lot of time to spend with Emerson, while doing so I noticed that she is currently cutting 6, YES 6 teeth all at once. 4 molars and 2 eye teeth! Poor lil girl but she is a trooper!!
Here are a few pictures taken with my phone.

WOW!! What a snow day!

Today it snowed about an inch in about 2 hours. It is so pretty especially with all the Christmas lights! Now to those of you that live in the north, I am sure you are not at all impressed with this but to us, it is a BIG deal!!!

Also the BIGGER news is that we heard "Baby" Lane's heartbeat today. Everything is looking/sounding good. According to babycenter.com, the baby is the size of lemon. We are 12 weeks today and feeling so much better. It is hard to feel bad when you have the excitement of the holiday season and the enjoyment of a 14 month old!!

Tuesday - MUCH BETTER

Well we are all feeling better today and Emerson does NOT have fifth's disease. We are still waiting to see if I am immune to it. This will just be nice to know!
Quick funny story since I have not pictures to post!

Our little Einstein got great remarks today at school. Her teacher said to me, "Emerson did very well coloring today" and I thought yea yea right. She said look, you can see most kids at her age simply bang the crayons on the paper but Emerson makes long strokes. I looked and sure enough she had made a page full of strokes. I was wandering if it were too early to contact Harvard to apply for enrollment?? Thoughts???

Emerson is thrilled about all her visitors this weekend!! She will be so excited to have an audience for all her new tricks!

Morgan, she is MOST excited to see you!!!

Monday - UGH!

Today we all woke up sick. Currently Emerson & Chris are lying in bed and I am off to work. I have to come back early so that we can take Emerson to the doctor and I have to be tested to see if I am immune to Parovirus (fifth's disease). I do not think Emerson has this but it is somewhat confusing in the winter months as wind chapped cheeks can also appear similar to the rash on cheeks which is indicative of "Fifths" disease. Hmmm?

Look what Santa is bringing us!

For those of you who did not get the subtle hint (Emerson looking in the oven at a bun), here is a clue as of what we will be receiving in June 2009

Happy Holidays

Ok so those of you with children may not be too impressed with this post but being that Emerson in my first little miracle I have had the pleasure to analyze her development & I am amazed at her constant learning. To name a few: She has recently started to bring us a diaper and go so far as to lay down in "diaper changing position" after she has an "accident" in her diaper, her vocabulary is growing, she is just overall so much more alert and possibly one of the cutest developments is that we mention anything pertaining to dogs she starts to make a "barking" noise, it is so cute!

We left our camera at home - hence no updated photos!