8

Braelyn is 8 months old now and is hitting the milestones left and right now!  On the morning she turned 8 months, I walked in her room to get her up and she was standing in the corner of her bed looking over at her monitor that was now in the floor.  The look on her face was priceless when she saw me.  It was like "Oh no, I've been caught!" but it quickly turned in to a huge smile looking pretty proud of herself!  On Thursday, her bottom two teeth in the front finally broke through.  We have thought she was going to get a took since she was probably 4 months old!  When she finally decided to start eating from a spoon, she went at it and never looked back!  She loves the orange and yellow veggies and pretty much all of the fruits.  Green veggies are another story...she typically gags!  Her crawling skills have definitely progressed, it takes her no time to get all the way to another room.  Her new favorite place to get into trouble is the entertainment center and just today she decided to grab the rocks in the bottom of the fireplace.  Her mobility has put her big sister's patience to the test.  Some days are much better than others!  We are already starting to get a little of the "she's touching me", "Braelyn's got my (fill in the blank)"!  Wow, it is really going to get interesting when Braelyn can talk too!  The funny thing is that it does not phase Braelyn in the least when Em gets upset with her which I think adds to the frustration!  It is so cute to see them playing together though.  More times than not they are so good together.  Braelyn's little personality is definitely developing and she keeps us smiling.  She has gotten much more laid back and it happy the majority of the time.  She has also gotten much better about being around people that she doesn't know very well.  Before, it pretty much had to be me or Shawn holding her.  She was passed from person to person and Emerson's birthday and was totally happy.  She is the perfect little piece to complete our family!

She discovered her shadow on the wall.

She spent probably 15 or 20 minutes just playing with the straps on her carseat.  She loves her new ability to explore!

The cutest little feet curled up under her while she was sitting on her knees!

Her shirt has looked like that for months...now she finally has some teeth to show for it!

The Princess is 3!

I am still in denial but Emerson is now 3!  She has been talking about having a princess party for what seems like months.  Her only requests were a pink cake and pink ice cream!  We had a family party again this year but rather than just having it all at the house we went to Incredible Pizza...one of Emerson's favorite places!  We all ate plenty of pizza and had so much fun watching Emerson run from game to game while playing a few ourselves!  After she racked up enough tickets for a Cinderella Barbie and a princess coloring kit we headed back to the house for cake, ice cream, and presents.  As always it was wonderful having everybody together and Emerson had a perfect birthday!  A couple of priceless Emerson moments came out of the day.  The first was when I was setting things up at the house.  When she saw the princess decorations she put her hands up to her mouth and said "Oh my gosh!  Thanks Mom!"  It was absolutely adorable!  She is always so appreciative of everything people do for her.  The next came at Incredible Pizza.  There is one game where you feed in tokens pretty fast trying to hit the jackpot.  She had a little stool to stand on so she could reach and was putting tokens in as fast as she could.  There was a little boy playing the same game on the machine beside her with his family.  All of a sudden she jumped down and started running off towards a game behind us.  We had no idea what she was doing but she ran over picked up the little stool in front of that game and brought it back over for the little boy to stand on.  Without missing a beat, she put it down for him climbed back up on her stool and kept feeding tokens hoping for a jackpot!  It melted my heart that she would do something so thoughtful without anyone even suggesting it!  Everyday you make us so proud and we feel so blessed to be your parents!  We love you sweet Emerson!

Princess Emerson

Daddy, Grandma, Braelyn, Sissy, Russ, Papa, Janet, Gransan, Mommy, and Emerson loved getting to visit and celebrate Emerson's birthday!

Proud parents with the birthday girl

Everybody cheering Em on at the dancing game

She was great at the basketball game!  Like father like daughter!

Instead of "Whack-a-mole" it was "Whack-a-shark"!

See-sawing with a Smurf, thinking ahead to what she was going to run to next!

Looks like she is definitely having fun!

Hi Guys!

I am pretty sure she rode and played just about everything!

A friendly game of air hockey with Papa

Braelyn was so happy to be a part of the party!

Gransan, Janet, and Braelyn taking a little break from the game playing.

Papa's so funny!

The cake turned out so cute and brought on another "Awww, thanks Mom!".

Time for presents!

Grandma, I need a little help opening this one!

Hey Sissy, do I get presents too?

Riding Bullseye

It's Jessie!

She put Woody and Jessie "night-night" in her doll cradle.

Happy Birthday to Emerson!

Watching the birthday girl make a wish and blow out her candles

Daddy!  You got frosting up my nose!

Happy Valentine's Day

The girls had a very happy Valentine's Day.  Emerson's day started with ballet and then a party at school.  Around noon, Grandma, Papa, and Sissy picked up both the girls at school.  By the time I got home, Emerson was covered in chocolate, there were Nerds everywhere, new outfits for both girls all over the floor and Braelyn had had her first sucker...I would say a pretty perfect day!  We waited til Daddy got home to give them our Valentines.  Shawn and I celebrated a little early.  Last Friday night The Academy hosted a Parents' Night Out so we got an early Valentine's dinner.

She looked so cute in her Valentine outfit and was very ready to get to school to give her friends their Valentines!

They have stolen mine and Daddy's hearts!

Braelyn loving on Grandma

Opening her Valentine from Mommy and Daddy

Tangled!!!

All I see is tissue paper...where is MY candy?!

Em was trying to show Braelyn how to work her new keys...B was still pretty focused on what they had been wrapped in!

Papa getting lots of sugar!

The girls got almost a full week of soaking up Grandma, Papa, and Aunt Sissy sugars!

So glad they got to see the new laid back and very happy Braelyn!

So cute wearing Papa's hat

Grandma, HELP!!!  Papa got me!

Both girls had so much fun with their Aunt Sissy!

Mommy/Translator

This morning as we were getting ready to get in the car Emerson kept telling me that we needed our Cinderella.  I just said "Cinderella, dressed in yellow" like we usually do to which she replied "No, Mom...Cinderella for our heads!".  Totally confused.  After sitting for a second I realized:  Umbrella!  It was pouring down rain this morning!

Through the Eyes of Emerson

While she was sitting on the bed with Janet and Gransan the weekend of baby dedication:
Emerson:  God made Mommy, God made Daddy, God made Gransan, God made Jerry, God made Janet,....
Janet:  God made you too
Emerson:  God made Emerson later!

While sitting in Braelyn's closet one morning while I was getting Braelyn dressed:
Mommy, I'm sitting on Braelyn's dreams.(I finally realized she was sitting on Braelyn's pack-n-play!)

Heaven Help Us!

Well, Braelyn is officially mobile!  She has been so close to crawling for about two weeks now, getting on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  Today, she is finally on the move!  We have been cheering her on and trying to get her to practice...was that the smartest move?!  By the end of the week she will probably be all over this house getting into who knows what!  Baby proofing is next to impossible the second go around because big sister's toys have plenty of small parts!  This could be an adventure!  All kidding aside, it is pretty adorable watching her figure it out!

Check out that perfect form!

Hey Em, can you help me figure out what to do now?!

Love...

Emerson's memory verse for the week was "Love...God with all your heart." Matt. 22:37.  She already knew it by last Sunday afternoon.  The book, chapter, and verse is a little bit of a challenge.  When I say it, she starts counting 38, 39!  37 has never come after 22 before, somewhat of a difficult concept for an almost 3 year old!  One of the suggested parent activities for the week was to make heart cookies while learning the memory verse.  The first batch was a disaster, when I went to take it out of the oven I burned my hand, dropping the cookie sheet and the cookies went sliding off into a heap in the bottom of the oven.  Rather than being upset about our cookie mess Em just kept saying "It's ok Mom, it's ok."  She was practicing showing God that she loves Him with all her heart by showing Mommy love!

I do it by myself Mom.

Poor kid...her Mommy can even mess up cookies that come straight out of the package onto the cookie sheet!

Twinkle Toes

A couple of weeks ago Emerson started taking ballet on Tuesday mornings at school.  She is the cutest thing ever in her ballet clothes and slippers!  I am sure the recital in June will be priceless.  She loves to show us her new moves on Tuesday evenings!

I love her so much!!!!

Lunch with the Girls

Janet was coming to Houston to visit with some girlfriends for the weekend so she stopped by to have lunch with me and the girls.  Her fried Melissa met her at our house and went with us.  Janet brought the girls Valentines and we headed to eat at McAlisters.  After we ate we drove by our new lot that we are in the process of buying and then headed back to the house so they could get a move on to their girls' weekend!  It was so good having both of them here.

Braelyn loved the singing Valentine puppy!  Can't believe this is the only picture I got!

R&R

Shawn and I have been in desperate need of some rest and relaxation.  I had a meeting in St. Louis January 23-25 and Shawn was scheduled to start his new job the following Monday so we thought our one and only chance was going to be the Thursday-Saturday in between.  Gransan and Patsy drove down to watch the girls and Shawn and I got our much needed getaway.  The funny part is we didn't really care to go anywhere except out of the house so we got a hotel in Houston down by the Galleria!  On Thursday, we ate lunch at The Aquarium and after lunch went through the exhibit downstairs.  I could have done without the massive python but the white tiger was amazing!  After that we went to check in to the hotel.  We decided a nap sounded fantastic...we didn't even eat dinner and were in bed til the next morning!  I think that means we were a little behind on rest!  Friday morning we walked around the Galleria, had lunch and then went to see a movie...not even sure the last time we did that!  Friday night we ate dinner and played games at Dave and Busters and then went to the Improv for a comedy show.  Both of us literally cried we laughed so hard-it was AWESOME!  Saturday, we slept in, had breakfast and then headed back up to see the girls!  I am pretty sure they didn't even miss us given how much fun they had with Gransan and Patsy!  Thank you guys SO much for making this possible for us!

I am so impressed that they tackled the grocery store with both of them!

I really think Braelyn would spend the entire day in this swing!

Both girls love being outside!

Patsy and her "lil' buddy"!  Braelyn has loved Patsy from the start-that says a lot coming from this little one!

Hard to believe how much Em has grown since she first played on this playset!

Braelyn has finally turned a corner when it comes to other people...she didn't cry hardly at all with Gransan and Patsy!  Yea!!

Gransan and her girls

As I said, she would stay all day...just add a blanket as it starts to cool down!

Emerson giving Gransan and Patsy a break, playing peek-a-boo with Braelyn!