Conversation With Emerson

Emerson was in her room playing with her dolls and watching cartoons when I walked in to put up some clothes...
Emerson:  Momma, my baby is sleeping so you need to be loud.
Me:  Oh Em, if she is sleeping then I should be quiet.
Emerson:  My baby is sleeping and snoring very loud so you should be loud Mom.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I had a perfect birthday on Saturday.  After a very busy few weeks, a quiet day at home sounded fantastic.  It was a beautiful day so we got outside and played with the girls for awhile in the morning and then did a lot of relaxing watching football.  I had a craving for Chuy's creamy jalapeno dip so we got out for a little while for dinner before the big games started that night.  When we got home, we had cupcakes and presents!  Thank you Shawn, Em, and Braelyn for making every day of my life worth celebrating!  I love you!

No birthday celebration is complete without candles!

Daddy was very smart and waited til she got closer to me to actually light the candle!

I am pleased to report that the fire did not spread beyond the candle!

The happy birthday song never sounded sweeter!

I had lots of help blowing out my candle.

Time for presents!

15

Braelyn is now 15 month old and is embracing being a very busy toddler!  She is walking, or should I say running, all over the place and getting into EVERYTHING!!!  We have started closing all doors in the house, particularly bathroom doors to try to minimize catastrophes!  She is starting to mimic many of the things that she sees her big sister and her Mommy and Daddy doing.  She "rocks the baby", says "aaah" after taking a drink, and twirls and dances to any music she hears.  She loves to get a laugh.  The other day she hit her head and when Emerson and I said "ouch" and laughed, she thought it was great and continued to bump her head over and over to get the same reaction laughing hysterically every time it worked.  When Emerson and I moved on to talking about something else, she kept hitting her head harder and harder waiting for us to notice until the point she hit it hard enough to generate tears!  She has mastered stacking cups by size and she is doing much better with her shape sorter.  She loves being outside but definitely prefers playing in the front yard...she is still pretty nervous around Maggie!  At her well-check visit she got a good report.  We were a little concerned because we have been having trouble getting her to put on weight but he said that if she had not lost the 3 oz thanks to the stomach bug she recently had, she would be in the 25 percentile which is closer to her norm.  We do have to go see the pediactric opthamologist because her clogged tear duct still has not opened up on its own but he did not seem overly concerned.   She weighed 20 pounds 4 ounces(15%), 31 inches(70%), and her head was 45 1/2 centimeters(35%).

My little princess-in-training...she LOVES wearing her sister's necklaces!

She thinks she is REALLY big!

Wow!  I am so glad I am finally big enough to get up here!  This is great!

One of us had to be on either side of the fort because she moved so fast!

The Academy 2012

Tuesday evening The Academy hosted their annual open house for parents to go meet the teachers and see what the little ones do all day while they are there.  Braelyn is now in the Toddler A class with Ms. Amy and Ms. Mary and is getting spoiled completely rotten!  Not only do Amy and Mary spoil her but B has worked her way into the heart of Ms. Ana, the assistant director and gets to spend some of her day running around with her.  Emerson is now in the 3b class with Ms. Hailee and I am amazed by how much she is learning every day.  She has been working on letter recognition, tracing her letters, learning what words begin with each letter, as well as her colors in Spanish.  The teachers made folders for each of the kids including some of the art they have been working on.  On the back of Emerson's folder Ms. Hailee wrote an acrostic with Em's name that made us so proud:
Energetic
My sweet girl
Easy to love!
Rocks!
Stellar smile
Optimistic
Never mean to friends

Emerson with one of her best friends Page(or as Em says: "Pagey Wagey")

Emerson's yarn art of herself

Emerson's practice sheet of tracing the letter "R"

Emerson glued tissue paper to practice the letter "T"

The front of Braelyn's folder

One of Braelyn's first finger paint projects!

Indoor Fun

It has been so hot that the girls really haven't gotten to play outside very much and it seems like a lot of days get spent watching TV.  I was trying to think of a way to let them run and play while staying cool so we headed to the play area at the mall.  After plenty of climbing and running we hit up the Cookie Co.!

Favorite New Texan

We are so glad that Aunt Sissy found herself a Texan to marry!  Now we get to see her more often...yea!!!! Uncle Tony has been working down here in Houston and was not going to be able to go home to celebrate his birthday so Gay asked Mikala if she wanted to ride with her to come down for a visit.  We got in a girls day of shopping when the guys got back from playing golf.

The girls love their Aunt Sissy!

3 and 1 Going on 16!

Braelyn and Emerson had so much fun at the farm for Labor Day weekend.  They had been hearing about a big surprise ever since the trip was planned and couldn't wait to find out what it was.  Gransan and Janet surprised them with a red Mustang convertible!!!  It is quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen!  It has a radio and a license plate that says "Try Me".  While Emerson is driving, Braelyn is in charge of the radio and while Braelyn drives Emerson has to push the gas!  On Sunday, we found out that Priceline had changed Jeremy and Kristi's itinerary and that their flight home would now be on Monday so Shawn got to spend another day with them and I headed to the farm to pick up the girls.  On Monday, we got up and went swimming at Jaf and Shell's with all the girls and then had lunch at Jerry and Janet's.

Lunch at Cheddar's in Lufkin.  These 3 look really ready for their fun weekend!

The ball-popper is a huge hit with both girls!

New "inside toy" for this visit-Noah's Ark

Nate came to see the girls minutes after they got into town!

Emerson, Braelyn, and Janet...B's tiara cracks me up!

Is this cute or what?!

I am already having nightmares of this same image 13 years from now!

I think this arrangement is going to be even scarier when the time comes!

Braelyn loves P...sorry for your lack of sleep Patsy!

A little tangled up in her lei!

This was the first step in big progress...by the end of the weekend Emerson rode the 4-wheeler with Bailey and Jordan!  Finally!

Braelyn all ready to go swimming.

She was VERY nervous!  She is not a big fan of dogs especially when really big ones come running towards her!

Emerson had a blast with the big girls and Braelyn had the most fun getting in and out of the pool over and over again!

It took a while but Jaf finally won her over!

Em was very happy to see Shell

I love my girls!  Now it is time to get home to Daddy!

Rock of Ages

Shawn and I were so ready for a grown-up weekend and it was so much fun having Jeremy and Kristi here to spend it with us.  Kristi and I got a day of shopping in when we got back from taking the girls to Lufkin before we met the guys for Mexican food on Lake Conroe.  Saturday was a pretty lazy day of college football and for Kristi and me pedicures.  Saturday evening we headed to the Yucatan Taco Stand on The Waterway and then on to the Rock of Ages concert....Poison and Def Leppard!!!  It was AWESOME!!!!  We decided part way through the concert that this needed to be an annual weekend for the four of us!

Dinner at the Yucatan Taco Stand

I insisted on lots of pictures together...funny how over the last 3 years we have very few pics of the 2 of us!

Jeremy and Kristi

Woohoo!!!

It has taken us about 12 years but we have finally perfected the art of taking a picture of ourselves!  I didn't cut off Shawn's head!

Brett Michaels kicking off the Poison part of the concert.

The sister-in-laws

The brothers

We always have so much fun together!!

Def Leppard