Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Emmie's GG (Paul's mom)!  We hope you have a wonderful day!
Love,
Paul, Stacy, Emmie, and Franklin

Sunday Style Section

No new outfits this week...but some pretty cute ones!

Emmie thinks it's very stylish to drink water...she carries her sippy cup around with her all day!

Franklin got groomed this week and he got a GARNET bandana afterwards!  Usually he works his bandana off by the end of the day but he got groomed on Monday and he's still proudly sporting his Gamecock colors 

Walking!

On Sunday I mentioned that Emmie and "taken off" with the walking.  It's just crazy to me that one day she was sometimes walking but usually crawling and the next day she was walking and only crawling every once in a while.  The first video is from yesterday and the second is from today.  Enjoy!

Family Picture

We tried to get a picture of all of us while we were at my parent's house...it's really hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time!

Kroger Savings

I was super excited about my savings at Kroger this week!  I saved 58% and got lots of good stuff.

For $44.66 I got...
red grapes
bananas
strawberries
deli turkey for sandwiches
red delicious apples
1 Macaroni Grill frozen skillet meal
1 box of Lean Pockets
1 box of Texas Toast
kraft american cheese singles
Gladware
2 bottles of J&J baby shampoo
renyolds wrap foil
2 bags of organic tortilla chips
2 bags of kettle chips
2 containers of desitin
2 boxes of pepperidge farm all natural crisps
3 boxes of jello
1 can of rotel tomatoes
3 cans of del monte green beans
2 cans of del monte corn
3 cans of hunts diced tomatoes
1 bottle of Frank's hot sauce
and 2 items I can't identify from the receipt

The only items I got that weren't on sale were the bananas and the turkey!  I've got a pretty good stockpile of meat and such from BOGO sales at Bilo so it makes it a lot easier to stockpile sale items.
Tomorrow I'll go to Publix for a few things...most of which are on sale except for the milk and eggs I need (keeping my fingers crossed that they'll have gallon containers of organic milk in stock...they tend to go like hotcakes!).

Christmas

Wow!  I'm waaaaay behind with this post (somewhat due to slackness somewhat due to lack of internet access). 
I worked Christmas Eve day but luckily I only had to work the frist half of the day so we got to go to the 4pm service at church.  It was my FIRST candlelight service EVER which was neat.  My favorite part by far was all the beautiful Christmas hymns we sang...I LOVE Christmas hymns.
We got up Christmas day and did Santa with Emmie and the ate some breakfast.

While we were eating my parents, Ben, and my grandmother arrived to do Christmas!  We opened presents and then enjoyed a wonderful meal with them that my mom prepared.  They left late afternoon so they could get back to Greenville before the snow started sticking to the roads. 

I was so excited to get to use my Christmas china (Lenox Holiday Platinum), my crystal (Waterford Lismore Platinum), my silver (can't remmeber what pattern but it's the same thing my mom has), and my snowflake napkin rings and my tablecloth and cloth napkins (all from Bed Bath and Beyond).

The next day we woke up to snow!  Paul's parents and Blake were supposed to come to do Christmas on their way back from NC but they called and said they didn't think they'd be able to get out of Boiling Springs.  So we played in the snow and went about the day and then they called after lunch and said they managed to get out and were on their way...yay!  So they came and we did Christmas and then had a yummy Red Bowl dinner at the house before they headed back to Summerville. 

 

I'm pretty sure she thought if she sat on all the presents she would get to open them all!

She loves this little piano that Paul's parents got her.

All the new Christmas presents she got couldn't make her forget her ride along toy!  She enjoyed having uncles around to push her.

Sunday Style Section and a big milestone!

Emmie is a HUGE hat lover...the other day she grabbed my hat and put it one...so cute!

I love this little ladybug smocked dress.

This was her Sunday dress this week...it's even cuter without the drool on it...haha.  She also had a red bow but it was in the car.

Paul found his old cell phone and gave it to her...I think this is a bit of a flashforward picture...doesn't she look like a teenager!?

These are the pants I made her...I wish I had a cute blue shirt for her to wear with them but I was never able to find one so we wear the onesie turtleneck.

So today we had a HUGE milestone...Emmie is officially a walker not a crawler!  She's been walking more and more and not needing as much encouragement to walk but she's still been mostly crawling.  Well, today when we picked her up at the nursery Hannah, who's in charge of all the nursery stuff, told me she enjoyed watching Emmie walk...I figured she meant Emmie took a few steps and that was it.  Well we got home and I put Emmie down on the ground and she took off!  She was so funny and so proud of herself.  All day she walked back and forth from the kitchen to the den and back again.  She would get to the kitchen door and turn around and walk back to the den..so cute.  She wasn't really expecting lots of praise either (not that that stopped Paul and me from cheering and clapping...haha).  She would just get this little smile on her face while she walked like she was really proud of herself and it didn't matter if anyone else saw what she was doing.  The other big accomplishment was that she did all this walking with her shoes on!  Up until today she would very rarely walk with her shoes on...babies are so funny how quickly they change!  I'm very excited about my little walker (not so excited about her other new skill...climbing on furniture)!

Sugar Mountain

This past weekend we went to Sugar Mountain with Paul's family.  Fred, Gin-g, Paul, Blake, and Emily ended up going tubing instead of skiing and from all reports they had a great time.  We're all excited that next year Emmie will be old enough to go tubing...she's going to have so much fun!  After everyone got back from tubing we took Emmie outside on the hill behind the condo and the guys packed down some snow for her and we slid her down the hill.  She didn't object to it but I wouldn't say she loved it...she was mostly confused about what those crazy adults were doing.  She spends a lot of time thinking we're all crazy.  After awhile we went and got a cookie sheet and sat her on that. 

There was sooo much snow on the balcony! 

Sitting outside with all her snow gear on.

Paul making a snow angel on the balcony.

Slidding down the hill.

Playing in the snow with Papa Coach.

Emily and Blake getting her set on the cookie sheet.

When she wasn't playing in the snow we entertained her in the condo.  There were lots of fun things to do and really everything's fun when you have an adoring audience.

GG put on a puppet show with Emmie's animals up in the loft.

There was a spiral staircase...Emmie was constantly crawling over there to try and climb up!

Greeting her adoring subjects!

I just love this picture.  She's giving her mousie some water...what a little nurturer...until she tossed him on his head...hmm...might need to work on that...she's going to be such a good big sister (don't worry...we'll have curbed the "tossing the baby on it's head" behavior by then!).

The place we stayed wasn't pet friendly so Franklin stayed with my parents while we were gone.  Apparently he slept pretty much the whole time!  I figure he was taking advantage of being able to sleep without having to worry about a baby trying to pet him!



Show Us Your Life

This week on Kelly's Korner she's doing Show Us Your Singles.  I have a few single friends that I think are absolutely fabulous and I've always on the lookout for the perfect person to set them up with.  So, this week I'm turning to Kelly's Korner to find someone for my friend Kristy.

Kristy is 30 years old and lives in Columbia, SC where she is a pediatrician (and a fabulous one at that!).  Kristy is originally from Conway, SC and she is a graduate of Furman University and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.  The most important thing to know about Kristy is that she loves Jesus and she is looking for someone who shares this love.  She is active in our church and has been on multiple medical mission trips.  Kristy is also a big football fan and attends as many USC football games as she can each year.  While she was at Furman Kristy was a member of the band and she still enjoys watching the bands at halftime during the football games.  Kristy is very much a people person and she's always organizing social activities for her friends, such as dinner out or going to the movies or the lake.  She's also one of those people who can't go anywhere without running into someone she knows!  One thing I like about Kristy is that she's a good listener and is easy to talk to and she's a very practical person so she gives great advice.  Kristy also has an adorable labradoodle named Sydney who's around a year old and is so much fun!

If you know someone who is interested in getting to know Kristy email me at lucybell83@yahoo.com or leave a comment!

Birthday

Yes, I know, this post is super duper late but better late than never right?  By the way, I'm FINALLY back online...yay!
We had Emmie's birthday at our house on December 19th.  Afterward I told Paul that this would probably be her most elaborate birthday party and she won't even remember it!  Luckily, I had lots of help from the grandmothers.  They both brought lots of yummy food so I didn't have to make too much.  Also, our friends Abby and Ben drove down from DC for the party and they got to town on Saturday and were a HUGE help!  I was worried about Emmie being overwhelmed by all the people but it didn't seem to faze her at all.  Franklin on the other hand kept hidding behind me whenever someone new would come in...then he found his Gran's lap so he calmed down a bit.  All in all we had a great time...especially the birthday girl.

Emmie's birthday sign that I made.  I was inspired by the banner that Mac had at his party.  I was sooo pleased with how it turned out!

My Martha Stewart ladybug cupcakes.  They were supposed to have black licorice antenna but apparently no one in Columbia carries thin black licorice so our ladybugs had no antenna...but they were still cute and yummy!

The food table. (Have you figured out yet what the color scheme was?)

Emmie's birthday dress that I made her and Christa monogrammed

Emmie playing with my cousin's little boy Corey. (When I went to take the picture they were playing together but of course Emmie moved before I could take the picture.)

Addison and her parents, Rebekah and Ryan, were in town visiting Rebekah's mom so they came by the party for a bit.  It was so good to see them! (Rebekah was my walking buddy in the neighborhood and I miss all of them soooo much.)

Liv and Kristi and Kristi's cousin came to the party as well. 

Emmie and her Great-Grandmothers.  My Grandmother is on the left and Paul's Mammy is on the right.  Emmie thinks Great-Grandmother's are great!

Emmie and Liv playing with one of Emmie's new toys.

Emmie's birthday cupcake.

After I put it on her tray she kept looking at it like she wasn't sure what to do with the cupcake.

(Sorry about my butt in the picture...my internet conection is too fragile to worry about cropping...I have to get all this typed before I lose it!)

I put a bite in her mouth and...

...she thought about it...

...and decided that cupcakes were so good she should stuff the whole thing in her mouth at one time!

This was at the end and you'll notice there's not too much of a mess...that's because she didn't let many bites escape!

This wagon was one of her presents so after her party we took a walk around the block and tried it out...she loved it...especially since it had a cupholder for her water!