2 1/2 years old

Emmie is 2 1/2 (and some days....I'm a little behind)!

I can't belive that my sweet Emmie will be THREE in December. I feel like these past 6 months have FLOWN by. Things have gotten easier at our house and we stay super busy running all over the place (I'm sure when the girls are in sports and music lessons and such I'll be saying boy it sure was easy when they were little...haha). So...here's what's been going on with Emmie since she turned two!

• I weigh about 32lb and am 36 1/2inches tall. I've barely gained any weight since my 2yr old appointment but I've definitely gotten taller. I've slimmed out so much but my tummy is still pretty round!
• I wear a size 4t shirt, pajamas and bathing suits, 3t shorts/pants (I can wear 4t if they have a lot of elastic), 4t dresses (3t if they're smocked...those tend to run big), and a 6.5 shoe. I always have a bow in my hair too!
• I'm potty trained! We started working on in mid January and within a day we were able to go run quick errands! I did soooo well. I wore a pullup for about a month at night but I was almost always dry in the morning so we quit the pullups and I've done great. Since I stopped wearing pullups I've only had 1 accident at night! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of how well I did potty training!
• I sleep from about 7:30pm (let me rephrase...I get in bed at 7:30...sometimes I'm still awake after 9 reading) until about 6:30 or 7 in the morning when I get up to go to the potty. After I go to the potty in the morning I get back in bed and read until Ellie wakes up. I have "naptime" after lunch. Sometimes I'll sleep for an hour or so and sometimes I'll just lay in bed and read until Ellie wakes up (unless Clara's keeping me and then I'll sleep for hours). I still need a nap I just don't always take one but I definitely need the alone time!
• I sleep in a toddler bed now. I've done pretty well staying in my bed. I do fall out sometimes because I won't sleep with my head on the end that has the rail.
• I can count to 20...sort of. I tend to leave out 14 and 15 which is funny because I always skipped 4 and 5 when I was learning to count to 10.
• I LOVE to sing. I sing from the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night and sometimes I fall asleep while singing at night. I know soooo many songs and if there's a new one that I want to learn I will have Mommy sing it over and over until I've learned the words.
• I know pretty much all my colors. I still occasionally have an issue with red and green but I'm getting better and better at those.
• My main babysitters, Clara and Chesnee are both having babies this fall. I'm super excited!
• Most of the time I LOVE playing with Ellie. We have a great time and Ellie thinks I'm lots of fun to play with...she plays along if I want to play doctor or "cook" her a picnic or play with the dollhouse.
• I'm a very good helper and I love to help out around the house.
• I am VERY independent! I like to dress myself, go to the potty by myself, brush my own teeth, fix my own water, etc.
• Sometimes when we go on walks I get to hold Franklin's leash. Franklin is generally very calm when he knows I'm holding the leash and I do a really good job of keeping up with him and holding the leash tight.
• I still love to read and I have a lot of my books memorized word for word.

Look how I've grown!



birth

6 months old

1year old

1 1/2 yrs old

2 years old

Sunday Style Section

This morning the girls wore their Easter dresses my mom smocked. I love these dresses and y'all know I LOVE dressing my girls alike!

Here's a little bit better view of the smocking.

Emmie was sooooo excited to go to church today! Between illnesses and being out of town we hadn't been in almost a month and I know we were all glad to go back (well perhaps not Ellie...she's at the age where the nursery isn't her favorite place...plus for some reason they still have her in the infant room so when I went to pick her up this morning they had the lights out becuase it was naptime for the little babies but Ellie was just screaming because it is not naptime for Ellie...and she was up at 6:45 this morning so she was just mad in general) but especially Emmie. We went to brunch afterwards and my child who is normally pretty reserved around strangers told everyone that would listen that she went to church and she was wearing her church dress and her church shoes. I broke her heart a little bit a few weeks ago because when I put her to bed Saturday night I told her we were going to church in the morning and then she woke up at 6am crying and saying her ear hurt so we didn't go to church which just devestated her so I didn't tell her this time around and when I pulled her dress out the closet her eyes lit up and she said "we're going to church!!". I hope she's always this excited about church!

I love this little outfit...doesn't it look summery? My mom made the shorts and I got the top at Daff-a-deals and my friend Laura from work monogrammed it for me.

I LOVE this dress on Ellie. I'm not sure where we acquired it. I'm thinking maybe Paul's mom got it but I'm not positive. It's also nice because it's a short dress so it doesn't get in her way when she's crawling.

Love this little giraffe outfit! Brown always looks sooo good on Emmie. 

I got these lobster dresses from Smocked Auctions (on Facebook). Neither one of the girls wanted to sit still and have their picture taken so this was the best I could do...on this particular day I was especially thankful for my new, FAST camera. I NEVER would have gotten the pictures on my old camera!

I also recently got some pink and green dresses with smocked whales from Smocked Auctions and the girls wore them this past week but I forgot to get a picture.

Movie stars! I got the biggest kick out of the sunglasses...it doesn't get much more stylish than this! (Thanks Lemily!)

Kiawah trip

We got back today from a fabulous week at Kiawah Island (outside of Charleston). We went with my parents and my brother and this was the first time since we got married that Paul has gone on an ENTIRE vacation! I bought my birthday present right before we left to go down to the beach...a new camera! For those of you who read my blog often or hang around me much you're well aware that my old camera was literally falling apart! I bought a Cannon Rebel T3. It's the lowest level professional camera and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It takes AMAZING pictures and it takes them super fast which is key when taking pictures of small children.
We left our house Friday evening and went to Summerville to spend the night with Paul's parents. We left Summerville Saturday afternoon and went to Kiawah. When we passed through the guard gate Emmie started chanting "beach, beach, beach". (She had been anxiously awaiting the beach all week. We had to show her on her calendar which day was Saturday and then everyday we would tell her what day it was and she would tell us that she got to go to the beach on Saturday.)
As soon as we got the car unloaded Saturday afternoon I took Emmie over to the see the ocean. She was soooo excited and of course she ran and jumped in the waves...in her clothes...but that's ok because we were at the BEACH!

After dinner on Saturday we all headed to the beach with our bathing suits on and played in the ocean. The undertow was unusually strong...Emmie could barely walk it was so strong! 

After Saturday we got in a bit of a routine throughout the week. We headed to the beach every morning around 8:30 and we would stay until about 10:30 or 11 and then come in and eat lunch and take naps. In the afternoon we did different things. A few days we went to the pool, one day we went to the park or we would just hang around the house and play. There is a nice green space behind the house and we went out there one afternoon but there were TONS of mosquitos so we weren't able to stay out there very long.

We also discovered that Franklin LOVES to walk on the beach! I think he really liked the feel of the ocean breeze in his fur and all the new smells.

Oh and did I mention we saw LOTS of nature while at Kiawah. The guys saw tons of gators the first day they golfed. We saw a fair amount of deer. At the beach we saw horseshoe crabs and porpoises. Oh and a SHARK! It was about a 3ft sand shark right in front of us...eek!

We made some friends at the beach who had a 3 year old boy and an almost 5 year old girl. They were always at the beach at the same time as us in the mornings and the kids had sooo much fun playing together!

Doesn't Ellie look like such a big girl? Playing in the ocean made her VERY hungry and we're pretty sure she gained a few pounds while we were at the beach!

Playing in the sand with Uncle Ben and Gran.

I love this picture!

The guys played Turtle Point golf course on Wednesday which is right behind the house we were staying in so we went and watched them play a few holes.

Emmie got to ride in the cart with Daddy and Grandaddy.

Paul's parents came on Thursday and brought the girls sunglasses from Emily...they had a great time wearing them!

Emmie and Paul were sculpting a kitty cat.

Ellie was really into the digging.

Our attempt at a family photo!

Emmie and her kitty cat.

GG brought cupcakes to celebrate my birthday and my dad churned some homemade cookies and cream ice cream...as you can tell Emmie enjoyed it all!

The 2013 HGTV Dream Home! I'm so excited that it's at Kiawah and you'd better believe I'll be entering everyday! (For those familiar with the island it's in Vanderhorst just past the gate.)

The view from the back of the HGTV house...beautiful!

We headed back from the beach this morning and the girls did great on the trip back. They were a bit out of sorts this afternoon...it's hard reenterng the real world! I must say we are all glad to sleep in our own beds in our own rooms...Ellie slept in the pack 'n play in our room and she's quite a noisy sleeper..not to mention she was waking up about an hour earlier than normal...eesh!

We had so much fun at Kiawah and the girls had a BLAST in the ocean and we can't wait to go back again next year!

Happy Father's Day!

My girls are so blessed to have a wonderful Daddy who loves them so much! When we had our 20 week ultrasound with Emmie and found out we were having a girl the first words out of Paul's mouth were "now I have to learn to braid hair and have tea parties!". He had no idea what to do with a little girl but he has definitely risen to the challenge. He has (finally) learned how to put Emmie's hair up in a rubberband. He has gotten pretty good at picking out coordinating outfits for them (remember this is the guy who wears a polo and khakis every day). When we found out Ellie was a girl the first thing he said was "now I have to pay for 2 weddings!" but he does love his Daddy's girls. We got Franklin after we had been married about 7 moonths and Paul wasn't so sure about getting a small dog but Franklin loves his Daddy and Paul has now decided that small dogs aren't so bad...as long as they're as cool as Franklin! I'm so glad that my girls (and Franklin) have such a wonderful Daddy!

Paul and I are both very fortunate to have wonderful Dads. We were both fortunate enough to have fathers who were good examples to us of what makes a good Dad. My dad, while he worked a lot, was still there for all the important things. He came to my violin concerts, came and cheered for the team that always lost in church basketball (we had lots of fun though!), and he was ALWAYS at swim meets cheering me on (in between DQing people...haha!).
We are so glad that our girls have wonderful grandfathers. They love Papa and Grandaddy so much and both of them are so good with the girls. We all think it's fun to watch Paul's dad with the girls because he only had boys so these little girls have him wrapped around their fingers! And I'll always remember when my dad came to see Emmie at the hospital after she was born. He got there after the rest of the family because he had a meeting and he walked into the room and picked up Emmie and didn't give her back until he left!
I have so many wonderful memories of time spent with my Grandaddy and I love that my girls have a loving Grandaddy and Papa to make memories with .

Papa with ALL his babies...the grown ones and the little ones.

Grandaddy playing with Emmie and Ellie.

I think this is one of the funniest pictures. While holding Ellie the grandfathers are looking at a picture of Ellie!