Sunday Style Section

This is the backpack that Ben's girlfriend Sandy gave Emmie.  Emmie LOVES the backpack and carries it everywhere...I was pretty sure she was going to fall asleep with it on the other day but eventually she let me take it off!

I just LOVE this outfit.  I also LOVE the big white bow!  Notice the mess in the floor...that's penguin stuffing courtesy of Franklin!

My mom got Emmie some little clips and we managed to get her hair in pigtails!  She pulled them out after a little while but they were so cute while they lasted!

Bathing suits are always stylish!

We didn't go to church this week because Emmie has had a fever and a rash the last 2 days but she still wore a pretty smocked dress!

A Hard Day's Work

I was getting Emmie to "sign" the Mother's Day cards we sent...it kind of looked like she set up an office in our kitchen...a 16mo old's office, complete with crayons and sippy cup!

Practice Makes Perfect

Lately I've been talking a lot to Emmie about Ellie and about how much fun she's going to have with her little sister.  One thing we talk about is how Emmie can help me give Ellie a bath...Emmie loves playing in the water so I think she will love "helping" give Ellie her bath!  Anyway, I guess she decided she needed to practice giving a bath so when we had her little bathtub out in the yard the other day she dumped Elmo in there!

Sunday Style Section - 2 weeks worth!

I love this shirt...Emmie looks so pretty in brown.

This little patchwork seersucker dress is one of my favorites.

How cute is the little duck outfit!  I think the "hat" just adds to the effect!

One of my favorite dresses.  I love the bright colors.  Plus the dress has lots of bows!

You can't see all of this dress but you can see enough to get the drift!

Yay for bathing suit weather!

I love the watermelon dress.  My mom made it for Emmie last year and she let the hem out so that Emmie can wear the dress again this year.  I guess next year she'll take the hem back up so that Ellie can wear it!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Emmie's hat from the front but I wasn't quick enough.

I love this pink and green outfit.  The only problem with it is that I'm always having to pull the capris up because Emmie's big tummy is always pushing them down!

Wearing her Easter dress again...I just love the little lambs! 

We substituted her oh so fashionable hat for a bow!

Lots of "Happys"

I kind of dropped the ball last week with my lack of computer and then lack of camera so I managed to forget to post some big "happys".
On May 5th my little brother, Ben (aka "the giant"), turned 21!  I can still remember when he was born and how excited I was to have a little brother.  I pretty much thought of him as my own, live baby doll!  I've really enjoyed watching him grow up from a little boy into a man...it's amazing how fast the time has gone!  I've really loved watching him with Emmie.  He's a wonderful uncle and Emmie thinks her Giant is pretty special!  Happy Belated Birthday Ben!

Also on May 5th my parents celebrated their 32nd wedding anniversary!  They have always been such wonderful examples of what a Christian marriage looks like and I'm so thankful for their love and commitment to each other.  Happy Anniversary!

And finally...HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!  Paul and I both have wonderful mother's that we're so thankful for.  They have been so supportive of us and have helped us out so much by keeping Emmie while I work.  It gives me such peace of mind to know that Emmie and Franklin are being well taken care of while I'm away from them.  Emmie and Franklin and Ellie couldn't have asked for better Grandmothers! 
Emmie is also so lucky to have 2 great-grandmothers who love her sooooo much!  Emmie is my grandmother's first great grandchild and Paul's grandmother's 17th great grandchild!  Emmie thinks both of her great-grandmothers are pretty special!
This year I'm especially thankful for my mom as we near the end of her treatments for cancer.  I have been constantly amazed by her strength and faith as she has dealt with all the physical and emotional trials that go along with the cancer.  I am so thankful that she has done well with her treatments and is now cancer free!

Today was my 2nd Mother's Day and I feel so blessed to be the mom of a sweet little girl and an adorable puppy! 

 

Dec. 17th, 2010...meeting Emmie for the first time!

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day 2011

 I can definitely say that being a mom has been a wonderful experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.  It definitely has its ups and downs and some days it can be very challenging but at the end of the day when Emmie snuggles with me while I rock her to sleep it makes all the hard, frustrating times just melt away.  I love being a mom to Emmie and Franklin and I can't wait to meet Ellie!  Today, Emmie and Franklin gave me a sweet card at breakfast and then we headed to church.  After church we went to Liberty to eat lunch but service was super slow and after it took us over 20 minutes to get water and Emmie was melting down fast, we decided to forget the lunch idea.  We came home, took naps (Paul got Emmie up after her nap and I got an extra 30 minutes of sleep...definitely a great Mother's Day gift!), and took Emmie and Franklin to the Children's Garden.  It was so nice just to have time where all 4 of us were together...between my work schedule and Paul's we hardly ever have family time.  Emmie was in kind of a funny mood today...she wasn't being bad or whiney but she was kind of clingy and just a little out of sorts...sometimes the nursery overwhelms her so maybe she was just recovering from the overstimulation.  Anyway, with the mood she was in we decided it would be much easier and much less stressful to just pick up dinner on the way home instead of sitting down at a restaurant.  After some yummy Red Robin, we filled up the baby bathtub outside and watched Emmie play.  Tonight at bedtime, Emmie was so tired that she just wanted to snuggle with me as she drifted off to sleep and right now Franklin is snuggled up with me on the couch...what a perfect end to Mother's Day!



Franklin, Emmie, and me...and Ellie!



We tried really hard to get a picture of me with all the babies today...this was the best we got...it's hard to get Emmie and Franklin to settle down for long! 

I love this picture of Emmie and me!

My first baby...Franklin!

*check out Sunday Style Section tomorrow!*

Greenville

We went to Greenville last Friday evening and stayed with my parents until Tuesday morning.  We had so much fun while we were there.  Franklin always loves to go see Gran and The Crazy Man (aka Grandaddy...but if you know him you understand the nickname...haha) and Emmie had such a good time playing at their house...I'm pretty sure she's already figured out that grandparents (and Great Grandmothers) are a lot more fun than parents!  I think we all enjoyed our stay.  I know it was comforting for me to see that my mom really was feeling better as she recovered from her bout with bronchitis.  She was pretty sick when we were in Greenville the week before.  Monday, after her chemo, she even walked all the way around the neighborhood with us!
Here's some of what we did while we were in Greenville...the common theme, you will notice, is water!  We had beautiful weather so we played outside a lot.

Why is Grandaddy great?  Because he's the only one who will let you "help" work on the computer.

Franklin and Emmie had a great time playing in her old baby bathtub.  Franklin was glad that we finally got him a big water bowl...he is a very big dog after all!  He drank so much he had to go to the bathroom 3 times in a 2 hour period!  Apparently, even though he is a big dog, he does not have big dog kidneys.

Emmie had the best time playing with her stacking cups!

She loved having a chair that she could get in and out of.  The best part?  She would get her chair all wet and then want to kick you out of your chair so she could have a dry one!

Playing with the water!

Emmie did a lot of coloring while we were at Gran and Grandaddy's house.  It would appear that blue is her favorite color crayon.

We broke out her bathing suit (and a swim diaper...the regular ones get quite large when wet!) and she had a great time in her "pool"...even though the water was straight out of the hose so it was COLD!

Franklin supervised the pool play.  Emmie was funny...in her little "pool" she would put herself, a big tupperware bowl, most of the 12 stacking cups, and one time she also tried to get a small trash can in there!

While we were in Greenville Emmie's Great-Grandmother came over to play but sadly I couldn't find my camera so no pictures...but we all had a good time!

Ready for the Next Royal Wedding

After perusing the pictures from the Royal Wedding with her Grandaddy (don't let him fool you into thinking they were doing work!), Emmie found herself a hat and declared that she was ready for the next Royal Wedding (Prince Harry's perhaps?).

PS.  I left my computer in Columbia while we were in Greenville and then left my camera in Greenville when we came home so last week's Sunday Style Section will be in with this weeks!