Are we ready!?!?!?

The Christmas decorations are up...

 most of the presents have been purchased or made...

Chef's hat/apron for Emma (shhhh...don't tell...)

Little clutches for teachers

the baby's room is ready...

Is it possible that the baby will be small enough
to fit in those little tiny diapers??

big sister is prepared...

(ok...so she knows there is a baby sister coming
but I'm pretty sure it won't sink in until we bring her home...)

and the belly is very large!

(Oh, and I almost forgot, the blog has been updated.)

Just a few more days to go (I hope)!!!

Growing up...

Our little girl is growing up. She doesn't even look like a baby anymore. She is cruising (walking holding on to walls/furniture), saying a few words (mama, dada, kitty cat, hi, uh-oh...), and most of all understanding everything it seems! She has given up her bottles for sippy cups and big girl milk and is feeding herself just about anything she can get her hands on. Most of all, she has a sweet personality with a little stubbornness thrown in (don't have any idea where that came from)! She is the most beautiful little girl on earth and we are blessed to be able to guide her and watch her grow.

Discovering a flower during our visit to South Carolina in late January

(Yes, her shirt is dirty and her pants are a little too short.
Didn't I say she was eating everything in sight and growing like crazy!?!?!)

Playing outside at home

Emma's favorite playmate is Max, our kitty cat.

An afternoon at the park. Emma's ride down the slide by herself.

That was fun Momma!

Emma is swinging high and Daddy is trying not to get hit!

The tongue helps with balance ;-)

Hide and seek with Daddy

Helping to plant our first seeds of the spring. Garden time is just around the corner.

Our first (and only so far) snow of the year. Emma is discovering what it feels like.

And, of course, you have to eat it to truly test out the snow.

A big girl standing up at the window.

And always on the move...she likes to rock her rocking chair!

The Tree

We decided to make a special trip to pick out our Christmas tree this year. We drove to a tree farm outside of Elon, NC about 30 minutes from our house. They have cut-your-own long leaf pine trees. We had a nice time walking around the farm and then we bought a frasier fir tree that was pre-cut from the mountains (apparently they only grow over 3000 feet in elevation)!

Haircut

As with everything about Emma, her hair is growing fast too! It was starting to get a bit uneven looking so Momma tried to cut the front to make it look less stringy. Ooops....so Emma then went in to get her first profressional haircut!!

A special occasion

One of our dear friends got married a few weeks ago and we had a blast at her wedding. We wish Sheri & Barry all of the best in their new life together!!

It was Emma's first dress-up function, so I decided to make her something special to wear. The dress is from toosweets patterns over at etsy...the 'best bubble dress'. I made the little flower to add some flare. The clip in her hair is an original too! I also made shoes to go with the outfit (maryjanes in the same material as the dress, with pearls on the buckle), but unfortunately I made one size too small and they didn't stay on for more than the first half hour. Needless to say, I was disappointed but I hope to try the shoes again soon in a larger size...maybe black to go with some of her church dresses.

Thank you to Lisa Albert for these great pictures!!

Emma's friend Jack with his daddy Brian.
Jack is about 4 months older than Emma.

Crawling....almost!

Emma took her first crawl last week. She actually moved using her knees right before bedtime. You can see the stages of the movement below.

She also loves to push up on the tips of her toes as far as she can go and then flop forward. She does this over and over again to get where she wants to go. It made me laugh the first time I saw it!

Hoooooot!!!!!!!

I made Emma an owl costume for this Halloween because her 'school' has a special time to dress up and do fun activities on Halloween. However, Emma didn't get to go to school yesterday (it has been a rough sickness week), but we did dress her up for the occasion!!

Emma is showing off her new favorite 'fish' face!