Saturday with Santa

Bryce's school had a Saturday with Santa where you could bring your kids and get their pictures taken.  Charlotte absolutely loved playing in Bryce's office and getting to see all the pictures of her on his desk.  Charlotte asked Santa for a "Unicorn Cuddleuppett" (she's been running around the house singing "cuddle cuddle up it, blanket that's a puppet).  I swear those As Seen on TV Ads should be banned from kids stations!  Emily did well meeting Santa for the first time.  She didn't cry and she didn't pull his beard, success!

10 months old

This gorgeous girl is 10 months old now.  I remember having the same revelation with Charlotte....that she has officially been on the outside of my body for longer than I carried her on the inside.  I have no doubt in God's divine plan though, there is absolutely positively a bond that attaches to your heart when you give birth to your child and no matter where they are or how far they go you can literally feel it squeeze inside you. Emily is amazing.   She is so curious and very good at figuring things out.  She is really interacting with the world around her now.  She is saying "Mama" and added "Lola" at the end of this month.  She loves it when I open the back door to call Lola inside and crawls over yelling "Lola, Lola!".  She is waving hello and bye bye.  She is smacking her lips and blowing kisses.  She will pucker up for a kiss now too.  She plays patty cake by herself and loves to clap for anything and everything.  I just ate a bite of my food and you said good job?  YAY, CLAP CLAP CLAP.  You just changed my diaper?  YAY, CLAP CLAP CLAP.  She loves her Momma.  She will literally follow me EVERY WHERE no matter what hurdle or obstacle is in her way.  She has done circles around our house to hunt me down and then proceeds to crawl up my leg until I hold her.  She is standing on her own for a few seconds now and will walk as long as she has a hand to hold on to.  She is pretty good at entertaining herself as well, as long as there is another person in sight.  She is still nursing 4-5 times a day but has pretty much transitioned to solid foods.  By the end of month 10 she is eating a majority of what we eat for lunch and dinner.  She is so happy.  She makes us so happy.  All of us, because her happiness and laughter is so contagious.  Even when we are out to eat or at a store people will stop us wherever we are to talk to her and walk away with the biggest smile on their face because of her.  Happy 10 months Emily!!

Deck the halls

It was Bryce's year to choose the place we would get our tree from and we just happened to find this little farm right down the road from our house.  Charlotte was happy to get dressed up and pick out our Christmas tree, but she was even more excited to break out all those ornaments!  She was so sweet looking at each and every one so lovingly.  Every one that she unwrapped was a new exclamation "Oh, Mommy look at this one!  It's so beautiful!".  We had several casualties that day (thankfully none of my expensive ornaments-she knew not to touch the ones in the fancy box!) and HOURS later we had a fully decorated tree. Emily was a bear to handle while we were putting all the decorations out, but she was surprisingly uninterested in the tree once it was up and all the boxes were put away.

Big girl seat

After Emily's 9 month check up we found out that she was only 5 ounces away from being too heavy for her infant carrier (my arms should have told me that though!) so we made the decision to go ahead and move her into a rear facing car seat.  This of course was great fun for two little imaginations!  Charlotte had a great time "driving" Emily around!

I've got my boots on

As soon as Charlotte saw me laying my clothes out for work the next day she said "Mommy, I want to wear a dress and my boots too!".  The next morning she kept walking around saying "I've got my boots on!"  I love that Charlotte wants to be like me, I'll take it for as long as she wants it!

Thanksgiving

Here are our two little turkeys getting ready for the Thanksgiving festivities:

I love this picture of my two sweet girls.  You can see so much of their personality in it!

Everyone was loving on Ms. Emily:

Charlotte absolutely could not wait to feed the goats!  She ate her Thanksgiving dinner in record time so she could go out and see them.

Oh, to be this young and carefree again!

We are SO thankful!!

9 months old

Oh, this child.  9 months have gone by in a flash, and she is officially a laughing, waving, clapping, crawling little girl.  I call her little goose because she is such a silly goose.  Everything amuses her.  The dogs, HER SISTER, noises, music, you name it and she loves it.  We had our very first ear infection this month, but other than that she is doing amazing.  She is still nursing, but has transitioned to finger foods and some solids like a pro.  She takes two naps a day-the first one is about two hours after she wakes up and the second one is three hours after that.  The day after she started crawling she also learned how to pull herself up on the furniture and has been cruising around ever since.  

I got her to sit still for the first picture, and every picture after that was her in a different spot.  What a wonder to behold she is!

Trick or Treat

Halloween festivities started early with spider pops and treat bags for Charlotte's class.

Unfortunately we spent the night before Halloween with a sick baby.  Emily was up four times before my alarm goes off at 4:30, so I made the executive decision to call in for a sub so I could take her to the doctor. We managed to make it 9 months without an ear infection but the doctor confirmed that both of Emily's ears were infected.  She'd had a cold for a couple of days already but it was nice to know that the fussiness was something we could give her medicine for and help her feel better.  

Charlotte was super excited for Halloween this year.  She got to wear her costume to school and go "trick or treating" to the different classrooms then came home for some more door to door action.  Since Emily was sick we just took her to our neighbors house and then I brought her back home for an early bedtime. 

 Charlotte had such a good time.  She was shy at the first door and then for the rest of them walked right up and said her please and thank yous.  Of course we have enough candy for a small army now, but she is super happy.

Charlotte requested a dolphin pumpkin (we are still in our mermaid phase) and Bryce made her dolphin dreams come true.  It turned out really good!

The sunshines calling my name

We literally woke up (early) one morning and said "look at that sunshine"!  We might not get another warm day like this, let's GO!  After wolfing down breakfast and a stop at starbucks for fall lattes we were basically the only ones at the park.  Emily got her very first ride in a swing and Charlotte got free run of the playground.  It was a perfect morning.

Pumpkin Patch

A beautiful fall day had us itching to head out to a pumpkin patch.  We love Burt's Pumpkin farm out in Dahlonega, but with two different nap times, plus feeding times for Emily it seemed like too far of a drive.  After searching on the internet, we realized that there was a pumpkin patch about ten minutes away and it was perfect.  We got face painting, a hay ride, some good pictures, and some good pumpkins and were back home in time for naps!