Check Out This Hand Me Down!

A couple of days ago George called me from work and asked if we wanted a slide from one of his coworkers. His coworker has a 3 yr old son and he got tired of playing with his slide so they were going to take it to Goodwill. George thought Emma might like it so we said we'll take it! Yesterday it got delivered and we hadn't mentioned it to Emma b/c we wanted to clean it first and put it in the backyard. Well today it was so gorgeous out so we played outside alot. We had started walking on the sidewalk with her stroller and baby and all of a sudden Emma turned that stroller around and took off so quickly to the slide. It was so cute! So I moved it to the backyard for her and she immediately started sliding and was so excited about the different colors on the slide. She even threw her baby down the slide several times. It's so funny how one child is tired of a toy and then to another child it is the greatest toy ever. Thanks so much to George's coworker for letting us have the slide and thank you to Greg for driving it to our house. Emma is super happy!

Look at her long wild hair!



Hair blowing in the wind and look at her amazing eyelashes. Seriously, if I got $1 for every comment on how beautiful her eyelashes are, we would be billionaires! NO JOKE!



Getting ready to launch her baby down the slide!



And my ALMOST 2 year old! What a big girl!


I'm so excited this weekend is supposed to be beautiful so we plan on going to Dublin Park tomorrow and I need to hit up Ann Taylor at the mall for some more work clothes. Then on Sunday we are picking up an ice cream cake from Maggie Moos for Emma's 2nd birthday and we will celebrate at home. Lots of pics to come!

Also, Emma's surgery is scheduled for Monday morning and we have to be there by 7:30am. It's so crazy to think that this time 2 years ago I was already in the hospital trying to "bake" her a little longer. Now she will get to come home on her 2nd birthday from the same hospital. I love my princess. :)

So Sad... :(

Mommy's been kind of down yesterday and today b/c I cancelled Emma's 2nd birthday party. We had planned on going home to TN tomorrow and then having a big family party on Saturday. Well with Emma's big surgery on Monday morning there is just too much sickness going around that Emma doesn't need to be exposed to. We can't afford to have her sick right before her surgery. The party wasn't anything big just an Elmo cake and family but I always look forward to a birthday celebration. Now we just plan on staying home and I might still get her a cake for us and let her blow out 2 candles. Of course, I can't forget the Elmo balloons! I will definintely have pictures and please keep Emma in your thoughts and prayers on Monday. She is having her tonsils/adenoids removed and a sinus irrigation. We will get a fun night at the Women and Children's hospital and should be coming home on Tuesday which is Emma's actual birthday. Poor baby! I just had my tonsils out back in July and it wasn't fun so I feel really bad for putting Emma through it. At least it will be done and over with and she will never remember it. :(

A New Elmo Toy!

It's no secret that Emma LOVES Elmo and Aunt Kathy got her the coolest Elmo Kinetics toy for Christmas. Since Emma got so many new toys for Christmas we just opened up this toy yesterday. Emma saw the box in her closet and has been begging to play with the new Elmo so we had lots of fun building the Elmo and his piano. Thanks Aunt Kathy for an awesome toy!

Elmo's head kept popping off!


Helping Elmo play his piano.

"That's so pretty!"

Yesterday I sat Emma on the bathroom counter so I could put her hair in pigtails. She loves for mommy to fix her hair. So as I'm parting it and getting the rubber bands ready Emma says "that's so pretty!" I said "yes, you are very pretty" and she continued to say "that's so pretty" three times while I fixed her hair. At what point do I stop telling her how pretty she is? NEVER!

Also a couple of days ago I was putting her clothes on so we could go bye bye. After she was dressed she said "go see Emma" and I thought what in the world is she talking about. She runs into my bathroom so I go after her. She had climbed up onto the blue stool and was looking at herself in the mirror saying "cute!" She thought she looked cute! How sweet is she? I really love this stage she is in right now and all of the phrases she repeats. What a little sponge!

"Mmm Mmm, Gooood!"

One thing I've always looked forward to with Emma is baking cookies. When I was a child my stepmom Betsy would let me help bake cookies, brownies, and make cakes. I always felt so big and loved helping so of course I've always wanted to share baking with Emma. Recently she has been so independent and always wants to help me cook so today after her nap I said "Emma, would you like to go get some butter and then help mommy bake some chocolate chip cookies?" She says "go get butter and make chocolate cookies?" It was so sweet! So we ran to the grocery and grabbed some butter and extra chocolate chips. We walked back into the house and she said "go make cookies!" We had such a good time and I look forward to all of our baking sessions in the future!

Emma was eyeing those chocolate chips! While I was pouring them in the measuring cup she kept grabbing them and stuffing them in her mouth!


Helping mommy pour the chocolate in. It took lots of willpower for her not to eat them while pouring. :)


As I was scooping she said "Emma help" so I got her her own spoon. Well her idea of helping is sticking the spoon in the mix and then eating it! Don't worry Gabby she hardly got any on her spoon. As she would eat it she would say "YUMMY!" I've got a chocolate lover on my hands. :)

Then she asked for a cup of milk! What a smart little cookie!

Emma WON!!!

Thanks to everyone that voted my sweet princess won the Valley Baby contest for the month of January!!! They announced the winner on the news last night around 10:30pm and we were so happy. We think miss Emma is absolutely gorgeous so it was only right that she won. :) Now that she won January she will not be eligible to win the other months but she will be in the calendar for 2009. Then after all 12 months are complete voting will take place again for the overall winner. The winner's picture will be on the front cover of Valley Baby magazine which is distributed all around Huntsville. So we've got another year to wait to see if she wins the overall contest but I'm a proud mommy today. Thanks so much for all of the votes!!! You guys rock!

Please Continue to VOTE For Emma!

Hey folks, the contest is ending tomorrow night the 31st so please check out the link today and tomorrow and continue to vote. She is a little behind right now but I know we can get to the top with some help. I am really hoping she wins b/c we want to visit Heather Bookout's photography again. She will get a free session if she wins for January. So click on the link and vote for Emma! Thanks again!

Link: http://web.waaytv.com/bom/index.php

My Fairy Princess

Emma has recently started playing in her bedroom and loves it. She's always tugging on me and saying "mommy play in bedroom" and she wants us to play with all of her "babies". She likes to fake cry for them, comfort them, feed and rock them. It is so sweet and I love watching her act like a real mommy. Since I'm going back to work in about 4 wks I am trying so hard to play as much as possible during the day with her b/c her little world is about to change. So anyways, here is a pic of Emma playing in her room this morning. She has on her fairy princess costume and you can see some of her babies. She LOVES Elmo, Zoe, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore. Those are her favorites right now.
Sorry about the pic quality. I think all of the sunlight coming in on her made it look fuzzy. It is still incredibly cute!!!

Please VOTE For Emma!!!

Ladies and Gents,

Emma has been entered into the WAAY 31 Valley Baby of the Month contest where a winner is chosen each month. There are some awesome prizes and at the end of the year an overall winner will be chosen. I believe it is the child with the most votes from the whole year. So if you don't mind, please jump on over to the WAAY tv website and vote. You can vote 1 time every 12 hours! So please be a repeat voter if you can. :) Thanks!!!

Link: http://web.waaytv.com/bom/

So Pretty Today...

So we headed outside to play! Braxton even got to go out and enjoy the wind blowing at his face. Of course I took some pics to share. Emma's got beautiful eyes so I was trying to capture their blueness! Enjoy b/c tomorrow it is supposed to get cold again. Oh how I long for summer...

Playing with her chalk!

And my furbaby Braxton. He's my other child! :)