Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Emily was having a lovely Saturday afternoon, until a man with a long white beard appeared in her living room. That's right, Santa made a house call to check to see if Emily had been naughty or nice. She wasn't having anything to do with Santa so Mommy got to sit on Santa's lap!! She received a nice sleeper from Santa and her first candy cane, which she enjoyed very much as you can see. Merry Christmas. Stay warm.

Busy Busy!

This is Emily's new house. Nate found this house for her at a garage sale for $60.00. It had been stored inside so it still looks brand new. Emily loves playing in it.

This is Emily's new trick. Since her new house is downstairs we all have been spending a lot more time in the basement. One day I put her down to see what she would do. Well to my surprise she handled the stairs with ease. Yikes!

Emily is 100% girl. Nana gave her an old wallet to play with. She is practicing getting her credit cards in and out of the slots. She took a minute to sit in her favorite chair. Sitting is a rarity for her these days. She is always on the move.

Emily has many balls and loves to throw each one of them over the gate and down the stairs. It's a game she enjoys much more than we do! She is a little stinker.

Help!

Around the house!

Emily loves to look out the window.


Emily and her dad leaving work work and daycare! Bundled up, ready to go!


Here is Emily being very silly.


Emily looks so pretty in her dress!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun Halloween!! Emily seemed to enjoy this Halloween a lot more then last year. I think she is thankful that I didn't put her in a pumpkin this year. We took her to Night Eyes at Blank Park Zoo last weekend. She seemed to enjoy it. The weather was perfect. She got to participate in the daycare party this year too! All the kids brought treats and got to wear their costumes. Tonight we went to Nana and Papa's house for a little while to help pass out candy. As you can see the costume didn't last too long.


What a difference a year makes!!!

Walking Emily!!!!

She did it! She is finally walking 100% independently. She has been toying with the idea of walking for 6 weeks. Nate and I would help her with ping pong walking. She enjoyed walking between Nate and I but just wasn't ready to take the trip all by herself. Over the weekend, she just started walking all over the house. It still is a little surreal to watch her walk around the house exploring on her own. Today we went to the park and Emily even felt comfortable walking on the sidewalk. Go Emily. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

Update: We went and got Emily's second round of flu shot. They weighed her and she is weighing in at a solid 19lbs 10 1/2 ounces. We are hoping to break 20 pounds soon!

The Pumpkin Patch

We decided to take Emily to the pumpkin patch today. To say that she enjoyed it might be the understatement of the year. She loved it!!! I was really surprised how much fun she had. She was able to get out of the stroller and walk around with the help of Mom and Dad of course. The farm had so many neat things for kids to do. I know Emily will have so much more fun next year when she can really interact with the animals and pick out her own pumpkin. This year she really didn't have much of an opinion. We had so much fun today. A perfect Fall activity on a perfect Fall day. I know that there are quite a few pictures... I just couldn't decide which ones to post so I posted them all! Enjoy!

Busy Busy Emily

Emily loves Fruity Cheerios! She managed to get a hold of this box and knew how to quickly get to the bottom of the box.

Emily just learned how to climb onto the mantle. She know she is not supposed to do it and just flashes you a million dollar smile anyway. More babyproofing!

Emily loves this picture book she got for her birthday. She points to the picture of the cookies when I say, "Emily, where is the cookie?" Maybe Emily inherited her Mom's sweet tooth?

I think Emily would sleep in here if she could. She loves to climb into Roxie and Riley's kennel. Nate and I are always finding random toys and shoes she just threw in there when no one was looking.

Emily's Tree

Here is the tree that we planted in honor of Emily's birth last September. What a difference a year makes. Last year we placed a sleeping newborn in her car seat under the tree for the picture. This year we had to wrestle with her to just pose for the picture. I am looking forward to seeing Emily and her tree grow over the years.

Twin Mania

In this picture Emily is surrounded by her three sets of twin relatives. On the left is her Uncle Andy and Uncle Brian, Nate's brothers. Next is Emily's Great Uncle Dennis and then Emily with her Grandpa. On the right side of the photo is her Uncle Jack and her Uncle Jerry, my brothers. Emily is very lucky to have such a neat story to tell when she gets older. All of her Uncles are twins! HA. It was really neat to get this picture taken, as all of these men are not always in the same spot very often.

1 year Well Baby Visit

Emily went to the doctor on Friday and had a fantastic checkup. The doctor said she looked perfect. She had five shots and was really really upset. As always so was I. They then needed to draw her blood and tried to find her vein. After sticking her in each arm with no success they told us we would have to come back and have her blood drawn in the lab at Methodist. So this morning my mom and I took her back to the hospital to retry the blood draw. Poor girl! They poked both arms and both hands trying to locate her veins. Finally after what seemed like a million years they were able to locate a vein. The lab tech even said she was a toughie when it came to locating her veins. I had the same problem throughout my pregnancy. In total Emily got stuck 10 different times. She really was a trooper.
Her stats were:

Weight 19 lbs 3 oz. (5-10%)
Length 27 1/2" (10-15%)

Happy 1st Birthday Emily!

Emily with her birthday spread.
This was a very special cake Grandma Allen made especially for her!
Emily doesn't really like hats in general so we just played with her birthday hat!
She very carefully checked out her cake. She was actually quite tidy about the whole process which Mom appreciated a lot!
Emily checked out her new toys and clothes after opening them. She is very lucky to have such a nice and generous family. Thanks everyone!