Emme is Two!

Whoa Nelly! It feels like just last month we were celebrating Emme's first birthday. Now we're pushing 2 1/2.  We love our blond little spit fire!  

 

We went to the planetarium with some friends on her birthday.  We frequent there often and Emme always squeals with delight when we pull up.

We had a family party a few days later.  My SIL helped me make this amazing cupcake cake.  It's no secret Emme and I love giraffes, so I couldn't wait to throw her a giraffe party.

Do you love the crayon on my table? 

These are the kind of poses we get nowadays.

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to."

Just some good ol' cousins "helping" open presents.

Emme was obsessed with these cars all summer.  It was a huge hit with the cousins as well.

Look at how blonde that girl is!

A Happy Day with E's Birth Family

Back in September, we got to meet up with Emme's birth family for her and her little sister's birthday. Emme's birth sister is almost exactly a year younger than her. When people find that out we tend to get asked a lot of questions and I'm sure you are thinking of some yourself right now, but that is for another day. Gregg and I are very protective of Emme's birth family and we hold them very dear to our hearts so because of that I decided to keep Emme's sister's full face off my blog. She is the cutest sweetest thing you will ever meet and I have the cutest pictures of Emme with her, but unfortunately there are bad people in the world and it is not my right to put her face out there.

With that said we had a fabulous time. We were sad we didn't get to see her birth mom or aunt, but we did get to see all the grandparents and even met a great uncle of Emme's. It is a day that we look forward to all year long.

Birthday Part Deux

I finally download a gazillion pictures from my camera so I thought you would all just love for me to back track to my birthday.  It's just that special.  Plus, I do share it with some amazing girls.

Birthday Time

I recently had a birthday which we all know is a big deal around these parts. We did our traditional fancy dinner date with my SIL {who I share a birthday with} at Francks this year. Gregg and I had our anniversary dinner there and I loved it so much I had to go back. Next time you have a special night check it out. You will not be disappointed.

Birthday Zoo Day

Gregg's birthday was a couple weeks ago and he wanted to take Emme to the zoo to celebrate. It goes to show the kind of dad he is that he wanted to do something for his daughter instead of himself on his birthday. I foresee many more birthdays where he makes it about his kids. Emme loved the zoo and we loved watching her experience animals we always talk about in real life. She is finally at an age and the weather is good enough that we are able to take her to the zoo and have her understand what's going on. I can't wait to take her back and I'm sure it will be a summer hot spot for us.


To my delight the giraffes were by far her favorite part. I didn't even have to persuade her in any way. Although the multiple giraffe stuffed animals she has couldn't have hurt. :) We had to work extra hard to get these pictures because she couldn't take her eyes off them.











I can't even tell you how long I've waited to have a child pose in front of the gorilla wall.





Telling daddy about the elephants.

One Year

Our little miracle is ONE!! Well, actually she is close to 15months now, but holy cow! The time spent around her birthday had us thinking a lot about the year before. The whole experience almost feels like a dream now. Words can't express the love we have for her and for her birth family.

At her one year check up she was
30 in long or 75%
21lbs 6oz or 55%
Head was 10%

Now on to bragging and mentioning some things I want to remember.  Everywhere we go people comment how smart she is.  They always guess she is a lot older than she is.  Even her pediatrician is always amazed by her vocabulary and motor skills. She has been mimicking words from about 9 months.  None of the credit goes to us by any means.  She is just one smart cookie.  Maybe everyone feels this way about their first baby though.  Her favorite toy by far is books.  She would sit in my lap and read all day.  She has an alphabet train and she has brought me the c for car and v for van and said "car? car?".  She has also brought me the m for monkey and did her arms like a monkey and made the sound they make.   She will copy every word we give her {in fact she never stops jabbering}, but some of her favorites are: pompa (grandpa my dad), papa (Gregg's dad), baby, push, owl, dog, Grant, no no, yes, ya, cow, moo, roar for lion and dinosaur,car, ball, and of course mom and dad.  She makes the sound of many animals and sometimes only needs to hear it once.  I can ask her to find something in one of her books and she will flip to the right page and point to it.  She's even figured out how to push the button on my iPhone and slide to unlock it.  Along with having such a busy mind makes for a busy kid.  She never slows down except to read books and still puts everything in her mouth and I mean EVERYTHING.  Even in an empty room she will find something to do.  Whether it be pulling off dry wall or finding the tiniest speck to taste.  Luckily she sleeps like a champ and loves to go nye nye (night night). That is a big help so Gregg and I can refresh for the next day.  My favorite thing is how cuddly she is.  She gives the best loves and kisses around.  I never mind having drool smeared on my face if that means I get a smooch from her.  I will admit that we snuggle her a lot and give her maybe too many squeezes, but we just can't resist her.  Gregg even made up the phrase, "I've got the squeezies."  Meaning when Emme does something cute and you grit your teeth because you want to squeeze her so bad.  And yes, just looking at these pictures gives me the squeezies.  We love that emme memmer moo of ours. 

My favorite picture.  No fancy bows, background, or clothes needed.  Just Emme in her purest form.

Birthday Under The Sea

On Emmer's real birthday we both took the day off so we could take her to The Living Planet Aquarium.  Gregg's dad has an aquarium and it's the first thing she runs to every time we visit them.  She normally calls fish "Pi", but occasionally will say "Fi".  So we thought it would be fun for her to see the BIG aquariums.  She loved it and not once did she get bored.  Looks like we have a winter activity for her to get some energy out.