Emery and I came home that Friday to a clean house and presents on the
table from Kyle. We enjoyed relaxing that night after our long drive
home, but made plans to go out to lunch the next day to celebrate my
29th Birthday.
The meal that sounded delicious for my Birthday here in Atlanta was fried pickles from the OK cafe!
The last time I had them was when I was pregnant with Emery, so it was
a real treat to have them and an Oreo milkshake again! YUM!
Monday July 9th, Emery and I headed up to Boone to meet my parents, Grandma and Tara's whole crew for an entire week! Jamie and Kyle were out of town traveling, so it was the perfect time for the rest of us to get together and keep each other company (although we definitely missed Jamie, Kyle and Nick!). We had rainy weather most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop us from having great quality time together. Playing on the porch, exploring in the yard, going to a nearby park, eating delicious food and celebrating my 29th Birthday all together... it was all so fun!
Emery's favorite spot these days is the front steps with the rocks... she would play there all day if we let her!
Fun times at the park:
Playing on the covered front porch and exploring the yard:
We had a wonderful Birthday dinner and present opening:
Tara brought a sky-lantern to "release" as a birthday celebration. Up, up, and away it went!
Everyone did sparklers after, while Emery and I snuck inside to skype with Kyle. At the end of our talk everyone joined in the fun to see "Uncle Kyle".
Mom made the most delicious dinner and ice cream pie. Kyle was even able to join in on singing Happy Birthday to me!
We all played some games after dinner, and Milo wanted to be a part of them as usual. Too funny!
And we had to partake in our usual scrabble game with the ladies!
I love how we all laugh SO HARD when we are all together. Always have, always will :)
On Friday, my actual Birthday, before Emery and I left we had a sticky bun from StickBoy. Thank y'all for making my birthday so special!
It was such a great week spent with family and I left being so grateful for them and how loved they all make me and Emery feel on a daily basis. THANK YOU, love y'all!
It's not a secret that Kyle and I love to be outdoors and are constantly documenting our adventures together through pictures. So if y'all are anything like us, I wanted to share information about a photo contest that Shutterfly is hosting for a couple more weeks this summer!
It's called "Long Live Summer – Facebook Photo Contest" and it will only last until August 12th, so be sure to enter soon! You'll get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering, but the ultimate prize is that you can win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a
professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever. All
you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on
the theme of the week. You can enter at any point during the sweepstakes period.
PHOTO THEMES
• Week of 7/23: Water Fun • Week of 7/30: Sports & Activities • Week of 8/6: Parties & Celebrations
PRIZES
•Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo! •Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week) •Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan pageand a copy of the new Lonely Planet travel photography book. •Grand prize: trip for 4 to Bahamas, 4 nights, family photo shoot (Incase you are interested here are the official rules)
So don't forget to CLICK HERE to enter! Good luck!!
I can't believe our "little girl" turned 16 months old on July 8th! We haven't done a big update on Em since she turned 12 months, so I think it's about time I posted one.
We went to the doctor for a checkup and shots, so here are her 16 month stats:
Weight: 23.25 lbs (72 %)
Height: 32.25 inches (88.5%)
Head Circumference: 18.75 inches (90%)
PERSONALITY!
The above shot was taken around 13-14 months old, and that's truly when her personality started coming out in full force I think. She is still very laid back in the fact that she loves watching others and taking in every situation, but I think overall she's turning into a busy little bee talking and dancing around the house. She is constantly moving, walking from one place to the next to explore new things. She pretends like she's shy when she meets new people, but then gives them a huge smile and is back to her outgoing self.
She is a total girl, and is in love with putting on bracelets and necklaces.
Any given second she has at least 5 bracelets on her arm:
Or stack-able rings for that matter work great as bracelets too :)
She communicates so well and there aren't many situations where we don't know what she wants because of it. Almost all signing has stopped now (except for milk and eat) and she's replaced them with the correct words. We're still so happy that we started with sign language with her, and gave her that outlet to communicate with us before actual words came. She does plenty of hand motions and pointing along with her words, too. This next picture came after a long babble where she was trying to say "where did all my food go?".
It is certain that we have a TALKER on our hands! The pediatrician asked us if she was saying at least 4 words plus "momma" and "dadda" and I responded with a smile and big YES. She independently says between 30-40 words very easily and is constantly mimicking new words that we say to her before she's grasped the meaning of them! Here are some of her favorites though: Ball, Momma, Dadda, Bubba, Cat, Bye, Hey, Bubble, All Done, Bumble Bee, Again, More, Outside, Down, Up, Hot, Moo Moo (old word for paci), Paci, Beep Beep, More, Apple, Banana, Happy, Pee Pee, and Yes.
She laughs so easily, and definitely has certain ticklish parts. Her newest spot is right inside her knees, but her tummy region always does the trick too. I just love that picture above. She even laughs if we say "that's funny", just because she knows that's what people do... hilarious. She LOVES to be naked, and at night before bedtime will start pulling at her clothing trying to say "off".
PLAYTIME!
She runs to wherever she needs to go now, and in our opinion is pretty coordinated. She takes her time to do most things and because of it never has bad falls. She loves smaller objects that will fit in her hands since she can carry them from place to place. She loves to play hide and go seek, kick the soccer ball, throw any kind of toy, pop bubbles, splash in water, go exploring outside, watch Tyson catch the Frisbee (she claps every time he catches it).
I think her favorite thing to do right now though is dance and sing. Her dance moves crack us up as she can now: bounce, "jump", spin around
in circles, clap, stomp, and lastly arabesque (bring her leg out behind
her). She loves doing hand motions right now to "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "This Little Light of Mine", "Pat-a-Cake" and "Wheels on the Bus". Her singing is the cutest thing I've ever heard though... some of her favorites are "Happy Plate" and "Can't Wait to Celebrate". Here is a video of her singing the "waiiittt" at the end of every verse, and doing all the motions to the song:
She can TRULY make a mess. One second our house is clean and the next it's a war zone. How can you blame her with a smile like this though? She will help put the toys back in her basket but still isn't the best at cleaning up! I don't blame her since both her parents were messy children as well!
SLEEPING!
Emery is a great sleeper these days and it's so nice to finally be able to say that! Her schedule is so flexible where on some busy days she's fine only having one nap, but most days she still takes two. They range from 1.5 hours to 2 hours each. If she only takes one nap then it still lasts only 2 hours, no longer! She sleeps at night from 7pm to 6:45 or 7:00 am consistently. Traveling is still hard as she takes a night or two to get used to sleeping in the small pack-n-play, but even then she wakes up once and will go back to sleep fairly easy.
I have to show a shot of her two stuffed animals given to her by "Aunt Molly" and "Uncle Mash". She loves how soft they are and constantly holds them right up to her face "hugging" them. She sleeps with "Goldie", her Blankie, and a paci every night.
The only thing that has messed up her sleeping was teething! Around 15 months old, her two front teeth broke through, but poor thing was out of sorts for about three days or so. The only way she would nap was on me, and her tummy was so upset as well, poor thing. I enjoyed the cuddles though :)
So, we now officially have 4 teeth but are still waiting for the top ones to come all the way in.
RANDOMS!
- She can sniff, blow, and click her tongue on command! - When she goes out in the sun, whether she has sunscreen on or not, she gets little "heat bumps" on her cheeks, triceps and legs. They don't seem to bother her at all... just weird! - Her hair has gotten long enough to put in a pony tail! I just can't believe it. Still haven't gotten a hair cut for her yet, can't bring myself to cut off the curls!
- I just can't say how thankful I am that I get to stay home with her every day. I sure do love this little girl and feel so blessed to spend all my time with her. We are best buds.
- We've been able to go to a music or story time almost every day of the week. It's so fun to meet friends, learn new songs and get out of the house for a bit every day.
- We've become good friends with Logan, Stephanie and Eric that live close to us. We get together for play dates every week to play outside in their backyard.
- We've also taken so many trips to Boone and stayed up there for the whole week to enjoy that cooler weather!
- She LOVES rocks and will carry them around with her all day if she could. By far her favorite thing to play with outside!
- Emery would rather be in the backpack than walking on a trail. Her idea of "walking" is taking 5 steps, picking up rocks, then sitting down to play with them :)
- Most mornings Emery and I do a 3 mile walking loop near our house. Some days I dress her as if she is exercising too! She has stopped really liking the stroller though (would rather be moving than sitting for that long!), so we have a small window every morning where we can go on our walks.
I know there is probably so much more I'm forgetting and more photos to add later, but that's it for now :)
Any weekend we're in town, we try to always go for a hike to get out and enjoy the weather. This time, we decided to go up to Red Top Mountain and hike around the lake. This little cutie THOROUGHLY enjoyed herself. We seriously cannot believe how big she has gotten lately!
We stopped to let Tyson swim, and let Emery wade in the water to cool off some!
Tyso loved it:
Emery had a ball waving at all the boats going by:
My sweet girl who's hair gets super curly every time she's in the heat:
The last time I had them was when I was pregnant with Emery, so it was
a real treat to have them and an Oreo milkshake again! YUM! 
Tara brought a sky-lantern to "release" as a birthday celebration. Up, up, and away it went!
Mom made the most delicious dinner and ice cream pie. Kyle was even able to join in on singing Happy Birthday to me!
It was such a great week spent with family and I left being so grateful for them and how loved they all make me and Emery feel on a daily basis. THANK YOU, love y'all!
PERSONALITY!
She communicates so well and there aren't many situations where we don't know what she wants because of it. Almost all signing has stopped now (except for milk and eat) and she's replaced them with the correct words. We're still so happy that we started with sign language with her, and gave her that outlet to communicate with us before actual words came. She does plenty of hand motions and pointing along with her words, too. This next picture came after a long babble where she was trying to say "where did all my food go?".
She laughs so easily, and definitely has certain ticklish parts. Her newest spot is right inside her knees, but her tummy region always does the trick too. I just love that picture above. She even laughs if we say "that's funny", just because she knows that's what people do... hilarious. She LOVES to be naked, and at night before bedtime will start pulling at her clothing trying to say "off".
The only thing that has messed up her sleeping was teething! Around 15 months old, her two front teeth broke through, but poor thing was out of sorts for about three days or so. The only way she would nap was on me, and her tummy was so upset as well, poor thing. I enjoyed the cuddles though :)
So, we now officially have 4 teeth but are still waiting for the top ones to come all the way in.
- I just can't say how thankful I am that I get to stay home with her every day. I sure do love this little girl and feel so blessed to spend all my time with her. We are best buds.
We stopped to let Tyson swim, and let Emery wade in the water to cool off some!
Tyso loved it:
Emery had a ball waving at all the boats going by:
My sweet girl who's hair gets super curly every time she's in the heat:
Finishing the trail, Emery fell right asleep. 
Close up of sleeping beauty and those eyelashes!
Love our family hikes together!
