Happy Groundhog's Day!

Happy Groundhog's Day everyone! My Grandpa Ben loved this day better than any other day of the year. Is it good news? I hope so. Winter is not my favorite thing.



Emma is not always photogenic. Here's proof. Still is cute, though, isn't she?





Emma loves it when Daddy comes home for lunch. It's usually around when she wakes up from her nap. Sometimes (like today) that's the only way to get her down is to tell her "Daddy will be home when you wake up."






Here are some great pictures I took while Emma was watching Baby Einstein. What a cute girl.





The other day Emma REALLY wanted to watch Baby Einstein. But, Kate from Lost was going to be on Regis and Kelly, so I wanted to watch that. I grabbed the laptop and made it a fun special time for Emma. She loved it.

Some of Emma's First Steps

Even though this was taken about three weeks ago I thought it would be fun to see for all of you who live far away and never get to see Emma. This was taken only a few days after she started walking. She's not very good, she's much better now. But, so cute! She just charges everywhere now. She's very fast, and so small that it's hard to see her, like yesterday in Church. Chad had just finished his Sunday School class and opened the door. I was gathering all of the things to get ready to go. The next thing I knew Emma was gone. I went running out the door and she was halfway down the hallway. It's a good thing we were at Church, I wasn't as panicked as I would've been at a store or something. It was more just funny. She's so small that she was able to squeeze through the crowd pretty easily. It's fun having her around, and I definately get my exercise in each day. (Oh, and p.s. - my floor isn't always that dirty. We had just gotten done with lunch and Emma was having fun with her food instead of eating it.)

About a week ago I started cleaning out our storage down in the garage. All of the hand-me-down clothes that we always get have been neglected and unorganized. So, there were clothes everywhere. I'm still not completely finished with the project, but the clothes are all put away at least.

Last Thursday morning when I started I had to go move the car to create more room for me to make a mess down there. Emma always gets upset if I walk out the front door without her. So, I though she could come with me. I just strapped her into the front seat because we were just going up the driveway to the curb. She was having the time of her life. Her eyes were bright and I was feeling like a pretty cool mom. Well, as I got out to go around to get her I threw her the keys to play with (just to make the moment even more fun for her). Well, I had a laundry basket in the back seat, so I grabbed that. And, literally right as I shut the door she clicked the remote on the keys to lock the car (something she does all the time, and she NEVER hits the unlock button). My mouth dropped. I was NOT expecting that. For about 10 seconds I tried to get her to push the "other button." I knew that that wasn't going to work.

Fortunately Chad works about 1/2 a mile away and I was able to call him to come to my rescue. He couldn't help but laugh when he got there and asked if I had taken pictures. I said of course not! I hadn't had time between the panicking. Since he was there and I knew there was not reason to panic anymore we grabbed the camera. As you can see, she was happy to just stay in the car all day and play. See? She even has her bib on still from breakfast.


Emma's waist is so skinny, but her legs are so long that her pants always fall down. Now that she's walking she trips over them. The other night Chad resulted in this after pulling them up about twenty times.



The other night we had a YW pajama party. Emma came with me. And, we put her hair up in a ponytail! So cute, huh?




Emma sure is growing up. She has the cutest personality. I truly enjoy playing with her every day. I look forward to it. She makes my day ever day! She truly is a special little girl and I am so grateful she is apart of my family.

FINALLY!!

The title of this post serves at least two purposes. The first one is obvious by the videos...Emma's finally walking!! It took her a couple extra months than average...but she's finally made it! She's still learning. And, with the new confidence that she has built comes much bigger falls. But, she gets better and better every day. She finally has gotten up the courage to start this new adventure. She is so cute! She gets so proud of herself and looks up at us, waiting for us to cheer and clap.

The next purpose that this post fills is that FINALLY I'm posting something, right? I've finally gotten over being upset about losing a bunch of pictures. We have the memories, which is much more important. What did we ever do without digital cameras? Or cameras at all for that matter, especially video cameras. They make up a huge part of our life.

I hope you all had a good holiday season and are having a great new year. This year has a lot to offer and I am looking forward to see how things play out.





...Well, the video is not uploading. I tried a couple different ones, and it's taking way too long, so I'll have to put the videos of her walking on there later. Here are some pictures :)



Emma loves to say..."Cheese!" every time the camera is pulled out.



Emma sure does know how to get messy. This is days after the Christmas tree was taken down and she still managed to get a piece of it on her.



This was taken right after Church the Sunday before Christmas. She's pouting.




This is Emma's favorite past-time. Getting into things she's not supposed to.




I made a quilt for my sister, Cynthia for Christmas. It wasn't very big, but it sure was a lot of work. I got it mailed a couple days too late, so I couldn't post pictures until after she had opened it, which was a few days after Christmas. She graduated from Chugiak High School in May of 2008. Wish we could have been there!



Another "Cheese!" picture.



I may have lost all of the Christmas day pictures, but I still have some Christmas Eve pictures. Emma and I made some cookies for Santa and frosted them before she went to bed.



She sure was hoping Santa would get there soon. She tried to stay up and wait for him, but she just couldn't make it.







Emma had lots of Christmas dresses. What a lucky girl. Here's one that my Dad and Loretta gave her.