Another post of pictures...just because!

Emma was looking especially cute this afternoon, I just had to snap a few more pictures!

Emma loves the talking and singing cards!

More pictures...

Here are a few more pictures- Emma was "unpacking" her goodie bag from Auntie-

Even after opening the gifts, Emma still enjoys sorting the items left and right!

Emma loves the talking cards! She's figured out how to make them work and is quite entertained by them!

Emma's Birthday!!!

Emma has officially turned one year old! Currently we are less than an hour and a half from her actual time of birth... I feel like I'm reliving that night moment by moment- can't believe it's been a year- it seems like just the other day!!! We have had a wonderful weekend relaxing and hanging out, and Emma says thank you to everyone for their gifts and well-wishes!

Here are some pictures from the last few days:

Emma watching her "lessons" in the morning:

Modelling her snazzy new skull pants from Nana- we were surprised that the 12month clothes actually fit her pretty well, other than having to roll up the sleeves a little bit on the matching shirt... :) She's a growing girl I guess!

She's gotten a lot of fun out of her Pooh balloon- she thinks it's pretty funny!

Emma had a great time "unpacking" her goody bag from Mimi- she needed a little help undoing the papers, but she loves "sorting" everything and playing with the paper!

We made Emma a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese icing- she wasn't terribly impressed by the grown-up's cake...

But she sure had a good time playing with her own little mini cupcake!

She didn't quite know what to do with it,

With a little help, she got the right idea!

Cousin Ben even made a trip out to visit with Miss Emma, we were running out of time before Emma's bedtime but she did really well that evening!

And here's Miss Emma showing off her new skills, she was laughing at Peter out on the front porch meowing!

Here are another couple pictures from last weekend:

Uncle Maffis appreciating the size of the captain toe:

Giving Snubby a well- deserved head butt (a kiss in Emma's world!)

This just in..!

Emma apparently had a bum leg from her shot. It developed this evening and so we gave her some Tylenol. She wasn't a happy camper and didn't want to eat a conventional dinner so we had a picnic dinner in the living room. She ate a good dinner on her terms and helped daddy with snapping beans. She asked to go in the jumparoo and then the neatest thing happened. Emma is pointing to things and we say what it is (e.g. dog, cat, light, fan, window, car, etc). This evening daddy said picture and Emma pointed to a picture of horses in our living room. Thinking this was a fluke, he said light and she pointed to our ceiling fan. She got Dog, cat, and mama right! She did it many times until you could see her thinking that maybe we should know what these things were ourselves. Pretty cool. The leg appears to not hurt as much now but we'll give her some Tylenol for the night also.

12 months

We went today and got a shot at the doctor's office. Mommy and daddy got to weigh Emma and measure her. She is 16 pounds even and 27" long. 2 pounds more than last time and 3 inches longer. She continues to prefer to crawl but she is standing up against anything now and even letting go with one hand and pivoting around on one foot. She is still moving around her table like the video tried to show. Daddy has seen her pushing her table (with supervision) and she is simply walking along with the table as she pushes it. We might try and find her a walker this weekend.

Another great weekend

 We had another great weekend!  Daddy had to go up to Maryland for some classes, so Mommy and Emma went and hung out at Mimi and PopPop's house.  Auntie Kimberly, Uncle Maffis, and Auntie Chelsea came by for a visit while we were there- Uncle Maffis brought his "Cornhole" set and his pugs!  We all had a great time playing, Emma enjoyed playing in the grass and crawling all over the basement.  

On Sunday, Mimi came with Mommy and Emma up to northern VA for a visit with Nana- we also got to see Aunt Kelly, Aunt Heather, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Stephanie, and cousins Aiden and Sean!  It was a ton of fun- Aiden and Sean were so excited to see Emma Katherine, and they wanted to share all their toys- they kept her very well occupied!  After a wonderful lunch and a little visiting, Mimi, Mommy and Emma headed off to go to Aunt Alexa's baby shower- she's due in just 5 short weeks!  It was a terrific party, wonderful food and lots of visiting with family and friends!   Later in the day, Daddy finished up his classes and came down to join us at the party for a short time before we had to hit the road and get back home.  It was a long drive home, but it went surprisingly well!

The pictures (again) are in reverse order I guess...

Here's a group picture at Nana's house-

Emma playing with cousins Aiden and Sean-

Nana with the grandbabies on Sunday-

Emma checking out the pretty flowers with Aunt Heather- the flowers matched Emma's outfit!

Hanging out after lunch at Nana's-
More playing on Nana's porch- Emma especially liked a little Lego car the boys were playing with-
At Mimi's house- Emma kept working on standing up at the stairs and eventually crawled up on one briefly- thank goodness Mommy was right there to catch her when she started to topple off!
Hanging out with Auntie Chelsea and the pugs- Snubbs was soooo sweet with Emma, Stella was a little unsure about that little tiny person- Stella eventually found that Emma's right ear smelled especially good...  Emma absolutely LOVED having the pugs around- they're just the right size!
Auntie Chelsea snapped this one- she kept Miss Emma happy while Mommy joined in on a game of Cornhole- fun!
More fun hanging out in the back yard with the family-
Emma's keeping score for the cornhole game with blades of grass...
And one shot of Uncle Maffis and the pugs!!  (Gotta love those pugs!)
We may have more pictures later, from other cameras...  Thanks to everyone for such a great weekend, and Emma can't wait for her newest little cousin to arrive! :)

Pulling up like a pro!

Ok, here's the latest footage- Emma is now a pro at pulling up on just about everything!  I think she's forgotten how to get back down...

So much progress!

We've been really busy lately... and so has Emma!  We had a great visit with some friends from Tech who came down to see the football game- Brian and Amy's little boy, Jay, got along great with Emma and kept her well entertained!

Emma's continued to be a big help collecting eggs and feeding the horses and chickens.  Below you can see her attempting to give Charlie her version of a kiss- it's more of a head butt actually... the cats could demonstrate very well for you- they get it all the time too!

She's getting so big now- we'll be heading in to the doctor's office in the next week or so for her 1 year checkup and will have an updated weight on her. We did have to sort through her clothes recently, as the weather has started cooling off quite a bit, and she's now wearing mostly 9mo clothes, so she's sort of catching up... :)   She's started pulling up on everything now- the sofa, the edge of the tub, a big box... there's no stopping her now!  We've got it on video but will have to get it on the still camera video to post it- it will be coming soon! 

We just can't believe she's almost a year old!!!!!!!

Drinking solo!

Tonight, for the first time, Emma drank from a cup all by herself, even lifting it to get the milk out!

Emma sidestepping

Emma started on the table at the middle with the blue side.  She sidestepped her way over to the next side.  It certainly wasn't pretty but it did move her around!

Ball goes in the basket!

Daddy got this video recently- Emma has figured out how to put things into a container!

You dirty girl, you!

Emma's been a little finicky lately with her solid foods, giving us the hand push after a bite or two... so tonight we decided to have a little sit-down picnic in the grass at dinner time.  Emma had a great time making a big mess of her avocado, a little bit did get in her mouth.... :)  She also got some good practice trying to drink from a cup- which she does very well!  But thank goodness we were outside in the grass, it was very messy!

Below- Emma is reviewing our cable details... deciding on the best channel line up??

Below- just another cute little picture.  This was a few nights ago when she was having sweet potatoes for dinner, she didn't want the spoonfuls, but would eat a sweet potato cheerio sandwich- it was cute!