We've had another bit of a drought here for maybe a month or so, so Emma Kate has been helping to water the orchards and some of the gardens. We're trying to keep our watermelon and cantaloupe plants going, since they are still growing some wonderful fruits for us- Emma Kate insisted on doing it herself and did a great job spraying the water all over the plants! Peter was a big help too...

Not sure what she was looking at here, unless Dan was crowing or something... just thought it was a cute little pose! :)
Emma Kate has seen Mommy using the "Ped-Egg" a couple times, and she pulled it out of the drawer and decided to use it herself...
And apparently Burrie needed a bit of a pedicure too! Sooooo cute! :D
All of a sudden Emma Kate decided she wanted to show off all of her individual toys- she must have brought me 10 toys, one at a time, and was excited about each one!


Enjoying a little chocolate chip cookie the girls made one afternoon... Emma Kate likes dark chocolate!! :)
Little chocolate face :)
In other news, we had an ultrasound exam last Thursday, right at 35 weeks along in the pregnancy. Everything looked normal from what they could tell, and they estimated the current weight at 5lbs 12 oz. It's a rough estimate, with at least a pound leeway either direction, but it puts the baby in about the 50th percentile. Glad to hear everything was looking good! They tried to do a 3D picture of the baby's face, but her foot was right up by her nose and it kept coming out looking like she had a big mutant nose!! (Which she for sure doesn't have... thank goodness!!) We'll try to take some pictures of the images to post if they turn out! And we did get confirmation that it's for sure a little girl!! :) I had another regular checkup this afternoon and everything is still good- baby's heart rate was about 150, and so far it seems like Mommy is doing well too!

This is a little older, but we wanted to share our great watermelon!!! A couple weeks ago we harvested our first watermelon and it was gorgeous! Other than having to work around seeds, I can't find anything to complain about- it was sweet, and a perfect texture! We have a few more out there that we need to bring in- Emma Kate and I always seem to get distracted outside before we get around to it... it's funny, we've got a couple more varigated types and a couple that are just about solid green, but they all sound nice and hollow!! Can't wait to see how they are inside!

Daddy had to leave for a few days to take a class for work, so Mimi came down for a girls-only long weekend! Emma Kate had fun hanging out in Mimi's bed and showing her new favorite thing... watching Finding Nemo...

Mimi found a vacuum just right for Emma Kate, and she loves it!! Apparently our sofa cushions needed to be vacuumed. She can be found vacuuming several times a day, and it really is a shame this one doesn't actually pick up any dirt, otherwise we'd have a really clean house! :)

Emma Kate saying goodbye to Mimi- we had such a fun weekend, although a lot of it was spent in the car, but Emma Kate did so well and had a lot of fun! Thank goodness Mimi came to visit though, Mommy's energy is getting a little low, and she probably would have been found flat out on the floor when Daddy came home if she hadn't had some help keeping Emma occupied those 3 or 4 days...
Here's the latest belly shot from Mommy- maybe just slightly bigger here, at 34 weeks 3 days, than I was at delivery with Emma Kate! Most days are pretty doable, but nights are still a bit of trouble for my back. I feel sooo much bigger than I look in the pictures! :) We're going in tomorrow (35 weeks exactly) for an ultrasound exam to make sure everything is looking good in there and that the baby is growing well... hope to get confirmation on the sex too if it works out! We'll keep everyone posted!

still having the yucks

Well, luckily Emma Kate's snotty nose only lasted about 24 hours, and she's been back to normal ever since. Mommy on the other hand has been dealing with severe congestion, sneezing, a little sore throat, and now a runny nose. I feel like it's on it's way out thank goodness, but just so relieved that Emma Kate got off so easily! :)

Daddy was recently given a tie-dye shirt from one of the volunteers at work who made them for all the guys, and Emma Kate was in love with it! So Daddy got her a pack of onesies and they had a tie-dye party at work. He made her 5 shirts, and she has been nearly obsessed with them!! She just loves holding them up and "trying them on" at least a few times a day, and this morning, when she usually cuddles with me for at last 10-15 minutes, she sat up abruptly after 2 minutes, pulled at her shirt and said "DaDa" in this sad little half-crying voice... this is what she's been doing to signal to me that she wants to play with the shirts. I'm sure she was dreaming about them all night and it was all she could think about this morning! It's too cute! We're going to have to get her some long-sleeved shirts made before too long! :)

Daddy has a stretch of days away from home for a class up in Maryland, so Mommy and Emma Kate have been hanging out together and having some "girl time." Her new thing is Finding Nemo... she knows how to turn things on, and she has a funny way of referring to it where she puts up a finger near her nose and makes a "shhhh" sound. I think she picked this up when one of the fish are sleeping and one of us went "shhhh" for her to be quiet while he slept... hahaha!

Emma Kate is getting really good with her words too, it seems like every day there is something new or something gets clearer. I still have to laugh a lot when I try to decipher some of her words though...

We're looking forward to a long weekend visit from Mimi to keep us company while Daddy is away, we're hoping to have a lot of fun and do some shopping!!! Hopefully Mommy gets better tonight!!! :) Pictures of the shirts will be coming soon!!!

Almost made it...

Well, we're what, 16 days shy of Emma Kate's second birthday, and she has just today come down with a snotty nose... It's the most pathetic thing, she sees me pulling out a tissue and she automatically hides her face and says "owie owie!" It's near impossible to wipe that schnooky off of her top lip. I'm so worried it's going to get chapped if I can't keep it dry! It's just so sad! Hopefully it won't last very long, and so far, fortunately, it only seems to be an issue when she's up- she seems to be dry when sleeping, at least for now... guess it had to happen some day!

Update on everything!

Well, a lot has happened since our last post! These are all a little random, but here's an update to get everyone caught up!

We had two incredibly awesome cantaloupes grow this year, I had my doubts they'd ever be "right" since we've never ever had luck with melons... these two were PERFECT!!! They were ripe and sweet and juicy and orange!!! Soooo delicious! It was a shame we only had two, but since they ripened at the same time, I'd imagine if we had a whole lot more we never would have been able to eat them all before they went bad! Oh so good...

There has been some really great progress on the addition- actually more since these pictures were taken. Right now all the rafters are up on the rear portion, and the little hip at the end has been framed in. The guys are doing an awesome job on it!

Emma Kate had some concerns about some measurements that had been made, so she took it upon herself to check behind the guys and make sure everything was right...

Emma Kate has been such a big helper lately- she's helped mommy vacuum, do laundry, wash dishes, etc... she took it upon herself to clean the stroller too, it occupied her for a good 10 minutes or so!

As usual, Emma Kate often has a blast "putting on" her wardrobe... often times she gets frustrated with it or freaks out a bit when things get stuck on her head, but every now and then she gets it just right- she was having some nakey time and started playing with her swimsuit- and she got it on perfectly!! We were all so excited- it was just so cute!

There's been a recent fascination with the camera... Daddy's been teaching Emma Kate how to use it and she's taken some interesting pictures... this one was cute though, she got a snapshot of the VT tattoo she finally let Mommy put on her foot for the Tech game on Monday! This is the second time she's been super hesitant at first but then absolutely loves having it on once it's done!
We're very proud to announce that Daddy has officially been promoted to Lieutenant at work!! They had the promotional ceremony this evening and Mommy got to pin his new "Lieutenant" badge onto his uniform! The best part of the evening was seconds before we were all supposed to go up in front of the group for the badge ceremony, and Emma Kate announces "DAGEN!!" which means diaper... and usually means poopy diaper... no one else knew what it meant, but it was funny to us!
Emma decided to be a little monkey after the ceremony, she was having so much fun!
Blogspot is mixing up my pictures and when I try to move them around they get deleted and I have to reload them.... Anyway, here's Greg with his Battalion Chief Tom Bier
And back to the monkey

He's found!!

So the unintentional recon mission for Arnold was a success! Daddy found him in the car under an egg carton! That little green man is far too easy to misplace! We'll have to tie a long ribbon around his grenade so we can keep better track.

We were out this morning at a prenatal doctor's appointment for Mommy, and Emma got a vaccine. By the time they got around to it, Emma had been asking to leave for about 15 minutes (it was a long wait for Mommy's appointment...) and she was a bit fed-up. She recovered sooo fast though, it was very encouraging! She's done so well! Our doctor was commenting on how she really thought Emma had gotten a lot bigger in the last month, which was also good to hear! Right around her 23 month mark she was weighing just barely over 20lbs on our home scale, which is great progress!! We will be seeing her pediatrician at her 2 year birthday for her next check and will see what that brings!!