Update on... nearly 8 months?!?! Good Grief!!!

Ok, so these pictures were loaded probably over a year ago, easily, at this point... saved them as a draft and then never got back to them.  These are mostly from last summer and previous to that.  A new update follows as the next post in the blog, sorry to get things out of order so badly, but glad to get some pictures up finally!

Our dear little Sophia Maria left us last August, it was very sad and we miss her every day, she was a tremendously special little kitty...


Gretta modeling the hat made for her as a baby by a friend of ours, she can stretch it out to still fit, even to this day!  Just looks like a little skull cap now... :)

Emma Kate riding her pony... man has her hair grown a lot since this picture was taken!!

Emma Kate trying out her new wheel barrow, she's such a big helper around the barn... going to have to get one for Gretta now too, they're wonderful farm girls! :)





Snuggled up with Jack, the little buddito... :)

Playing in the giant pool of air packs, as I recall, this entertained them for well over an hour... cheap thrills!

Going out for a "hay ride" Wish I could remember exactly when this was taken, before our new field was fenced...

Feeding apple cores to Snowy pony

Checking out the first few crocuses and daffodils of the spring

Flowers don't last long on the stem around here... again, can't believe how much her hair has grown!!!

OMG Gretta looks like such a baby!!!  She still loves that little radio...

Finger paints, always fun!

The girls discovered a little black cat trying to hide and get a few minutes of peace and quiet... lol

One of our trips to Maymont park, feeding the goats.  Crazy, Gretta is now just about outgrowing the VT coat that Emma Kate is wearing in this picture!
Always, loving the water!

Easter egg hunt at Mimi and PopPop's house, this must be Spring 2012



Mill Mountain Zoo

Crazy how fast they've grown up since these pictures were taken!

Face to face with a little cutie



Always such good helpers in the kitchen

Going for a walk at Mimi and PopPop's house, finding acorns maybe??

Emma Kate taking her baby out for a walk with the dogs

Topless egg-dying!!  Best way to keep shirts stain-free... :)

Gretta was very serious about her egg dying, she liked it dipped a million times in one color...
Crazy baby! Mommy's birthday cake face I think??
Mommy's birthday flowers and cake face!
Yummy treats
At the beach for Uncle Maffis' and Auntie Chelsea's wedding, what wind!!
Little flower girl
Sassy little sister, wild dancer
Smiles with Daddy... I think this was before being out in the wind??? lol
Look at that little baby!!!!! :D
Little beggars... :)
Looks like the wind had already gotten to me... ;)
Heading out to the wedding on the beach
There's the wind!!! Lol
Corn hole at the reception, fun to make things disappear into the hole!
Wearing mommy's shoes to clip-clop around
This girl's got some serious moves!
Checking out the water... not quite warm enough yet I think! 


Plenty warm for playing at the little beach park!
Gretta and her poor little scuffed nose, happened just a few days before the wedding!
Talking with squirrels
GIANT pile of sand to repair the little beach from storm damage, great fun to play in
Found a turtle!
Sizing it up...
Taking a roll in the sand while Auntie Kiki showed us her kiteboarding skills
Whoo hoo!
Playing at the blueberry farm... there weren't hardly any blueberries to pick!!! 
Another trip to Maymont park
And it didn't take long to find the water again... :)
Checking out the beautiful waterfall
Looking for the giant Koi fish
Wish I could remember what Gretta was so excited about... :)
All done playing in the water????
Big girls walking at Maymont
Gretta checking out the artwork
There's the waterfall!
Stepping stones through the Japanese garden pond
Piggy back rides for tired girls!
Playing in the playhouses while waiting to ride the train...
Yay for train rides!
Scored some wild black raspberries on a walk!
Gretta and Daddy waking up after a nap
It's a bird... it's a plane... it's.... GRETTA!!!
Matchy-matchy girls checking out the peeps
First time bowling, they loved seeing the balls coming back up out of the machine... magic!


Gretta loved the arcade games and dancing to the wild music in there
Finally some beach weather!




Playing with Auntie Kiki's singing bowls




Going to see the fireworks in Manteo 2012
Crazy girls at Ortega's restaurant before the fireworks
Big rock to climb on!
Watching the show, tired girls, but they loved it!!


Paddleboat fun!
Beach time!!!!!
Curls, curls, curls...




Riding the trolly bus in Cincinnati, summer 2012
Trip to Cincy zoo, always a fun favorite
Eskimos with Mimi :)
Yay for train rides!!!  Again!! :)
Petting a baby kangaroo??  Wallaby maybe???
Giant tiger!
Riding the tiger!
Tired girl... :)
Petting a baby crocodile
More piggy-back fun
Playing at Totter's Otterville in Cincinnati, another all-time favorite








Uncle Michael having great success getting Gretta to eat dinner!
WILD Gretta!
WILD Emma Kate!!!  Boy I remember that day, they were SOOOO WILD!!!!!!
Going hiking down to the creek


Wading in the creek... what fun!  If it involves water or getting wet, these girls are into it... 
Another hike to the creek, apparently the diaper and shorts didn't make it home with us... ;)
Let's see how much stuff can be stuffed into the cat carrier with Gretta... they had so much fun playing this game...


Wearing mommy's jammies
Gretta got into my drawer and opened up some mascara...  eons old but still works!  lol  luckily this was the only damage done! 
Finger paints gone wild!
Sophia Maria with Buddito,  she had just come home from the vet school after being diagnosed essentially in heart failure.  We had a few more days with her after this... miss that special girl!!!

So, Greg made me feel guilty enough about not posting pictures in a long, long, long time, I'm finally going to get a few up from the last several months!  They are in backwards order... sorry! :)

Emma Kate, chillin with her peeps, 8 of the 9 chicks we hatched in our incubator last month

Gretta rolling in the grass, having a blast in Raleigh at the Love & Theft concert

The girls had so much fun at the concert, running in the grass and dancing!

Taking a little break... didn't last long!  As I recall, Gretta was already starting to get up by the time I had the camera out! 

Gretta and one of her favorite silkie chicks, Tigger

Gretta and the "little gray silk" ...who met with an untimely end... very sad!!!  The girls still talk about that little gray "silk" often... 

Emma Kate's strategy- as she catches her favorites, she puts them in a kennel so they're easier to get her hands on them next time... :)

Emma Kate and one of the incubator chicks

...and yet another incubator chick!  

The all-time favorite chick (not so much a chick any more!) "Puff" being treated to a ride on the slide

Bath time fun

Apparently they've worked out a new means of communication here

And again with the "little gray silk" :'(

We got to go to the kite festival for Mommy's birthday, it was cold but there was GREAT wind for flying kites!

Tuckered out from the fun, catching a piggy-back ride from Mimi

The girls fell in love with this rainbow colored flag

Gretta being sassy for the camera... guess what we're doing... petting chicks!  (Or as Gretta says, "peppin' chicks")

One of the girls' favorite things to do- reading books.  Found them sitting in the entrance to the bathroom doing it, of all places?!?!

The girls had a blast going for a hike in the woods across the street from us

Even though it's freezing cold, we just can't get by without playing in the water...

More water!  I think Emma Kate is saying "what did you expect?!?!"

Surely there's room for 2 in the princess chair!! ;)  Love when they get along so well like this instead of fighting over who gets to sit in it! :)

Swim lessons and the dentist

This week has seen a lot of us traveling into town.  The girls have started a swim lesson class that is twice a week.  How lucky we found one that meets on days daddy is off in this time period.  The girls really like the class though Emma is a little reluctant to blow bubbles right now.  Gretta is doing it without any problems.  Emma is following directions very well and can do just about everything else the instructor is asking us to do.
Emma also went to the dentist on Tuesday.  We chose a different dentist than our other.  This one has a slide and playground in the office.  Emma didn't do well with our last dentist though they had a children's only exam room and staff.  Mommy said she did awesome and so we are going to schedule Gretta an appointment as well and see how she does.  Emma's teeth look good but she does have some deep crevices that will take a lot of attention to keep cavity free.

Purple baby has grown!

This is the area on the wall that we measure the girls and write their ages.  Emma Katherine wanted to measure purple baby.  She instructed the baby to put her feet against the wall, stand up straight, and look ahead.  

We just came back from the visit with a speech therapists with Floyd County Schools and I'll let Robyn post the details in a little bit.  The short story is Emma is doing well.  She is ahead in cognitive abilities and at the expected level for her age in reading and pronouncing some of the letters in words.  Gretta did great waiting for Emma to get tested.

Visit to Elementary School

The family went and visited the elementary school that serves our area yesterday.  We got a nice tour and even met one of the Kindergarten teachers that was still around.  We have a meeting to go to in March where there will be more information.  We are also going to look into a private school in Floyd, a Montessori school in Floyd and homeschooling for Emma.  We'll call Dr. Rutter (surgeon in Cincinnati) in a few months and get his advise for putting Emma in a public setting like that with her airway.  We can always homeschool for a year or two until she gets a bigger airway.  She is so smart already.  She was teaching Gretta words today at their storytime together.  
Tomorrow, we have a big day of storytime at the library and doing lots of errands.  Emma is getting new rain boots and new footie pajamas and Gretta is getting new snowboots.  The girls have each grown at least an inch since their birthdays!

A snow picnic of sorts

Mommy has been working hard with the girls at home while daddy is at work so today while mommy got to relax and ride Amaya, daddy and the girls went on a walk. There was snow everywhere and we learned about dog (maybe coyote) tracks, deer tracks, rabbit tracks, and different birdie tracks.  We walked behind Mrs. Poff's house and to a knoll in her fields that is surrounded by trees and has sunny spots on it where the snow was melted away. We had a snack and talked and then came home to warm up by the stove.
This week we start visiting schools for Emma and then next week we'll sign up for swim lessons!

all good here

This is Jackie our house cat.  He was sleeping (most of the day) and Emma or Gretta came and tucked some of their kitty dolls in with him for his babies.  He takes a lot of abuse...