The girls have been doing really well lately, Gretta is walking all over the place like a champ- she has finally decided that walking is the preferred mode of transport, over crawling! She has been quite a character lately and one of my favorite things she does is that every now and then she will stop and just do this little bobbing dance, sometimes she does it when we ask her to- it is so cute! She has been especially lovey too- she is big into giving head butts for kisses, just like Emma Kate always did as a baby too! Emma Kate is crazy as ever, she runs around the house like a wild woman most days. We found a nice little pony recently, and both girls have really enjoyed having her here- her name is Snowy, and we like to call her the "pone pone" since Emma Kate picked up the nickname. We have had fun taking her out for walks while the girls ride, and both girls have really gotten a kick out of feeding her over the stall door- we have some especially yummy hay reserved for putting weight back on Charlie, and Snowy thinks it is scrumptious! Gretta started it all on her own one day- she grabbed a handful of the hay and walked right over to Snowy's stall, held it up, and Snowy came and took it gently from her hand! Emma Kate got a kick out of it and started doing it too, then they just fell right into a routine where Gretta grabbed the handful of hay, walked it to Emma Kate, who would then take it to Snowy- they do it over and over, and they both get a huge kick out of it! Not to mention little Snowy... she thinks it's pretty awesome too! :) We've got to get some pictures of the girls with Snowy- we usually have our hands so full when we're with her that we don't have an opportunity to carry a camera.

Here are a bunch of pictures to update, from Gretta's first birthday, making Emma Kate's halloween costume (she was our cat Sophie!), Trick-or-Treating, playing at the little park, helping Daddy make the door latch in the closet, and of course, a picture of Snowy!

Gretta's one year checkup

Gretta went in for her 1-year checkup on Monday and came in at 19lbs 12oz, and is in the 50th percentile for height (can't remember the number off my head!) Everything checked out just fine, and we are to continue working with her drinking from a cup. She still chokes a little on water and juice, but it seems to be a bit less frequent, and she's doing well with a different style sippy cup, whereas before only one cup was slow enough to prevent choking. As if she was waiting for her official checkup (as opposed to her actual birthday), she pretty much started walking the next day! She is a lot more stable with it now, and seems to have improved in balance just overnight! She will walk several steps without hesitation, although she still mainly goes from point to point, rather than walking all over. She still mostly crawls to get around, but today she was even stooping to pick up a toy and standing back up with no assistance! The knees of all the pants in her wardrobe are rejoicing!! :) She is *also* finally sleeping thought the night more often than not- Greg and I finally sort of moved out of her room and are sleeping downstairs in the new master bedroom, and I think Gretta likes having the place to herself. She occasionally will fuss for a minute or two maybe once in the night, sometimes twice if we accidently disturb her while dealing with Emma Kate, but she typically settles back down easily just by talking to her and shushing her. I...am...THRILLED to say the least! It is such an awesome change, and it was well worth waiting for- she transitioned to it so easily and quickly, it took very little effort! We still end up getting woken up at least once in the night for Emma Kate, and more often it's at least 2 times, sometimes 3. She seems to be doing better about not crying and freaking out as much, most times she's calling for a potty run, or for help getting her covers back up. Seems like the thing that upsets her the most still is when Jack curls up on her bed- she wants him GONE! She loves him so much, but she says he purrs too loud and keeps her awake! :) Gretta has also recently developed a fascination for the nose- she likes to point to and touch everyone's nose... and occasionally that little finger tries awfully hard to slip into one side or the other- she finds that absolutely hysterical! She seems to be communicating somewhat as well, with her own baby babble of course, but I think we're starting to see some patterns! We still have pictures from her birthday and a few more recent shots to post, but I'm leaving it for another night... I'm off to bed while the sleeping is still good.

PICTURES FINALLY!!!!! :)

Ok, so I finally figured out how to load pictures again, since both this site and the Walgreens site I have the pictures on have both changed... I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me, but when I finally figured it out, I realized how much easier it is now!  So... to get caught up on a bunch of things...  I'll try to comment on pictures below...  We've had a busy time here, mostly enjoying the absolutely gorgeous days outside and at the "little park" with the girls.  We had a wonderful day yesterday, for Gretta's first birthday, although not much celebrating, since Greg had to work.  We're planning on a bit more of a little party tomorrow, as well as pumpkin carving!  

Mimi and Emma Kate playing in the new master bedroom, shortly before we finally got carpet installed!!!

Little monkey!!

Tutu hat!

Look at that GRIN!!!!!!!

Cute little poser!

Everyone's new favorite old toy, the spring horse.  Both girls can get wild and crazy on it!

I'm pretty sure this smile came along with a "Tssssss"

Walking with Daddy to get the mail before having cupcakes for Emma Kate's 3rd birthday!

At Emma Kate's request, we had a "little party by the barn" or actually in the barn as it turned out...

Sampling is allowed, but only if it is your birthday!

Yummy cream cheese icing on carrot cupcakes, Emma Kate chose the "mint green" color

This is what happened when it was time to blow out the candles- she went crazy running out the barn door!

Guess she reconsidered and came back for more cupcakes...

She did NOT want to blow out the candles, and made Daddy do it!  Later in the house, she had me set them up and she blew them out about 3 or 4 times, I think she was a little freaked out by them at first!

Modeling the beautiful bracelet from Auntie Kimberly

Good 'ole Gretta the barn goddess, never afraid of getting down and dirty!

So much fun to be had in the barn!

Gretta especially likes throwing the gravel dust on the bush hog, or wherever she happens to be sitting...

Having fun in the little hay maze we built for the girls

We wanted to see if Daddy could fit into the little hole... he scrunched in pretty good!

The birthday girl, in the "dark" tunnel as she calls it

Gretta, setting out on her own hay adventure

Emma Kate, all packaged up and ready to ship

We had a brief stay at the Highland Festival in Radford, neat but crummy weather, we opted for pizza instead before too long...  maybe next year we will get to see some cool games!

Gretta liked the tambourine!

Our newest thing lately, PIGTAILS!!  So darn cute!

We were waiting for Daddy to pick us up, as it had started drizzling, I forget what I was doing but it was pretty silly and she was LAUGHING!!! :)

Arrival at the Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Festival, a local tradition.  I couldn't help constantly thinking of what was going on last year when we went... we had already made one trip to the ER and it was only several days before our second one and the nightmare trip to Wake Forest.  This year was much easier... Gretta fell asleep shortly before our arrival, and enjoyed a nice snooze in the stroller

Great animals on display each year, they are very sweet and love to get petted, draft horse, donkey, mini donks, pigs, goats, chickens, bunnies, maybe a turkey??

That's a BIIIIIIIIG pumpkin!

She didn't want to sit still for long!

Emma Kate developed a real fascination for the milking display...  she was amazed by it!

Great training for future chores... :)

3 years old!!  Those are the funkiest pumpkins by the way, they look like they have peanuts glued all over... weird.

Emma Kate with her "find"

Sweet little pumpkin for  a sweet little girl

Headed out for the first hay ride, Emma Kate loved it and was very upset when it was over!

Waiting for a ride back from the pumpkin patch

Gretta stretching her legs

The girls... at least one of us was looking the right way

Gretta loved exploring the funky little gourds and sorting the in and out of the bin 

Just the right height

Playing in the leaf pile up at the little park, both girls had a blast with it!

Um... yeah... this is definitely not a hen...  Our standard sized chickens got moved out to the garden and the silkies now live in the old coop.  I had been noticing that one of our "hens" was so much bigger than the others, and just never got a good look at "her" in good lighting.  Well, there's no more wondering why "she" was so big... "she" is definitely, without doubt, a "he!"  Oh well, hopefully we're the only ones that ended up with a rooster, we gave groups of chicks to two people out of our order of 25, and they were all supposed to be females!!  whoops... :)