remembering Nana V.

We had to say goodbye to Emily's sweet, Nana V. She passed away unexpectedly on Tueseday. We will always hold the memories very close. All Nana V. ever wanted for as long as I can remember was to be a Grandma. What a great team her and Emily made. Love you forever Nana V.! You are greatly missed and loved, now and always.

Emi's new friend...

Meet Gracie the pony...Gracie the pony lives with Grandma Clo now.. and Gracie absolutely LOVES Emily. She follows her around and wants to play with her. Grandma Clo definitely didn't talk this over with mommy and daddy first but I am guessing it wouldn't have mattered. ☺

"turtle"

Emily doesn't say too many words yet..just, book, mama, dada..and today she said a new one and it kinda surprised me that she said it after me. "Turtle" It's so cute how she says it and I was able to get it on video! So add it to the list... she can say "turtle"

Happy 1st Birthday Sawyer!

Today we went to Sawyer's 1st Birthday party! Sawyer is Emily's friend from church. Emily had a lot of fun playing with the other kids in the pool and the sprinkler. She also loved the food- she was excited for the BBQ chicken and the baked beans! Sawyer- we hope you had an extra special day! Happy Birthday sweetie!

a busy little lady

Today Emily and I just chilled at home. We played outside a little-Then we had a tea partyAnd then Grandma Clo came over and we had a ride in the wagon with Bella!There should be more days like today- what fun!

walk this way...

for the 300th post... Emily is starting to walk!!!! Now she takes more and more steps every day- she's getting much more brave to let go of our hands and whatever she's holding on to. Today I was able to capture some on video! (a very proud mommy moment)

so very blessed to be Emi's momma

This little girl has lit up my life since the day she was born. She is my beautiful daughter and makes every day that much better. I cannot imagine my life without my sweet Emily! God is so good and I am so grateful to Him and so grateful for the trust and the faith that was put in Will and I to be her parents. We feel so lucky to have been the ones chosen just for Emily. If you couldn't tell... I am ONE HAPPY MOMMA!

Happy 1st Birthday Cara!

Today was Emily's friend Cara's 1st Birthday. We went to her party and had a great time! I hope your day was super fun and super special Miss Cara! Lots of love to you on your 1st Birthday!

Emi's 1 year check-up

Today we went to see the doctor for Emi's one year checkup. We waited a little past her birthday to avoid the shots during our Disney trip, etc., just in case they had any effects on her. She took the shots like a champ and had fun while we waited too!

Here are Emily's stats from today:
Ht. 29 1/2" 55%
Wt. 19lbs, 9oz 20%
HC 47.2cm 94%
The doctor says she's perfectly healthy and growing at a great rate! Also, to show off a bit later today she took 10 steps!

a few randoms

Here are just a few random pictures from the past week. Not enough to do a post out of but too cute not to share!

a fun time at the park with Quinn

Emily and Quinn met up at a new park and decided to try out a cool slide that Quinn told us about. It has rollers on it and so it's kindof bumpy coming down but the girls LOVED it! We definitely need to show this slide to Cara and Kaleigh too! It was a fun day! Thanks for meeting us Quinn!

trying to master the chair

I know I have climbed up in it before.. but today I just can't seem to work it out!
Try, try, again!

a good day for sunshine and sprinklers

Emily's First Disney Trip! (part two)

Tuesday we left for Magic Kingdom around 8:30a to get there when it opened at 9a. We took the ferry ride over to the Magic Kingdom and it was great weather! Here are some of the pictures from our day at Magic Kingdom. Emily's favorite part was meeting Pooh and Tigger she got to hug and snuggle them. Also, she got to play in the fountains and get all wet! It was definitely a magical time to see Emily so happy and having a ball. I hope for everyone to be able to take their kid to Disney just to watch the joy on their face at such a young age. It's truly MAGIC! She also lost her glasses and nobody has turned them in yet. Good thing we had already bought a back up pair!

Wednesday we headed over to Epcot. We needed to throw in at least one "grown up" day in there. But it turns out Emily enjoyed that one too so yay for all of us! She slept thru our first walk around all the countries but was awake for fish and chips in "England" and a game of peekaboo in the red phone booth. Also she made friends with a duck because she had cheerios she was sharing. We went into the ride that is inside the big golf ball looking thing that is a 16 minute ride. Em did GREAT. It was actually pretty neat, at the beginning you slowly go by a screen and you are supposed to smile and it takes your picture on the ride. Well at the end of the ride it asks you questions about a "future" you might want to see yourself have and cuts your head out of the picture and "animates" you. Well it chose Emily and Will to animate and Emily was cracking up seeing herself ride on a rocket with her daddy. If you click on the collage you can see the bubbles of our heads in a picture that I took when we got off the ride. It was pretty funny. Em got to play in more water fountains at Epcot so she was a happy camper.. and also got more of her lollipop she hadn't finished from the day before.

Wednesday night we went to a show called the Hoop de Doo Review held at our campground. They had a big singing/dancing show and they served dinner which consisted of fried chicken, bbq ribs, baked beans, cornbread, macaroni and cheese, and salad. Emily was a HUGE FAN of the fried chicken- she couldn't get enough! Also, our waitress made the night really special since she knew we were celebrating Emily's birthday. She brought out the strawberry shortcake dessert with a candle on it for Emily. We of course let Emily chow down on it and she got a little messy! It was a fun night!
Thursday we headed to Animal Kingdom. It was a lot of fun! I spilled coffee all over myself when I first got there but that was the only non-fun part. We got to see lots of animals and actually that park was the one that was the most crowded! Emily got to meet a TON of characters there that didn't have long lines so we even got to meet Mickey! We also met Goofy, Minnie, Donald Duck, Chip and Dale, Eeyore, Pooh, and Tigger- she was having a blast! The safari ride was a lot of fun too!
That was the last big day of our family vacation but we had the BEST time. I cannot imagine it being any better. I'm so grateful we had the opportunity to take Emily to Disney for her 1st Birthday! Although she may not remember we'll have lots of pictures and an everlasting memory for Will and I that is for sure!

Emily's First Disney Trip! (part one)

We took our very first family trip to Disney this past week. We got to camp at Fort Wilderness in the RV and we had a BLAST! We did Magic Kingdom Tuesday, Epcot on Wednesday, and then Animal Kingdom on Thursday. By Thursday and into Friday we were EXHAUSTED! It was so much fun to spoil Emily rotten and let her do things we normally wouldn't on an ordinary day. She had so much fun playing in the water in her clothes and eating lollipops and just hanging out. She was such a good girl and she even got her naps in and stayed on her schedule really well. It started out we left here last Monday driving down to Orlando and we took Will's truck and moved Emily's car seat to his truck but we turned it around facing forward for the first time. She thought that was pretty cool!That afternoon we got the camper set up and rode our bikes around with Emily on the front of Will's and checked out where we were staying- it was real nice! Then Em got her first bath in the camper! She LOVED it- it was just her size!Okay and apparently I have to post this because blogger isn't letting me post any more pics in this post.. so this blog post will have a few different parts.. onto part two!

we're visiting Mickey....

that's what we're up to this week- more pictures to come...

Emily's 1st Birthday Party!

What a fun day! It was very very tiring for mommy and daddy and the grandparents that helped us out (thank you so so much again!) but it was TOTALLY worth all the work and exhaustion! Also a HUGE thank you to Tammy who made the beautiful cake for Emily! It was PERFECT! Thank you a million times over! We love you! A ton of our friends and family that love Emily gathered together at our home to celebrate her 1st birthday with her! We had such a great time and were so blessed to be among so many wonderful people! We had a ball pool rented and the kids really enjoyed that- from the little ones to the bigger kids. It was all EXACTLY what we wanted to give Emily for her first birthday! Emily had a blast too and dug right into the cake- no questions asked! Her theme was "candyland" or just a "sweets" theme because we all know Emily is our sweetie!

the birthday girl and her cake!

the decor:If you would like to see most of the pictures from my camera you can check out all of them here.

Thanks again from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who made Emily's 1st Birthday wonderfully special! Even those of you who couldn't be at the party and still made it wonderful!- Thank you!

the monthly picture- 12 months old!

And today Emi weighed in at 19lbs, 3oz. and is 29 1/2 inches approx. Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet Emily!

Emily, where has the time gone?! You, our perfect, little, dream come true have been loved and wanted so long before you were even born or before we even knew about you. You are definitely our blessing from above and we cannot imagine our lives without you- not even for a second! You have filled this past year with such joy and happiness that we can't even begin to describe and tell you how much we love you! We are so thrilled to be your parents and look forward to many, many fun years ahead.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emily's First Easter!

We had a wonderful day today! Easter was great! We went to church and had a brunch in between services and then got to take a nap during 2nd service at church while mommy and daddy helped out in the nursery. We got home and had some lunch and took another nice nap and woke up to all of the family here! I got lots of Easter goodies and even got to try a chocolate bunny ear that was very yum! My very first Easter was so much fun! Oh, and HAM is my new favorite thing to eat!