Life with Emma*Cakes

Changes on the Blog!

2009-02-23T22:56:00.003-06:00

I have been envious of the pretty blogs but not willing (or able!) to put any money into mine. I tried to add the picture header to my blog right after I started blogging (anyone remember that??) and the attempt at HTML background ended in failure. So I was content to just look at all the pretty blogs out there in bloggyland while mine stayed, well, plain. I figured it didn't really matter as I only have about 3 faithful readers. :)

My sister-in-law, Courtney, just started a family blog and fancified hers up with a little help from thecutestblogontheblock.com and scrapblog.com so I decided to try it too. Thanks for the inspiration, Court! :)

I hope you enjoy the welcome changes to my blog.

An update...a little bit of everything!

2009-02-22T21:12:00.006-06:00

Wow, I hadn't posted in awhile. I will just update on all fronts in one post.

I am still looking for a job, it has now been 10 weeks since I was laid off. I have been on two interviews out of the tons of applications I have filled out. Nothing has panned out yet so thank goodness for UI benefits. I am just trying to stay optimistic and enjoying the time home with Emma instead of stressing myself out! Some days are harder than others though.

I am down to 194 so I am losing but I really need to work at it more. So far I have only cut down on Coke - no more than 2 a week - also we are cooking a good bit from the Biggest Loser Cookbook. The recipes are healthy versions of the food we all love and so far everything we have tried has been amazing. I highly recommend it! Now I just need to get motivated to work out to my 30 Day Shred DVD and jog around the block with Emma...

Emma had been doing awesome with the potty training for about 3 weeks but she has had a rough week. The accidents keep happening and she refuses to "try" and potty when we nudge her to do it. She has been peeing in her pants (and on the floor) with a silly smile on her face so these are not accidents. We have been having some talks with her and are going to try to focus on it hard again this week. The ironic thing is that she is still doing well when we are NOT home (just two poopy accidents - sorry if TMI!) So if you have any advice to offer on the thinking it is "funny" to pee on the floor or on the poopy pants front then please comment. :)

We had a great Valentine's Day weekend with Emma. We spent the Friday at Granny & Diggie's house and joined GeeGee & Grandad for dinner that evening. We took her to Julia's Bakery and let her pick out a cookie on Saturday before going to Barnes & Noble to see Curious George. She really enjoyed singing and listening to the story but was getting impatient waiting to meet George. There were so many kids! It was finally her turn and she gave George a hug and smiled for a pic.

I think that is about all we've been up to lately so now I'll share a few new pics.

Granny & I made Emma this dress. I love it on Emma! Oh yeah - I joined Face Book. :)

Better me.

2009-01-29T21:12:00.002-06:00

I have been struggling with my weight for awhile now and I finally decided I want to look better and feel better. I have a few work out DVD's but I've yet to really get into them. I try to walk whenever possible. I have cut out Coke...I did have a slip up last night though. I am not going to beat myself up about it - I figure if can at least cut down to once a month or even once a week I am so much better off. I also joined the Biggest Loser Club online last week and have lost 2 pounds so far.

The website offers a ton of recipes, grocery list ideas, exercises and member forums where you can challenge each other. You weigh in once a week. I've yet to really dive in but I can't wait to see the results when I do. The site offered three free books when you joined and one is the tips/secrets from the cast throughout the seasons. I think that will be good for me. The other one is the cook book. We sooooo need this - healthier cooking coming straightaway! I think we only own one other healthy cookbook which is Rachael Ray.

So I am putting myself out there...accountability. I weighed in last Wednesday at 199 and weighed in yesterday at 197. Here's hoping it is only down from here!

Quick pic

2009-01-29T20:47:00.002-06:00

I am amazed at how much older she looks in this pic. Is it the hair, the dress, her expression? I love that she is letting me play with her hair again - even if she does rip it out about an hour later! :) I don't want to jinx us but she is pretty much potty trained - no accidents at all today.

Outside!

2009-01-23T20:39:00.003-06:00

It was warm enough the past two days to go outside for a few minutes without a coat for a quick fashion show or three. lol

We need to try the Daddy's Sweetheart again for her Valentine's Day card. :)

Update: The potty training is going so well. She is down to almost no accidents and lets us know when she has to go even when we are travelling and out at places too. :)

Potty training (Hopefully not TMI!)

2009-01-14T10:37:00.003-06:00

Emma received a little potty for her 1st birthday and shortly after we started sitting her on it before bathtime. She would look at us strangely but she went on it a handful of times then she decided she was over it. We started pushing the issue right before she turned 2 and she was absolutely not interested! She had a spell where she was anti-big girl anything - she wanted to be held like a baby, called a baby, etc. So we let it be. We kept pushing the potty dvds and books on her and she liked to listen to them. Since I have been home with her the past few weeks, after the Christmas craziness passed, we have been trying again. She wore her big girl panties a few mornings last week and woul sit on the potty every 30-40 minutes but she wouldn't go on the potty. She would wear them from around 8:30 AM to around noon when we would go back to the diaper for naptime. She would then pee in the diaper every. single. time. It was a little frustrating but I kept telling her she needed to pee in the potty to get the M&M and that only babies peed in their diapers and it was a good thing to become a big girl who peed on the potty.

We were having a lazy day at home this past Saturday so we tried again. I kept on to her, "Emma, need to go potty?" and "Emma, are you sure you don't need to potty?" I was starting to annoy myself. lol She had accidents in her panties twice while playing but then started to realize it and would run to the potty. Progress! She had more successes than accidents by Monday. We are working on the rewards plan of 1 M&M for a pee, 2 M&M's for a poo. She repeats this to us while she is on the potty so I know she completely gets it. Papa also talked to her on the phone Sunday and told her he would give her a $1 for each time she pottied this week...I think that was a motivator! She had a poo on the potty on Tuesday and immediately asked "Mommy two M&Ms and $2 monies from Papa?" I told her she would have to discuss the details with Papa if that was part of his deal. Girl is all about the monies - she is up to $10 "monies" now - it is so cute how she has turned dollars into monies! So far today we have had two successes and no accidents - knock on wood! Here's hoping that the potty training only goes UP from here.

We welcome any advice too so feel free to share any tips...especially night time training and also travelling with a potty training toddler!

Another picture post!

2009-01-09T15:17:00.006-06:00

It has still been a little crazy around here after the holidays...Great Aunt Becky and Uncle Billy came to visit and so did Nana and Papa. This is another quick pictures share for everybody we don't see all the time. Enjoy!

Nana, Papa and Emma have gone fishin'...

Emma wants Papa to rock it like Hannah Montana...

Settling in for a nap with Magenta, Boo, Periwinkle and Blue...

Emma's adorable "fake sleeping" face...

Little stinker at the mall with Daddy...

Hangin' out with her Nana last weekend...

Just a swingin' and looking back at Papa...

Oh deer! It is goofy eyes Emma...

Goofy eyes Papa...

Goofy eyes Daddy and Emma's mondo sundae at the Mayberry Cafe!

Nana, papa and Emma in the lobby at the Mayberry Cafe...

Jon and the old sheriff's car in front of Mayberry Cafe...

Emma waiting somewhat patiently to meet Santa on 12/23...

Walking up to Santa...

Why didn't I think to bring the Nikon?

Showing GeeGee that Wubbzy has mad skills...lol

Grandad singing with Emma...

An attempt at a picture with Great Aunt Becky...

Papa, Emma and Boo rocking on the Jack Daniel's Distillery tour...

Emma did not like how the barrel rooms smelled...lol

Playing checkers at the barrel shop in downtown Lynchburg...

Modeling her new Matilda Jane dress for us...she has everything for 60% off this month! It is my weakness, lol, especially at 60% off so Jon let me have a little after Christmas splurge. Thanks honey!

Go check it out - she even has a limited boys line! http://www.matildajaneclothing.com

Christmas time!

2008-12-30T09:37:00.003-06:00

We spent Christmas with my family while we were in Indiana the weekend of 12/19. Bennett, Peytonn & Emma were all spoiled by Nana & Papa. A work bench with tools for P and Emma received a kitchen with plenty of pots & pans. Clothes, clothes, clothes too. Nana loved the plate Emma had handpainted for her and Emma loved showing Nana how she did her handprints. We didn't manage to do our annual Christmas photo in front of the fireplace at their house. Maybe next year? We also took Emma through the Christmas lights at the park...she loved it!

We gave Nate one of his favorite presents, a MAJOR award. lol If you've seen A Christmas Story then you understand what I am talking about...that movie has been a staple in our family for as long as I can remember. I had to introduce Jon to it about 5 years ago - his family had never heard of it!

We went to our 4:00 PM church service on Christmas Eve and Emma was enthralled when the lights dimmed and the sanctuary was lit by candlelight. She kept making Daddy raise his arm higher and higher. We then had Jon's dad, sister and grandparents over for Christmas Eve dinner...unfortunately his mom had to work that night. Gee Gee & Grandad had the Wubbzy that Emma had asked Santa for so she was crazy for awhile! She had seen him in stores and wanted him so much but I don't think she realized he stood on his head!

After they headed home, we headed outside to toss the reindeer some food out on our porch so they would know to stop here. Emma loved tossing it all around!

Emma was so into Christmas this year...we read her board book, Christmas in the Manger about 5 times on Christmas Eve and she kept telling us to Shhhhh! for Baby Jesus. She loved the star in the book too. She loved keeping up with our elf Isaac. She loved decorating our Christmas tree and looking at it every day. She asked to go see Santa at the mall and actually walked up to him, sat on his lap and talked to him without a single tear. She loved handing out presents. We were in a little rush Christmas morning but she opened her presents and stocking before we headed out to Aunt Sally's house for brunch. She loved her camera and the pictures aren't too bad!

These are from her VTech camera:

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did too! Happy New Year!

Emma and Santa Claus

2008-12-23T23:24:00.004-06:00

We were planning on seeing Santa while we were back home visiting Nana & Papa but we ran out of time with Aunt Debbie's funeral and trying to visit everyone like we usually do when we're back home. Plan B was the Santa at the mall here that we met a few weeks ago during the hot air balloon fiasco. Emma decided she wanted to see Santa on Tuesday and she did so well - walked right up to him and let him sit her on his lap. She told him she wanted a Wubbzy and Christmas feet. lol We're not sure what Christmas feet are because she said no when we asked if she meant shoes or a Christmas tree. She also told us she wants a "quick-amera like Daddy's" which means camera, by the way - we think she picked up "Click" from Go Diego Go!

**Ugh...I apologize for the picture being so wonky - it is the picture we bought and our scanner doesn't do well with glossy photos.

Carriage rides and Christmas gifts!

2008-12-15T20:47:00.003-06:00

Our local mall does complimentary carriage rides every Sunday afternoon until Christmas and we knew about it this year! Emma loved the ride around the mall with Jackson (the horse) leading the way.

She wasn't much into posing in front of the big ornaments...or maybe she was upset because they had drained the fountains.

Emma received a letter from Santa Claus and read it with Daddy.

I was trying to get some good pictures of the lights on our tree. I want to learn more of taking pictures in the manual setting of our camera. I need to practice!

Shhh! We were making some Christmas presents at our local pottery place after church the last two Sundays. I think that they will be a HIT! Just a glimpse in case they happen upon the blog before Christmas.

Oh yeah...we had our first taste of winter this past Thursday...snow!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-07T22:26:00.003-06:00

We watched Christmas Vacation with Nana & Papa last weekend. We now have our tree up and decorated. Snow globes are playing Christmas music. Emma is admiring the lights and ornaments. Isaac is watching over us to report back to Santa. We were at Grandad's kantata this evening with GeeGee, Diggie and Granny. Emma was dancing and having a grand ol' time to the wonderful music.

Meet our scout elf...Isaac!

2008-12-07T21:54:00.002-06:00

I follow the blog, Bring the Rain. Angie had posted about her family's tradition with their elf, Scout. The elf reports back to Santa each evening about the children's behaviors and shows up in a new spot in your house each morning.

I thought it sounded like a great tradition to start with Emma this year so we went out and bought the set at Barnes & Noble this afternoon. We read the book and named our little elf Isaac since he is acting as Santa's "eyes" and Emma liked the name. :) She was not listening very well this evening and we reminded her that Isaac was watching her and did she want to be on the naughty list to which she said "no, me nice" so I think it will be helpful too. I can't wait until she wakes up in the morning and we look for Isaac! He's sitting on the microwave right now...

Thanksgiving.

2008-12-07T21:04:00.002-06:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Indiana at my brother & sister-in-law's home. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, yummy pies, watched the cousins play and snuggled with the sleeping nearly 3 week old Bennett. He was so sweet. :)

On Saturday we all packed up and headed to Build-A-Bear in Indianapolis for our annual tradition with Nana & Papa. Papa was still in a cast from his surgery so he had a wheelchair. Emma loved riding on the leg prop. It was not very busy which was good but it still ended with Emma & Peytonn in meltdowns!

Den decided to name Peytonn's turtle Tantrum since Peytonn was not interested in the naming at all. Emma's bears have all started with L's so Papa threw out the name Libby and Emma said Libby yes. We ended up going with Libby Lu. She'll have to wait until Christmas to meet her other friends Lizzie, Lucie and Lola!

We woke up to snow on Sunday!

Santa arrives via big blue hot air balloon!

2008-11-22T17:33:00.003-06:00

Our local mall hosts a "Breakfast with Santa" each year. I bought our tickets on Thursday and found out it was also tether rides with Santa in a hot air balloon. A really cool idea but probably not for our 2 year old with a fear of Santa Claus as is!

We arrived at the mall this morning and there is a big blue hot air ballon being inflated. We go inside for the Chik-fil-a breakfast and activities. The Elves are creating balloon animals so we get in line. Moments later Emma starts pointing and yelling "Santi Caws" over and over again. We looked behind us and Santa & Mrs. Claus were in the air in front of the mall.

We were in Group B so we finish our breakfast and attempt to take Emma's picture with Rudolph. She gives him several high-fives and danced all around him but was not into a posed photo. We went to the reindeer food station and the ornament station...then it was time for our group to get in line outside. It was so cold - like 40 degrees out! Emma was having fun dancing around to the Christmas music and watching Santa go up in the big balloon with other kids...until they call for us to step up to the balloon. She freaked and started screaming. We got her calmed down and told her she did not have to sit in the balloon - just tell Santa hi with Mommy. We get up there and she is clinging to me and teary eyed but she does say "Hi Santi Caws" and gives him a wave and a high-five.

We ran a few errands around town this evening and the same hot air balloon was in the air. Emma kept asking "Why Santi Caws?" and we kept telling her he must be lost on his way back to the North Pole. We have a feeling that hot air balloons will be forever tied to "Santi Caws" after this morning!

Emma's random two year oldness.

2008-11-13T08:49:00.004-06:00

I love how Emma is right now - stringing words together, new words everyday, giggling, putting together crazy outfits, snuggling with Mommy, loving on her Boo bunny, wanting to watch Wiggles and Dora all. the. time. I am trying to enjoy every moment - even the stubborn ones - because time is moving way too fast!

Trick or Treating

2008-11-08T10:56:00.003-06:00

This year we decided to take Emma up to the Square for actual Trick or Treating. We have just taken her up to Granny & Diggie and GeeGee & Grandad's houses before. She totally got the idea and would say "tick or teat - two teats pease" when she approached the candy givers. She is totally into two lately. It has to be two toys, two books, two cookies, two pieces of cheese, you get the idea. She will be please to know that she has two cousins now. Peytonn welcomed a baby brother named Bennett this morning!

Pumpkin Patch...one visit, two.

2008-10-19T20:18:00.003-05:00

I am so behind in sharing pictures! Our computer crashed on us but we just got a new one and thankfully, we had all our pictures on a back up drive. So here are a few of my favorites from our pumpkin patch visits. The first visit was with Jon's parents to our local Walden Farm and the second was with my family to the Pumpkin Festival in Westfield, IN. It was HOT out for both trips but it is finally feeling like fall weather now!

Pictures from Walden Farm here in Smyrna, TN:

Pictures from the Pumpkin Festival:

Emma's Big Girl Room...

2008-09-09T14:56:00.002-05:00

We started this project about this time last year. lol My parents bought her a toddler bed because she was attempting to climb out of her crib at 16 months. She hasn't really slept in her room though - she cries and climbs out of her bed. She tends to fall sleep with me in our bed and Jon will move her to her bed after she's already asleep. Lately, she hasn't even been getting carried to her bed at all.

I came up with the idea to paint the lower part of her room green and add a pink stripe along the middle last November. We painted the green part back in like February! We finished the project this past weekend while my parents were in town for Labor Day. My parents bought her a pink Dora bedding set and we hung up a pink curtain too. She is calling it her "Emma pink go-go room." So far the Dora element of her room seems to be working - we're on night 5 of her sleeping in her room.

I found a seller on Etsy that sells cute fabric lined hanging frames and I'd love to get one in hot pink/baby pink fabrics for her room. Maybe a Dora print to go in the frame where the Pooh print is now too. I'm hoping to find some small blossom, butterfly, dragonfly and bee throw pillows to line the shelves to complete the look.

Here are a few pictures:

Hello, We're the Wiggles...

2008-07-26T18:17:00.004-05:00

We saw the big red car, all four Wiggles and their Wiggly friends, Dorothy, Wags, Henry and Captain Feathersword. It was kind of surreal since we watch them on DVD all the time. lol It was such a fun evening and Emma loved it!

Emma has been a bit Wiggles crazy for a year now so it was nice to actually "see" them in concert this year. I think Jon & I had as much fun as she did! We had been telling her about going to see the Wiggles for weeks now but she would just go grab a DVD. She definitely "got it" last night! I am sad that it has already came and went...

Hey Jon, wanna go again if they add Indy to their fall schedule??

We have the new DVD coming out on Tuesday to look forward to! :)

Birthday Build-A-Bear!

2008-07-02T22:03:00.007-05:00

Finally - I can post pictures without the error messages! :)

This post is especially for Great Aunt Sally, Great Uncle Kel, Great Aunt Becky and Great Uncle Billy...Emma says "sanks fo Wowa!"
Meet Lola...Emma's new buddy from Build-A-Bear.

Please excuse the pictures, my camera is still a little fuzzy from the bubbles incident. Here is a recap of our visit. Enjoy!
This is Emma checking out the buddy options.
Her doggy getting fluffed with love & stuff.
Picking her heart...
...and warming it up with her love!
Fluffing her up!
Shopping for "Wowa" accessories. Seems to be her favorite part each time!
So happy to be stopping by Granny & Diggie's house to show off Lola the puppy! (Excuse the strap in the picture, lol, she moves fast!)
Loving on Lola.
Introducing Lola to her other Build-A-Bear buddies, Lizzie and Lucie.
She fell asleep with her last night. "Ni-ni Wowa!"

So much to blog about...

2008-07-01T17:26:00.002-05:00

and Blogger & Photobucket are not getting along with me lately! I have edited my last post several times and cannot get the slideshow or pictures to load. I have created a whole new post and it won't show up on my blog. Grrr!

I have pictures from our Indiana trip, Emma's 2nd birthday party, riding her new trike, baking with Mommy, birthday Build-A-Bear outing where she created a puppy named Lola, and a trip to the Zoo just sitting here. Unblogged about. I am hoping this simple little post without any pictures will load.

Any ideas for a better uploading site for pictures that gets along with Blogger? Any ideas on how to deal with a horrible case of the "terrible twos"?

Crazy, birthday fun!

2008-06-11T22:47:00.005-05:00

The month of June started out as a whirlwind! My birthday was June 4th and Emma's is June 15th. We headed to Indiana on June 3rd around 9:00 PM and right into a tornado warning storm about an hour south of Indianapolis. We saw lightning strike a transformer as we drove along the interstate. Not cool! We were going to head out the next morning since I wanted to go to Gary Allan's Fan Club Party that afternoon. He rocked, by the way. We got home, had dinner, and Jon said he'd rather drive at night so off we went.

We spent the rest of the week visiting with family and took Emma to Columbian Park. I wish we would have planned ahead and brought beach gear to enjoy the water park. Next time! There was a horrible storm come up on us as we left Lafayette on Friday. It knocked the power out from around 5 PM until about 5 AM the next morning! Nana & Papa threw Emma a little birthday party on Saturday...Emma really enjoyed her Elmo balloon, cupcakes and presents. She also enjoyed the "lake" that showed up at their house after it rained 3.6" in about two hours before her party!

We came home Sunday afternoon and I had a job interview on Tuesday. It seemed to go well so I guess we'll see come Friday. Emma & I have been cleaning up the house and playing outside with her new sprinkler and bubble blower this week. We are gearing up for her birthday party on Saturday! The Elmo pops are on their way here. We have all kinds of red/white and Elmo party decorations. I am baking her cake Friday...she started out wanting strawberry but now wants white. Good thing I have both cake mixes in the house. She helped me make the trial cake and she was so upset at me when I put it in the oven. She got over it pretty quickly once the cake was baked though. We have pictures.

Lots of pictures to catch up on. Enjoy the slideshow!

Countdown to TWO!

2008-05-24T15:56:00.003-05:00

Emma's birthday is coming up fast and I can't believe I haven't really planned much yet. I bought fabric to create her birthday party outfit yesterday. Jon is working on the invitations and they are awesome. I ordered the cake pan on Monday.

I need to do a trial run of the 3-D Wilton cake next week so I'll be ready for the real thing on June 14th. We are doing a giant cupcake decorated with red & white sprinkles topped with an Elmo pop and two crayon candles. I am thinking of using red, white and pink Necco candies as the sprinkles or Hot Tamales and white Neccos. To go along with the red & white gingham tablecloths and the Elmo theme we are going with. Emma picked him. She is a BIG fan of the red monster.

I am planning on using a fish bowl full of gold fish and her Elmo TMX as table decorations. A fellow Gymbofriend has offered her extra Elmo decorations to me for the cost of shipping and she has an inflated 4' tall Elmo! I am excited for that as I was hoping to maybe rent an Elmo costume and have someone dress up at her party but it is like $90 to rent one and the closest place is an hour away. Oh well - I think it is going to be a cute and fun party for Miss Emma*Cakes! I can't believe my baby is going to be TWO!

Here are a few samples of the giant cupcake that I've found online:

Laundry

2008-05-21T16:28:00.003-05:00

I admit that laundry is not my favorite thing. I am very good at the gathering dirty clothes, loading the washing machine and then the dryer. Jon is supposed to be the one that folds and puts the clothing away. I love to smell the detergents and fabric softener in the grocery aisle. I am such a clean smell girl. We are usually a Tide Free and Bounce Free family because of Emma's sensitive skin. It is mostly just during the winter months though, I switched back to Gain last summer and she was fine. As I posted the other day, I found Crunchy Clean Detergent that is good for sensitive skin and she adds custom scents to it. The best of both worlds!

I have now done about five loads of laundry, uh, we were a little behind. lol Anyways, Emma has not broken out or acted itchy at all with this detergent. It leaves a faint, airy scent behind on the clothing and in the laundry room. I love it! I have tried the lemon, vanilla and lavender chamomile. The lavender chamomile is my favorite. We were using the Downy Simple Pleasures fabric softener in the same scent before Emma's sensitive skin issues and it was heavenly too. I haven't been putting Emma in the Happy Heiny trainers lately so I haven't been able to try the Cloth Diaper detergent yet. I did use a little bit of it to make a paste on Emma's white tee to get out a spaghetti stain and it worked great! Jon came home to his shirts hanging in the laundry room neatly and said he'd buy more of this detergent if it meant this would happen more often. lol I don't know if it's the lovely detergent or the fact I am a temporary SAHM.

Anyways, I am looking forward to ordering a full size of the Lavender Chamomile and a sample of the Baby Bee soon. I found a container that looks similar to the jar she sells on her Etsy site at Target so I need to get one of those first. :)

GREEN...

2008-05-19T14:45:00.008-05:00

I have been trying to slowly do things that are more "green" around our house. I know it is better for the environment and now Emma too. She has diaper rash quite often even though we use the "sensitive" wipes, lotions, detergent, everything. I recently bought some cloth wipes, all natural wipes solution and a wetbag to use on her. The wipes are by Small Wonders and they are so soft! Emma loves them and we also got her the bigger size to use as washcloths in the bathtub too. I have also changed to the Method cleaning products and I no longer have my wrists breaking out after I scrub the tub and toilets. The eucalyptus mint scent smells great too! Oh yeah, the wipes solution I went with was Punkin Booty Bits. It was a sampler pack of baby powder, unscented, monkey farts and snuggles. They smell so good, especially snuggles but I am a BIG time clean smell girl! We have only used the cloth wipes solution a handful of times so far but I'll let you know how it goes. The wetbag was from Lemon Squeezy and I love the fabric.

My most recent find arrived today, Crunchy Clean Detergent. I have a load of laundry in the washer now and there is a hint of lavender chamomile in the air. I love it. I ordered a sample pack of cloth diaper clean, vanilla, lemon and lavender chamomile about a week and a half ago. I think I am definitely going to order more of this detergent as it is all natural and $8 (plus shipping) for 68 loads. I am usually a liquid Tide or Gain girl but this powder dissolved great and it smells so good! I definitely want to try her new Baby Bee scent and I like that I am supporting WAHM's too.

We ordered some reusable grocery bags on a co-op through Diaper Swappers a few weeks ago so we are making the switch. I get so tired of bringing home the groceries in 10 plastic bags with like two items in each one. It just seems like such a waste. These bags, Chicobags, are made like the plastic bags but are nylon. I have heard good things about them and they can be balled up into one bag and thrown in your purse of the trunk of the car. It seems like a great idea and Jon went along with me.

Here's one of Emma in the shopping cart on Mother's Day. By the way, I love her Kozy Pal cart cover. I am getting good at links! lol

Parents Magazine Cover Model Contest

2008-05-18T09:06:00.003-05:00

I entered Emma in their photo contest on Wednesday evening. The site is not without glitches though so the first photo I entered has managed to disappear and it won't let me re-upload it. Oh well - Emma is adorable in the other photos as well. :) She is such a ham and has decided she likes the camera again, at least about 50% of the time!

Here is the link to her gallery on the Parents site.
http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=167600227

Above her photos are stars. Please highlight them to say "I love it" and then click on recommend. The votes can get her on the front page and in their newsletter! Thanks - we really appreciate it if you can vote for Emma*Cakes!

Life

2008-05-17T22:09:00.007-05:00

It has been a long and trying week or so and I keep trying to look for the positive and enjoy each day. Especially with my Emma*cakes.

Last Thursday, Jon came out of work and noticed his tire looked very worn in one place so he decided to stop by Wal-Mart on the way home to get a new one. It ended up being Wal-Mart, Sam's and finally Sears to get it done but he was able to get it done. Thank goodness that he noticed it as they told him it probably would not have got him home safely.

The next day they let me know that they no longer needed me at the job I'd been at for a year. I have enjoyed spending the first part of the week at home with Emma and then took a two-day position with the temp agency so I can hopefully still earn my 40 hour vacation since I am only lacking 25 hours! I was at work reading Lovelyn's blog about Trisha Hessee, the girlfriend of one of our high school classmates. She is nearly 14 weeks pregnant and is fighting brain cancer, two tumors in her brain that do not seem to be reacting to the radiation. John posted an update this morning that she is doing a little better yesterday, opening her eyes and responding to them with hand squeezes. I have been thinking about her and praying for her every chance I have since I read her blog. I just cannot shake the feeling of imagining everything she is going through. I cannot do anything but pray so I am going to keep praying for her every chance I have. The website is www.trishahesseefund.info if you want to find out more about her story.

I called Jon after I had picked up Emma from the sitter and he didn't sound like himself. I asked him what was wrong and he responded with "I'm just shaken up..." I begin to really worry, something I am good at, when he tells me that Jason just died. A guy he works with quite closely at his job had been feeling a little lightheaded and itchy at work that morning. He assumed his wife had changed their detergent or something and decided to head on home. His wife wanted to take him to the ER because he just wasn't feeling right and on the way out of their house, he collapsed. He was gone. He was only 33 and they think it was a heart attack or an aneurysm. I couldn't hug Jon tight enough when he got home. I keep imagining what his wife must be going through and I know it must be unbearable. I also keep thinking about how blessed we were a few months ago when Jon collapsed at work that it was nothing more than fatigue and a bad decision to skip a few meals.

I have been stressed and uptight about so many little things lately with the job thing, Emma's upcoming birthday and even this morning I got super-upset because Emma spilled a drink all over herself and her car seat. Jon was telling me to calm down and Emma was smiling at me, even giggling, just to make me happy again and she was the one who was soaked. I realized that it is only clothing, it launders well, and life just needs to be lived and enjoyed to the absolute fullest each day. I am going to make a point to not sweat the small stuff and even some of the not-so-small stuff anymore.

I am so blessed.

Abby Cadabby...and potty treats

2008-05-16T18:54:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago we decided to give potty training a whirl. Emma didn't seem interested and was having more accidents than successes so we shelved it for the time being. It is still early. So we let her pick out some "big girl panties" at JC Penney a few weekends ago and she picked Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She has had zero interest in the panties but a BIG interest in the Elmo Potty Time DVD. She pulled her potty chair into the living room when she was watching it with me the other day. She also found the Abby Cadabby panties in her laundry and wanted to wear them on Wednesday afternoon when we were home together. She did well, I sat her on the potty every ten minutes or so but she never did anything and we took them off for bath time.

We just had bath time tonight and she wanted to put them on again. She peed in them within about ten minutes of having them on. I was going to put her in a diaper since it is getting close to bed time but she cried for the panties so I put her in another pair. We have been letting her have one potty treat just for sitting on the potty since she started freaking out about even sitting on the potty a few weeks ago. It seems to be going well. We let her pick out her own treats and she picked pink and purple "emma ems" as she calls them. It's about time to sit her on the potty again...

Here's to success! :)

Enjoying the day in her MJC.

2008-05-12T19:21:00.003-05:00

We love our Matilda Jane Clothing. Awesome clothes, awesome company.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-11T21:17:00.002-05:00

We took a few family portraits this afternoon. Emma and I are wearing our new coordinating outfits from Hanna Andersson. The outfits were my Mother's Day present from Jon and Emma. :)

Fresh picked strawberries...

2008-05-10T18:24:00.002-05:00

I can't decide which one I like best! :)

The Wiggles are coming to Nashville!

2008-05-03T18:36:00.002-05:00

Emma loves the Wiggles. They will be here for two shows on July 25th. The tickets go on sale June 6th at 10:00 AM. We will be in Indiana that week. I hope we can still get great seats!

Emma's "Mommy Haircut"

2008-05-03T00:48:00.003-05:00

Emma had her first "official" haircut in late January which was really only a trim. Her bangs had grown and were past her eyes lately which was fine - when she would let me swoosh them to the side with a cute clippie. She has been anti-clippie lately. I am not sure why I thought I could "trim" a squirmy toddler's bangs but I did! Please tell me that it is not horrible! I know they will grow out in a week but I hope I totally didn't make her look like a boy. Jon keeps teasing me asking why I gave her a bowl cut. I know its short and kind of mullet-like but its is cute in some way, right?! I know Emma is adorable...regardless of her haircut. :)

By the way, this is Emma's "sour lips" pose. We were watching Blue's Clues and Steve tasted a lemon and made sour lips. It is now Emma's favorite thing to do when the camera comes out!

Emma*Cakes has scarlet fever!

2008-04-30T20:19:00.004-05:00

Emma has a bumpy, red rash over most of her body now. I noticed it after her bath last night...it was only on her belly and lower back at that time. She had worn a new, unwashed shirt yesterday so I thought maybe it was a contact rash or something. This morning it was on her face, neck, arms, legs, even her feet. We got her in to see the pediatrician at 11:30 AM this morning and he immediately said it is a classic scarlet fever rash. He said it is usually brought on by strep and a high fever. Emma has had zero signs of both. He said sometimes it can be caused from a virus too. He said left untreated it can affect their joints and hearts so he is treating it as though she has had strep. He left it up to me to have her tested, I passed on the test since he said the treatment was the same if it was confirmed and she was glued to my hip at this point! He gave her a prescription and suggested Aveeno Bath Treatment and Caladryl because the rash can become itchy and peel but should go away completely in 3-7 days. She has to stay out of daycare until she has been on the medicine a full day.

So we were off to Target to pick up her "itchy prevention" supplies after dropping the prescription off at Walgreens. Seriously, how hard is it to find Aveeno Bath Treatment at Target?! Very hard. It was not in the bath wash/lotion aisle, it was not in the baby aisle either. I am starting to get frustrated as there are no employees within sight and my irritable, sick toddler wants out of the cart. I finally let her out, holding my hand as I am pushing the cart down the cosmetics aisle...I look up and there are Watkins products, Burts Bees products, and AVEENO BATH TREATMENT among a few other things! Ya know, that is the obvious place to look! So we are finally off to the check out after grabbing her a new Dora toothbrush and a loofah (Emma calls it her bath ball!), Emma is trying to grab at every little thing near the register and is screaming for milk. I try to pick her up and she slips and hits her head on the floor. I am feeling horrible now and so ready to just get her home. We get out to the car and she is still crying for milk so I decide to run through Wendy's which is right in front of our Target. I can get us lunch and milk with her meal. I pull away from the window onto the road and...no milk in her sack. How do you leave milk off of a kid's meal when you asked me three times WHITE OR CHOCOLATE?! Emma is still crying from her carseat, wanting her milk and I do not want to drive back there, carry her inside to get the darn milk so I head onto Walgreens and try to distract her with the nuggets. Thank goodness for Walgreens drive thru and their fast service! We are on the way home within 10 minutes and she calms down enough to wait until we are home for her milk. Have I mentioned she is a milk fiend?!

She took her medicine like a champ and I gave her an oatmeal bath then we both took a nice nap. She seems to be feeling okay, her temp is 99 and she is playing around in her Elmo concert tee and her yoga pants. She is a cute, spotted Cakes!

The flash washed most of the redness away. :) Have I mentioned that she is no longer a fan of the camera?!

My favorite photo.

2008-04-20T19:04:00.002-05:00

Recent randomness

2008-04-18T10:38:00.002-05:00

We are going to give potty training a whirl next month. I bought Emma two Happy Heiny trainers to try out since they are thicker and have a waterproof liner. They came in the mail last Wednesday and I tried one on Emma without the liner (they were somehow left off my order?!) and she immediately pulled it off, put it on her head and peed on the floor! Maybe we aren't ready for this phase yet. However, she is still doing pretty good with sitting on the potty before bathtime but she has not been "going" lately.

She has become hooked on the Veggie Tales "S'mores" song in the car. This song is cute but it is only 1:40 minutes long and it is getting sooooo old by about ten minutes into any car ride. She says "mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama..." until I hit the CD back to the song. Watching her wiggle and shake her arms from her carseat makes it worth it though.

Emma realizes when we are almost home now. There is a big gas station on our exit that has a digital sign for the gas price that is visible about a mile away. About two weeks ago I noticed Emma would start clapping and shouting "Yay, Yay, Yay" when we would get close to the exit. She has put together that the gas station sign means we will be home in about 2 minutes. I am so amazed by everything she is doing lately. She is learning in leaps and bounds in just the last few weeks.

BIG Anniversary

2008-04-17T15:18:00.003-05:00

Jon's grandparents, better known as Granny and Diggie, are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary today.

Happy Anniversary - I love being a part of your family!

I love her!

2008-04-14T23:25:00.003-05:00

Our first Matilda Jane order arrived last Thursday. We did a quick fashion show with Emma to make sure it fit. Emma grabbed her corn teether out of her diaper bag and started singing!

Why?

2008-03-27T12:07:00.003-05:00

Why is it that clothing for baby girl's are so adorable and so expensive? I have spent more $$ on Emma's wardrobe than anything for myself. I tend to be a frumpy gal most of the time but I dream of being a hot mama one day. lol Don't we all?! Anyways, I have recently ordered from Mini Boden and Matilda Jane Clothing for the first time. It is so uber-cute that it is not even funny! I can't wait until the orders arrive next week...we must have a fashion show photo shoot and upload the pics, Jon!

Don't get me wrong, I love some items from The Children's Place and Old Navy as much as the next girl but there is just something about the clothing from Baby GAP, Gymboree, Mini Boden and MJC that just has it, know what I mean?! Not to even mention my favorite boutique designers, ModKid and Vintage*Chic. Granny has made Emma several uber-adorable outfits too! I'll try to add pics from the Easter egg hunt of Emma in her sweet outfit. :)

I just need to get myself able to part with all this fab clothing to fund her next season. I just don't think I can do it, in fact, I don't think Jon can do it. We are "pack it away-ers" and we are saving it back for that future daughter that may never come. We'd be in big trouble then anyways...all the coordinating sister outfits. Ay yi yi!

Happy Birthday, Jon!!

2008-03-14T08:44:00.002-05:00

Jon is the big 3-1 today. We have plans to join his parents for dinner tonight so I "treated" him for his birthday last night. We went to the local bakery and he chose a mini key lime pie and an icing stuffed chocolate cookie. Yummy! Emma chose an egg shaped cookie that was decorated in pastels...almost too cute to eat but she ate it anyways. I chose a lovely petit four. So good! We bought him a stereo for his car that has the direct inputs for his iPod as his birthday present. He has had it about a week now and loves it. He drives almost an hour to work so he has been downloading audio books to his iPod and listening to them. I think it was a great present!

My baby arrived...

2008-03-08T07:39:00.003-06:00

my Cricut Expression! I picked it up at the local UPS dock on Thursday, which just happens to be about a minute from my work. It is BIG! I have only been able to play a few times with it since Emma wants to touch it. I hope to maybe get Jon to take Emma out for a few hours and let me play. I have seen several scrapbook layouts in magazines using the Cricut that I want to recreate. The opportunities with it are nearly endless once I actually read the manual. lol My mom has the regular Cricut and I've used it a few times. I love that we were able to go ahead and get my "birthday" present with our tax refund! There is a monthly Cricut workshop at the local scrapbook store so I hope I can get on the list and know I have a date with my Cricut once a month at least. I have been hanging out at the message boards over at cricut.com for about a month now, learning tips, tricks and ideas. I also found a lady who makes Vera Bradley-styled bags for the Cricut and the Expression. I have mine on the way! I'll post pics as soon as I get it (as long as Jon cooperates and uploads them for me!) He got a hard drive back up for all our pictures a few months ago and I have not had time to figure out how to upload to it. We have Photoshop too and I want to play with it too, especially with the shots we got of Emma last Sunday. So sweet!

It is also SNOWING this morning! I hope we can bundle Emma up and go play in it later. It looks like there is a good 2-3 inches on the ground and it is still coming down. This of course, has shut everything down! We were planning on going to Granny's house to visit and have Granny help me create Peytonn's birthday present. I am hoping to make him a pair of lounging pants and a bucket hat in the sock monkey fabric! Wish me luck...I am wondering if we will even get out of the house today though. The news is making it sound awful outside but I grew up in Indiana where this amount of snow is nothing. Then again, people have no clue how to drive in it here so maybe we should just stay home!

Keep looking here and I hope to add the pics I've been wanting to post. :) Especially if we are SNOWED IN!!

Hour 34

2008-02-28T17:30:00.003-06:00

It has been over 34 HOURS since I have hugged on Emma Cakes. It was so weird to come home last night without her and to wake up this morning to her not being here. I only have a few more minutes to wait though...then I am going to hug, kiss and love on her!

Jon gave us all a big scare yesterday by collapsing at work and hitting his head on desk and the floor. They think he was out for about 5-10 seconds. They called the paramedics to his office and his boss called me as they were taking him away in an ambulance. I answered the phone "Hey Honey" thinking it was Jon calling...it was his boss, Tom, telling me about what happened and I started to shake as soon as I heard his voice. He said he was fairly certain it had to do with Jon losing weight recently and having not ate since dinner the evening before and was probably nothing more. He told me the EMT's were taking him to Vanderbilt. I hung up with him, told my boss that I had to go, called Jon's mom from the car and took off. I was so nervous but I kept thinking in the back of my mind that it had to be nothing...it was from working out, not eating, something simple like that but it was still scary. I was almost to Vanderbilt when Jon's mom called me back and put Jon on the phone.

He told me not to worry, he was fine, his blood sugar was 323 and his heart rate was 50 which is why he got lightheaded and passed out. They gave him two bags of IV fluid and were going to release him but he had another "episode" when they had him walk around before releasing him. So they sent him for an echo cardiogram. It came back normal and they were contemplating a CT scan. They finally decided he probably should just go home, have a Coke, eat dinner (it was now going on 27 hours since he had ate anything), drink lots of water and rest. They called it a syncopie episode brought on by dehydration. Our sitter said she would be fine if Emma just stayed the night since it was getting late and we would just have to bring her back early this morning anyways. So last night was Emma's first official night away from Mommy & Daddy and it was kind of rough on us. We got home at 11:15 PM last night and Jon walked in the house and said "I miss my muuuuuahhh! kissies from the Cakes." Me too.

I always feel weird when she is not with me but waking up to her not being here was hard. I immediately called her sitter and she was fine. She fell asleep a little after 9:00 PM after asking for her bottle (grrr...but more than OK since she was out of her routine) and reading a story. Emma is used to me picking her up when Kipper is on (5:15 PM-5:30 PM on Sprout) and she said Emma walked around saying Mama, Mama, Mama for about ten minutes after the show ended before she got sidetracked playing with her babies. She was such a big girl to go to sleep without her Boo Bunny and blanket here at home too. :)

I am so ready for Emma to be home and snuggle bunny with me & Jon. I am also very, very, very thankful that Jon came out of yesterday with nothing more than a goose egg and 17 sticky monitor things all over his chest/arms/back and nothing more serious. Although, Jon thinks removing those 17 sticky tabs is more than bad enough!

Oops...I forgot!

2008-02-21T15:04:00.003-06:00

A thanks to my wonderful husband, Jon for my Amy Butler scrapbook paper! We went to a local scrapbook store for the 1st time the other day and I saw it. I put it back because it was pricey and I already have SO MUCH PAPER! He snuck around me and bought it, sliding it into the stroller basket without me even noticing. It is from her Belle collection and I love it...I almost don't want to cut it up for my layouts! I was at Michael's on my lunch break today and saw that they carry 12x12 and 8x8 Amy Butler scrapbooks now. I just have a plain linen one from Close to My Heart (the products I sell, by the way) and I definitely want to get a girly book for Emma. Hmmmm. They also had Amy Butler mat pads and embellishments too.

I have also had my Mom's Cricut for four weeks now and have used it once. I signed up for a Cricut workshop at our local shop, The Sassy Scrapper. It was fun and I so should have used it more as Mom & Dad are coming down for a visit this weekend and taking back her Cricut! Maybe I'll get it out tonight after Emma goes to bed and cut some flowers, hearts, etc tonight just to have on hand. I have been such a bad scrapper lately...I need to dedicate more time to it or Emma's 1st year will never get done, let alone this year.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-19T19:55:00.004-06:00

This post is a few days late but I wanted to share a BIG thank you for Emma's Valentines. Great Granny and Diggie sent Emma an Elmo card with a little something to shop with and Aunt Toni & the boys sent a sweet card and a necklace/bracelet set. Emma is hooked on her "pretties" so she immediately put it on...tag and all! Grandma and Granddad took us all out to lunch at Toyama Japanese Steakhouse and let Emma pick out a rocker in front of Cracker Barrel. I must admit that the rocker was definitely the HIT! She was uh-ohing the chef when he made the oil flame up and she was a big fan of the soup and chopsticks. It was so good and if you are ever in Nashville, you should totally check it out for lunch. Very yummy and very reasonably priced.

I wanted to get Emma a cute purse and some little goodies to go in it for her Valentine. It arrived today and Emma loves it. She wouldn't even let Daddy see it when he came home. I found it through Etsy and it is perfect. Emma has a few other little bags but nothing that is an everyday sort of bag to carry whatever she wants. This one fits her small Elmo coloring book, sunglasses, Minnie cell phone, makeup brush, crayons (in a built-in holder) and whatever else Emma chooses to carry around like fake lettuce and a teacup. :) I highly recommend Simple Sweetcakes if you are looking for something like this!

Nana and Papa sent Emma a card too and are coming for a visit this weekend. Emma is excited! I'll be sure to add more pics soon...someone is hungry so I gotta run!

Hey-woh and cheeeeese!

2008-02-17T19:41:00.002-06:00

Emma has started saying "cheeeeeeese" when we take her picture and also has gone from saying "hi" to "heywoh" in the last week. She has also learned the meaning on mine and I'm not sure where that came from since she is the only toddler at her daycare. Jon took her Playdoh away since she threw it on the floor and she screamed "no my paydo, dada!" Yikes - I think the terrible 2's are coming on a little early. Elmo rules in our house and Emma can now "sing" the song to Elmo's World. It is the sweetest thing! She is also Mommy's little snuggle bunny...she cuddles up next to you and gives kissies when you ask her to be your snuggle bunny.

I have been wanting to make a photo book for awhile now and I just haven't had the extra time or the extra money to put towards one. I check out the Celebrity Baby Blog several times a day, everyday, and I won a contest over there for a $29.95 credit to Blurb. :) Blurb makes incredible books and I have been interested in them since Erin of Princess Pigbear blogged about her book a few weeks ago. I am excited to get started on mine and I'm getting Jon involved in it too! We are going to title our book "Life with Emma*Cakes" and it will be all about Emma's first year. They are offering 15% off until March if you use the code over on celebrity-babies.com so go check them out!

As promised...I have finally had a chance to upload some photos. So enjoy!

Some ramblings.

2008-02-09T00:46:00.000-06:00

I have a severe sinus infection...again. At least my face still looks normal this time, unlike last time where the left side of my face was huge and swollen! It started on Sunday, just a bad headache, I really thought it was a migraine. We ended up skipping church because I felt horrible but decided to venture out around 3:00 PM because we needed groceries. The sun outside was killing my head (hence, the self-diagnosis of a migraine) so we headed into the little mexican restaurant, Cozumel, beside our Krogers. The food is yummy there, relatively cheap and Emma is easily entertained with chips & salsa. She is hilarious with the dipping...tapping her chip on the bowl then taking the tiniest bite of the chip, then double dipping a few more times. lol She gets her own bowl. So, we get groceries, go home and take a nap...again.

Monday begins another week and I just have a nagging headache and general "crud" going on so I take some of the Benedryl sinus stuff we have here at home. By Thursday, I am really feeling awful which is made even worse by being regulated to filing at work since I am the only temp that survived the chopping block last Friday. Ugh. Which brings me to the sinus infection. I was having a horrible day at work today...the constant up/down of filing was playing a number on my head. I was feeling pressure and my ears and cheekbones were killing me. I finally tell them that I have to go to CVS Minute Clinic on my lunch break and I don't know when I'll be back. There was no wait and it was a fairly thorough exam, BP, temp, heart rate, listened to my lungs, checked my ears, pressed on my sinuses, etc. and she said that I had fluid behind my ears and a severe sinus infection. I must say that her exam was more thorough than the ER visit that cost us $160+ back in October. So I highly recommend them if you have something like a sinus infection, strep, etc. They take our insurance so I only had to pay the co-pay but it would be $59 out of pocket if you didn't have insurance. So I grab my prescriptions, a new toothbrush and some Afrin and head home. I called my workplace and asked her if I could just go home for the rest of the day...I was heading home even if she said no...I just wanted to lay my weary head down and not make it worse by filing some more. So I get home, eat lunch, take my pills and laid down. I was passed out by 2:45 PM and woke up around 6:15 PM when Jon and Emma came home. I was feeling much better but still not great so Jon cooked some chicken soup and we all laid around this evening.

That is why I am up and unable to sleep at 1:10 AM. I just took my second antibiotic and some more Advil so hopefully I can whoop this thing. Jon is working the ACT tomorrow so it is Emma & Mommy time tomorrow. :) I am hoping to feel up to cleaning and sanitizing the house in the morning during Emma's nap. I really don't want this "crud" lingering in our family! I also need to print a few Valentine's Day cards and get them ready to mail. I still haven't finished creating Jon's collage on Shutterfly of the pics I took of Emma for his Valentine's Day. I am so late...it will be at least 3 days for it to ship to me! I wish Walmart or Walgreens carried better styles so I could just pop them out there...I am just not crazy about their designs but it might come down to that though.

Emma's FREE tee that I won from MODKID came on Monday! She had a giveaway and I won so I had her also create a skirt and kerchief to complete the set. It is so much more than I expected - I love it! I am kind of bummed that it has just sat on Emma's dresser for 5 days now. I am hoping to put it on her for a photo shoot tomorrow or at least snap a few pics when I dress her in it for church on Sunday! Thanks Patty and I'll be sure and post pics soon!

I really ought to be uploading pics right now. I need to add some pics to my Louisville post...I have some of my layouts, Mom & Emma, Dad & Emma, the Louisville Slugger Museum, etc. I noticed that my blog is starting to seriously be lacking in photos so I hope to correct that soon. I am in need of a blog makeover! My profile picture is from like May last year. I promise I'll try to correct that soon. I need a new pic of Emma & I!

Speaking of Emma...she is such a big girl this week. We finally turned her carseat front-facing on Saturday. She has a Britax and they recommend rear-facing until 33 pounds but she is getting so hard to put in there. She pushes up against the backseat so you have to struggle to strap her in. She seems to love seeing out the windshield now! I snapped a few pics of her asleep in it the other day so I'll add them here. We also just started letting her sit at the table with her booster seat. She was fighting the highchair so I gave up and strapped our travel booster to our dining room chair and she loves it. She looks so little at the big table though! We also just bought her a "real" pillow for her bed. Nana had given her two small pillows but she always looks uncomfortable, half on it when we wake her up. So I was at Target and scoped out a thin, airy, $2.94 standard pillow for my sweet girl...finding a pillowcase was a lot harder. They didn't have any plain pillowcases and the pink pair didn't match her room (plus it was $10.98 for two!) and I was about to give up when I found single fluffy looking pillowcases for $3.99 that was in the dorm room section. lol It is fluffy on one side and satiny on the other...Emma loves "silky" blankets and it was bright pink so it was perfect. She loves it! She carries it around and plops it on the floor with her blanket to make a pallet to watch Kipper and Elmo.

She is still "demanding" our bathroom for her baths and it is so cute and hard to deny her. She also used the potty again once this week. She seems to really notice when she goes and lets us know when she is wet sometimes so I think we might try to really push the potty training here in the next few weeks. :) It is so much fun watching her learn and comprehend. She watches me put on lipstick and powder and mimics me. She is all about making sure she has on her necklace, bracelet, etc. She was wearing a red and white outfit the other day and wanted shoes on. I just grab a pair of slippers that are blue to put on her (we're just at home) and she cried no and pulled her red MJ's out of her closet. Jon said...that's my girl, you tell silly Mommy that you want to match. lol If you ask her to grab a yellow ball, she comes back with a yellow ball. If you ask her where are her boots, she comes back in here wearing her boots (most times on the correct feet!) If she sees football players, it is "Go Coles" (even when it was the Giants in the Super bowl.) lol At least a Manning won! There are so many more things like this that I can't post them all but it is so cool to know all that she understands at just 19 months. I love it!

Well, it is now 1:37 AM and I am finally tiring so I best be off to bed. I am sure Emmacakes will wake up when Jon leaves at 6:15 AM!

**By the way...thanks for reading my ramblings. :)

Tornadoes rip through Tennessee...

2008-02-07T10:42:00.000-06:00

but thankfully calmed down by the time they reached us. We had some pretty serious lightning and wind but everything is intact here. It was pretty disgusting weather from around 9:00 PM until around 3:00 AM. The worst hit our area around 2:00 AM and we went to bed with the TV on so I woke up to the waether. The storm/tornadoes leveled a few buildings in Memphis, Jackson, Castilian Springs, Hendersonville, Fairview and some other towns that I cannot think of at the moment. They said that 24 people lost their lives in the storms. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those families affected by the weather. It is so hard to believe that we keep having this horrible storms in November and February...it is not even tornado season.

Our Valentine's Day photo shoot

2008-02-03T18:31:00.000-06:00

I found this adorable "I love Daddy" outfit at Gymboree last week. I had planned on painting some wooden X's and O's red but I didn't have time. Emma & I did an impromptu photoshoot while Daddy was out running an errand today. She cooperated for the most part and I got quite a few great shots! I am planning on making Jon a Valentine's Day photo card from Emma with these. There are a few more but I couldn't figure out how to turn them in Photobucket so I just took them out. Enjoy!

Little Stinker!

2008-01-31T15:42:00.000-06:00

I just put Emma in the bathtub with me one night last week when she was sickly. She took a bath in our bathtub again the next two nights just because her body wash, shampoo and a few toys were already in there so it was easier. I moved all her goodies back to her bathroom (our 19 month old has "her own bathroom" lol) and took her diaper off to give her a bath Friday night. She shook her head no at me and trodded her bare bottom across the house to our bathroom...nodded her head yes, pointed at our tub and said "baaaaaa" with a big grin on her face. Little stinker!

Fun times & frustration

2008-01-30T14:06:00.000-06:00

We went up to Louisville, KY this past weekend to meet my parents. We have done this a few times but this is the first time we stayed overnight...so much better! We went to the Oxmoor Mall and spent about an hour in the Archivers store while Emma ran her energy off with Papa on the indoor playground. I so wish we had an Archivers here! We then grabbed a late lunch at Olive Garden (yummo!) and headed to the hotel. It was pretty nice for the price except that the indoor pool area was closed for maintenace but they credited us $20 for it. Mom & I were able to scrapbook some and Emma went "exploring" around the hotel with Papa. We also went down to the Louisville Slugger Muesem for Jon on Sunday. It is amazing that all the Louisville Slugger bats in the world are made right there in that small factory. Emma loved her new "baby bat" that they gave her but it was taken away about 10 minutes later for hitting Mommy! We headed to the Texas Roadhouse in Elizabethtown, KY before heading our separate ways. I took my wallet out of the diaper bag to show Mom...she needs a small wallet/change purse and I love the one I finally found at Target a few months ago.

Anyways, I think my license must have somehow slid out in their parking lot. I have looked everywhere in the car and here...I know it was there because it was in my wallet when I showed it to Mom. I called up there to see if it was turned in and the girl said no. I am hoping maybe someone found it and dropped it in the mail to me. I was going to go get a duplicate made but I have misplaced my social security card (the one I got after we were married with my name change) so I need to dig through everything in our desk to find it. I found where I can do it online but you have to enter your drivers license number, social and last name. Do you know your drivers license number without having it in front of you?! I did find it by going through our online banking until I found a check with it written on it! So, now I will have a new drivers license mailed to me within the next 20 days.

This gets me to the frustration. I went to Gymboree on my lunch break yesterday to check out their big $4.99 sale...I didn't find anything good in the sale but I did fall in love with their Valentine's Day outfit. I spent more than I should have on a shirt, pair of pants and hair clippies. The checkout girl asked for my ID...I told her the story of losing it in KY and she said thats fine, I've seen you in here before. I decide to use this adorable "I love Daddy" outfit for a surprise photoshoot with Emma and I go to Hobby Lobby today. I wanted to get red paint and some wooden X's and O's as props. I go to check out and explain the ID thing and give her my drivers license number...she says she cannot accept that and calls a manager over who reiterates the same thing. So I leave...prop less. I understand asking for ID and I prefer cashiers to ask for my own safety but I also understand giving a person the benefit of the doubt. Would I seriously be using a stolen card for $8.28? I spent six times that amount at Gymboree and they were understanding about my problem. I have also been in this Hobby Lobby at least 6-8 times a month in the last year. So I am now thinking that I should just return the Gymboree outfit, that I shouldn't have bought in the first place, and forget about the whole Valentines photoshoot idea. This is going to be the longest 20 days.

Better pictures!

2008-01-29T10:05:00.000-06:00

Jon had a nice Olympus digital camera when we married. It has been slowly dying on us the past few months. We decided that we would like to get a digital SLR camera and started comparing the Nikon D40 and the Canon Rebel XT. I love all the info I was able to find on my "blog friends" websites. We put some Christmas money towards the Nikon D40 and a Speedlight flash. We have yet to do an actual "photo shoot" with Emma yet but I think we will be amazed by the quality when we do!

I have always had an interest in photography and my parents bought me a Canon Rebel and two lenses for my 16th and 18th birthdays. I would love to use it more but film is so expensive compared to digital prints! I took photography in high school and also did photography in 4-H for two years. I love my Nikon Coolpix and it takes great snapshots but I can't wait to get more use out of the D40. Anyways...hopefully you will start to see better pictures (like Emma's 1st haircut) on here soon.

Jon with his Christmas present!

Tall cup of heaven for a sickly Mommy

2008-01-22T14:35:00.000-06:00

Jon kept Emma home again yesterday since he was off work for the holiday. I was at work with a slightyly sore throat and was sneezing like crazy. I woke up this morning about 5:00 AM and coughed so hard that I gagged and got sick. Not a fun feeling on an even more sore throat. I woke Jon up and told him that I was not going to work...I was feeling way too yucky. So I called and got a 9:30 AM appointment to see our doctor's nurse practioner and I packed up Emma and was off to their office. We were there from 9:28 AM until 11:04 AM! Emma was so over that little room about 20 minutes after we were showed into the room. Do you know how hard it is to be achy and sickly and chase a toddler around a room?! "Baby, don't touch that...Emma don't open that...Punkin, please do not touch that...please step away from the door." It was so much more than not fun.

It was torture with a pounding head and an aching body. Emma was so protective of me as they took my blood pressure and weight and everything though. It was like don't touch my momma! She is not particularly fond of doctor's offices especially three times in a week. She prescribed me a decongestant and an antibiotic...it was off to the pharmacy in the cold, nasty rain. She said it would be at least 45 minutes so I run through Sonic to get Emma a little something. They mess up and do not give us the tots I ordered...just fries so she would not eat them. She munched on her sandwich and apple juice. I wanted something warm on my throat but I am so not a big coffee fan. I do the gas station cappacino's every now and again but only because they are not overly coffee tasting plus they are less than a $1! Since Emma was with me and the weather was so gross, I decided to do Starbucks...they have a drive thru. I had no clue what most of the menu meant so I ordered a Tall Caramel Spiced Cider...it was heaven in a cup! I might even have Jon bring me another one when he gets home.

We finally get the prescriptions and head home...so thankful that we can pull in the garage and stay out of the weather. Emma was coughing by this time so I came in and gave her a breathing treatment which is getting harder and harder to do, little stinker! Anyways...she is down for a nap and I think I am going to join her. I want to sleep even though I know the house needs cleaned and even sanatized after all this sickness! It will have to wait...I have a baby to go snuggle.

The Cakes is sick.

2008-01-21T05:27:00.000-06:00

Emma has been feeling under the weather since about Tuesday evening. Jon stayed home with her on Wednesday and took her to see the doctor. She has a viral infection and croup and is 25 lbs 5 oz fully dressed! He prescribed her an oral steroid to help with her lungs and breathing tube to open up. We also bought a humidifier for her room. She seemed to be feeling a little better on Thursday so I went ahead and took her to the sitter. She called me about lunchtime and said that Emma had gagged at lunch and gotten sick but was immediately fun so not to worry about coming to get her until after work. I get there at 5:15 to pick her up and she looks miserable. She is clammy and whiny. The sitter said she just started acting clingy and whiny about 5:00 when she changed her diaper. She did not want to let go of me to get in her carseat. It made me feel horrible to drive home listening to her whimper knowing she just wanted Mommy to hold her. I was upset at myself for not having Jon just stay home with her again. My Mommy guilt was compounded when Emma got sick all over herself and me as soon as we were home.

He stayed home with her on Friday and he said she was playing and running around most of the day. She didn't want to eat anythign until that evening when she ate 2 1/2 eggs! We had her 1st haircut scheduled for 9:30 AM on Saturday but she was miserable again when she woke up that morning. She had a 103 fever and her cough was back but it was a different sounding cough, not as barky as before. We went ahead and took her, all bundled up, since it was three appointments and a little late to just cancel! She was so good during her haircut but you could tell she was not feeling good. All day Saturday and into the night was about the same...we kept up with her medicine and had her sleeping on the Boppy so she was more upright.

We took her to the on-call doctor at our pediatrician's office on Sunday at the suggestion of the Vanderbilt's nurse triage that answers their off hours calls. She now has a severe upper respiratory infection, croup and an ear infection. She is also down to 24 lbs 14 oz fully clothed. My poor baby has lost 6 oz with all this yuck going on. They gave her a breathing treatment on the spot and checked her oxygen level to make sure she was getting enough. They sent us home with the machine (it looks like a duck) and three more prescriptions. She is not doing very well with the oral medicine...she is so over being sick...but she is actually asking for the breathing treatments. I think it is because of how much easier she can breathe after them. I can feel how "rattley" and wheezy she is and how much better she sounds as she is taking the treatments.

Luckily, Jon is off today for the holiday so Emma has another day here at home with Daddy. I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes and if she is feeling better then its back to the sitter.

Emma's 1st Haircut!

2008-01-19T21:41:00.000-06:00

Before:

After:

She trimmed up Emma's "bangs" and tried to even up the back. It was getting a little on the wild side and almost a mullet in the back. lol I had caught Emma using her palm to push her hair out of her face lately so I really do not mind her having bangs now. She just looks so much older! I hope I can still use the adorable clippies to sweep her hair off to the side though. We saved her hair clippings so I can scrapbook her first haircut. The hair she was born with is gone now...she is officially a big girl.

She was so good. She just sat on my lap and let her cut. It may have helped a little that she has been sick for three days and is not nearly as active as usual. I hope she gets over this croup funk soon...

Say cheeeeeeeeese!

2008-01-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

Emma has started doing this thing, this look, whenever I pull out my camera. It is sweet and silly and cheesy! She has done it the past two days. It is like she tilts her head and leans out towards me with a goofy look on her face. I have snapped her doing this three times. I will upload the pictures tonight when I get home from work. Here's hoping that she will be ready for Portrait Innovations on Sunday!

California Baby!

2008-01-06T16:35:00.000-06:00

I must blog about their products for a few minutes. Emma has "winter skin" which is pretty much like ezcema but her doctor said it isn't actual ezcema.

This is an extreme close-up of my adorable Emma Cakes on Christmas morning for a reference. My poor baby's skin!

We wash all of our clothes in Tide Free and use Publix brand of the Bounce Free dryer sheets. We also wash her in Aveeno Creamy Body Wash and wash her hair with the Aveeno Head to Toe stuff every other evening. We slather her in Aveeno Soothing Cream after her bath and each morning. I have seen the California Baby products at Target and Publix but they are pricier than the Aveeno. She has rough, red patches on her chin, right cheek, left shoulder and her lower back. We were picking up some groceries at Publix the other night so I splurged on the California Baby Calendula Cream. It was $11.49 for a SMALL jar but I have used Kiehl's Calendula face wash before and it really seemed to help. We have been rubbing it on her face for two days now, about three times a day, and it is looking so much better!

Side note: It was great timing to try since we had an appointment at Portrait Innovations this afternoon to get Emma's 18 month portraits. She was not having any part of that though so after about 20 minutes of trying to get her to sit, they rescheduled us for next Sunday. Hopefully by then her face will be perfect again!

I keep trying to figure out if something she is eating is triggering this redness but she eats a lot of the same stuff she always has. This morning she had the white goldfish and apple juice and her chin became very raw again so we are going to go back to the regular goldfish. Anyways...I'm sorry to ramble...I just wanted to say that I love California Baby and I want to try their baby wash too!

Christmas,The Aquarium, and etc pictures!

2008-01-05T09:10:00.000-06:00

We have been so busy lately that I've barely had time to do anything, let alone, blog. lol I like to blog here so that everybody, here and away, gets to keep up with us. So I'm going to make this one big picture blog.

Let's see...there's Christmas Eve at our house with Jon's parents and grandparents, Christmas Day at his Aunt Sally's house (in the outfit Granny made for her!), out at Opry Mills with my parents, we took Emma to lunch at the Aquarium out there, Emma in her new sweater and hat from Nana, playing in our yard last weekend, and I'm really not sure what else I am going to add...so many memories. I am definitely loving having a small camera to carry around in my purse! Enjoy!

Look - Nana's got Peytonn on her phone!

Mommy...where has ketchup and fries been my whole life?!

Jon & Emma checking out the fish at the Aquarium restaurant.

Emma loved the fish tank. She didn't even eat lunch!

A quick snap of us by the waiter.

Emma was about to fall asleep but she had to ride the carosel.

Papa pushing Emma around the yard. Zoom zoom!

Her expression cracks me up. What's going on with my big, red car?!

Who knew an empty Pampers box could be so fun?!

Out shopping at Michael's with her new cart cover. :)

Goofy girl! There's nothing like a bowl of scrambled eggs on your head.

Daddy let me touch the ceiling...12 times! lol She needs a haircut!

Emma & Great Aunt Sally on Christmas Day.

***More to come...Emma needs me! I'll try to upload some more this evening. It'll be Emma overload!***

Doesn't everyone wear a tutu on their head?!

Our latest family portrait.

Look at P...he can stand!

Santa was not popular this year. Emma loved him last year at not quite 6 months!

She seemed to like the snow...just not the bundling up!

Kelsey and her adorable gift Mom found at Christmas Village.

Look at that smile...she loves the vacuum!

Our Christmas tree! This is the 2nd one...the first one "fell" over and broke.

Our shelf above the couch serving as a makeshift mantle.

Emma on Christmas morning.

Emma opening presents with Aunt Sara.

Emma loves her new beanie and slippers. So cute!

...and they thought clothes would be a boring gift for her. lol

Having Diggie read a book to her.

Alvin...Simon...Theodore!

2008-01-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

The new Chipmunks movie is so cute. I wanted to see it so we decided to take Emma to her 1st movie! I must say it was quite the adventure from the moment we pulled in the parking lot. There were cars everywhere...I let Jon out to go get the tickets and then circled the lot for an eternity. This elderly lady made me jump the curve coming at me clear over in my part of the road! We finally get parked and we grab Emma and run inside...it is like 25 degrees outside. Jon gets a large Coke and popcorn and we are off to the movie. Emma loves the little lights in the theater and spots some other kiddos to point and wave too. She starts getting fussy during the trailers so Jon grabs her and the Coke to get a refill right as the movie is coming on. Well...he gets back goes to sit her down and drops the Coke over her head as the lid popped off as he was holding it. Emma screams, Coke is everywhere. The Chipmunks start to sing...Emma sits down in my lap...all is good again. Jon decides to go grab another refill and comes back slips on the spilled Coke in his Crocs that have no traction and lands on his butt on the cement step. I feel horrible and ask him if he just wants to go home...he says no but he is writing off Coke refills! Other than that it was an enjoyable movie...like usual the funniest parts were shown in the trailers but it was still fun...Emma fell asleep about halfway through. She would have loved their concert scenes though!

Here's Emma right before she started getting antsy and Jon got stressed out I told him its a kid movie and people expect to hear a baby talk or fuss...nothing to get upset about. lol Their was a little boy that ran up and down the steps on the other side most of the movie. Who cares!

What is your New Year's Resolution?

2008-01-01T13:09:00.000-06:00

Mine is simply...organization. If we become more organized then we will spent less money on frivolous things at the store because we will have a list. Which will lead to less stressing over money. That is my theory anyways! I am hoping that 2008 will be a great year and I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

It has been a whirlwind few weeks. We spent a few days in Indiana having an early "Christmas" celebration with my family. We even managed to get "snowed in" while there which was a nice change! Emma really enjoyed watching the snow come down and the few times we played outside in it. She was smitten with her new toys and clothes that she was spoiled with...Nana even found her some red cowboy boots! We enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping too. We hosted a dinner at our house with most of Jon's family on Christmas Eve. Emma enjoyed opening some of her presents! She wanted to wear a new shirt as pants and immediately wanted to "weed" her new Curious George books. She received an adorable beanie and booties set that was so cute on her! It seems that her Little People House and SUV are her new favorite toys from Christmas Eve.

Jon, Emma and I went to the 11:00 o' clock candle light service at church on Christmas Eve. It was so nice to be reminded of the true meaning of Christmas and enjoy some quiet time with Emma snuggled up on my lap rocking in the cry room. The program was laying in the room so I used it as a book while rocking Emma. I would ask her "Where is baby Jesus?" and she would point to him and the angels, etc. She is getting so smart and becoming such a little girl. What happened to my baby?!

We woke up early on Christmas Day and let Emma open her presents. We had gone a little overboard again this year...clothes, shoes, Kipper DVD, Little Leaps game system and games, Little Touch Leap Pad and books. Jon and Emma were playing with the Little Leaps last night and it is really neat and interactive. I knew she would love it because she loves playing with remotes and Jon's Playstation controls. lol We spent most of Christmas Day in Nashville with Jon's family...brunch was yummy and dinner was ham, rolls, and chili.

It is hard to believe that it has all came and went already. I love this time of year. We do still have a few more days of fun though...Nana and Papa are coming to visit this weekend!

I found this on Love's blog...

2007-12-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

First Corinthians 13 Christmas Version

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows,
strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls,
but do not show love to my family,
I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen,
baking dozens of Christmas cookies,
preparing gourmet meals and
arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime:
I'm just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen,
carol in the nursing home,
and give all that I have to charity;
but do not show love to my family,
it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes,
attend a myriad of holiday parties
and sing in the choir's cantata,
but do not focus on Christ,
I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the spouse.
Love is kind, though harried and tired.
Love does not envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love does not yell at the kids to get out of the way,
but is thankful they are there to be in the way.
Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return;
but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
and endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break,
pearl necklaces will be lost,
golf clubs will rust,
but giving the gift of love will endure.

--Author Unknown

Goodness...two days until Christmas!

2007-12-23T09:06:00.000-06:00

I have so many pictures and things to say but there just isn't enough time. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip to Indiana last weekend...8" of snow! It made me miss "home" more than ever...there is just something about being snowed in. lol Enjoy!

Our To Do List...

2007-12-09T08:42:00.000-06:00

Hang the icicle lights around the porch
Go to the Christmas Parade in town
Wrap presents and get them under the tree
Finish Christmas shopping
Send out the rest of our Christmas cards
Upload pictures from Opryland and blog about it
Oil change and tire rotation...a wee bit overdue now!
Put up the rest of my Upper Case Living order
Promote my little Close to My Heart business (new catalog!)

A scene from a movie...

2007-12-05T06:40:00.001-06:00

Crummy...it is just plain crummy to take away annual bonuses and not say anything to your employees until about a week before they would have been receiving them. We could have really used that money this year to get to a better place financially and to get the Nikon D80 camera that we have been looking at online for a few months. Please don't get me wrong...I am very thankful and very grateful for our good health, our beautiful baby girl, our family, our friends, our jobs, and the wonderful roof over our heads. It's just that a little bit of financial peace would have been good too.

It was such a bah humbug of a day yesterday with that whole lack-of-a-bonus news and little E*Cakes has been battling a 102.7 fever most of the evening. I think her fever finally broke overnight and Nanny is only keeping her these days so I won't have to worry about keeping her home and missing work too. She said to just bring her on over if I wanted to. I am wondering if I shouldn't call her doctor and get her an appointment to make sure she doesn't have an ear infection or something. I don't like seeing my little punkinhead sick...I do admit that I love how cuddly she gets though!

Christmas card picture...success!

2007-12-03T06:36:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas time.

2007-12-02T04:29:00.000-06:00

I love the reason for the season. I love the decorations. I love the smells. I love the time spent with family and friends. Can you believe there are only 23 days until Christmas?!

Emma was fun last year. She was a squirming, happy baby and it was fun. This year...is going to be more than fun. She is going to be a blast...and scared of Santa. I hope to take her to the Santa on Frankfort's square again this year. Maybe he won't be as scary. lol We took pictures of each other with Emma in front of our partially decorated tree. We still need to find a nice angel topper for our tree!

We put up our tree on Tuesday night. We have a small, artificial tree so it needed to "sit" and expand and be fluffed for a day or two. We decorated it on Thursday night. We bought the round LED lights that do not get hot and they are so much brighter than the normal lights. Emma has been in awe of the tree, the lights, the ornaments, the snowglobes around the living room and the BIG one in our yard. She cried when she had to come inside after watching it for 15 minutes in the cold outside! We are going to string the icicle lights around our porch this afternoon and hang the wreaths that Granny gave us on the two front windows.

We have only had two bad moments with Emma and the tree...the other night she walk right up to the tree and jerked on the branches, almost tipping it over on herself. She has also pulled an ornament and the beads off...we put her in time out and so far, so good. She looks at the tree and doesn't touch. If it happens again, I think we might put the baby gate in front of the tree between the two couch's arms to take away the temptation altogether.

We need to take some Christmas pictures of Emma for our Christmas cards today. I have been wanting to take them for two weeks now and my coupon for 20 FREE cards has expired now. We have a little Santa dress that I bought for like $3 the day after Christmas last year. I bought her some adorable red shoes at the Children's Place last week to go with it too. The only bad thing is that Emma's poor little cheeks are broken out badly. She scratched her left cheek on Tuesday evening in her sleep (it was pretty deep) and I have kept a band-aid over it, we rotate between Backyardigans and Elmo. I think she may be allergic to the band-aids! She has two big red bumpy patches where the band-aids were...it also doesn't help that she has horribly sensitive skin in the wintertime too. I have rubbed her Aveeno cream on her cheeks the past two days so I hope it looks better today so we can take some pics!

I'll try to upload the BIG snowglobe pictures soon!

It has been a whirlwind week!

2007-12-02T03:01:00.000-06:00

Jon's parents and his sister Sara came over for dinner on Tuesday night. Jon made chicken and dumplings and it was quite yummy...not as yummy as Granny's though. Emma enjoyed visiting with them and then we had to pack up for our trip.

We headed home to Indiana for Thanksgiving and traffic was heavy. Emma was a very content passenger watching Elmo and the Wiggles DVD's and calling out for “Nana” and “Papa” most of the way. She did not sleep for even a second of the seven hour drive! We had a great laidback dinner on Thursday evening around 4:00 PM and we all stuffed ourselves. Kelsey, Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Toni and the boys came over that evening too.

We decided to do something crazy and go out shopping Friday morning at 5:00 AM! We met Den, Courtney and Peytonn at the Mall around 7:00 AM after we had been to Wal*Mart and Menards. Would you believe that the craziest store of all was…Menards?! We overheard a guy in line behind us at the Disney Store say that people were throwing punches over stuff at Menards. What in the world? A sale is nothing to fight over! We found several awesome deals at Wal*Mart (the Little Leaps game...reg. $38.88 on the blitz for $20 plus an extra game!), The Children’s Place (25% off storewide plus my 15% off coupon) and Gymboree (30% off storewide plus my 20% off coupon). I love a good sale…maybe a little too much. lol It was fun though but I don’t know that we’ll ever live it down with Dad. He thinks we are all certifiably crazy! I had my camera with me but I totally forgot to snap a picture of us out at the Mall. Emma was passed out in her stroller for most of the morning and Peytonn was wide-eyed as can be. :)

We ran to Indy on Saturday to do our traditional "Build-A-Bear" with Emma and my parents. It was fun this year having Peytonn along! It was a moment to remember for sure. Emma was fussy when we got there (she is cutting THREE molars!) and Peytonn was getting sleepy. Emma created a bunny with Grandma while Peytonn created a monkey with Grandpa. Emma was more interested in getting her bunny shoes...she grabbed some pink Croc-like shoes, some brown boots and some pink boots. lol She ended up dressing her in a pink striped sweater, pink skirt and pink boots...then she had a meltdown and Grandpa took her outside for awhile. We name her Lucie. Peytonn's monkey was named Champ and was dressed as a Colts football player. Emma's bear from last year was a Colts cheerleader that we named Lizzie! We then headed over to BD's Mongolian restaurant for lunch. It was soooo yummy and Emma slept all the way through it. She doesn't know what she missed! Mom and I caught Kelsey in action at her game against Frankfort that evening...we left at half time though. It made me really wish that we could do things like that more often. I really can't believe she is a Junior too!

Amanda and Kaleb came over for a little while on Sunday morning before we headed out. It was great to see them again and Emma had fun sharing some Goldfish with Kaleb. We left around 12:30 PM to head home...Emma was sound asleep about two miles from their house. Traffic was heavy again and we stopped at Edinburgh for some lunch and I ran into the Crocs outlet since Emma was still asleep. She is such a Crocs girl...she woke up so Jon brought her in the store. She is so funny when she sees a wall of Crocs...she starts grabbing a pair in each color off the wall! She had blue, white and purple pairs in her arms within a minute of Jon setting her down. lol That is when I should have had my camera! We did get her a pair of pink/lavender sandals that I hadn't seen before for next summer. She has wanted to wear her Crocs three times this week since being at the store!

I think that about covers our four day weekend back home...can you believe it is now just 23 days until Christmas? Seriously...where has all the time gone?! I cannot wait to see the magic of the season reflected in Emma's eyes. It is going to be so much fun this year.

Handstitched Felt Hair Clippies

2007-11-28T03:50:00.000-06:00

Our special hair clippies arrived two days ago! I joined the GymboFriends forums in September and there are so many wonderful SAHM's over there that make hairbows for so much less than the boutiques around here and are so much better quality. I love the handstitched felt clippies on Emma and they stay in so much better but they are some of the most expensive ones and most of the ones I see are small flowers. We already have three...red, pink and purple. Anyways, back to Gymbofriends.

I discovered HappieMommie on there and she makes felt clippies! She had created some and posted them to a thread over there....mostly a bunch of made to match Gymboree clippies. We only have a handful of Gymboree clothing so I wasn't too crazy about most of the clippies so I asked her about some custom designs. She had offered an amazing price just for her gymbofriends so I was interested in a cookie to go along with our new GAP outfit, a Colts clippie, a hippo to match the Island Getaway stuff from Gymbo, a Christmas tree to match our pink dress from Belk's, etc. She said she would love to create some customs for me but to give her a little time. They arrived on Monday and I absolutely love them! Thank you Heather!!

I immediately had to put the Colts clippie in Emma's hair. It is so cute and exactly what I wanted! I love that they are a little bigger than the flower clippies we have...they seem so small on her now. I took a few pictures of her wearing it and one of all the clippies but I can't figure out how to upload pictures from my new camera. Jon! lol...he is asleep because it is 4:00 AM. I will add some pictures tonight when I get home from work. I know you will fall in love with them too and immediately have to go visit Happie Mommie at her new Etsy store!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5299965

There is seriously so much detail in these clippies...check out the ballerina slippers clippie in her store. Wow!

Elmo rocks, seriously!

2007-11-15T22:11:00.000-06:00

We have the DVD where Elmo is a rockstar...literally, a rock who sings with Elmo eyes but the show tonight seriously rocked. They were some booty shaking monsters! Emma had a great time as did we. She laughed, pointed, danced, clapped, rubbed her eyes and wimpered "Elmo bye bye" when he left the stage. As did about half of the kiddoes there. It was so fun to watch her react to what she was seeing on the stage. Our seats were really good because the auditorium was smaller than I expected it to be and they cut it in half with the stage in the middle. The show was made up of songs that we all knew...Rockin' Robin, The Hustle, the Alphabet Song, etc. :) Bert came out at one point in a white leisure suit like John Travolta! lol

Emma passed out on the way home and I carried her in and laid her on her big girl bed. I took off her skirt and changed her diaper...she didn't even stir! I had to take a picture. :)

I'll try to add some pictures to this post in the morning. I had a surprise tonight too...an early Christmas present from Jon's parents...they bought me the Nikon S200 Coolpix camera that I had been eying! It took some great pictures and it wasn't at all aggravating like our other camera! Thank you for this evening and for my new camera...I adore it and it's red! :)

New Teeth and a Big Girl Bed

2007-11-14T23:02:00.000-06:00

That is right...plural...Emma has two new teeth! I guess that explains the extreme moodiness last week. We knew she was cutting her second top tooth and it finally broke through the gum last night. Thank goodness for teething tablets and her teething necklace. We have seriously had to give her so much less Motrin this time around with the teething. Jon was looking at her tonight and noticed she has a bottom tooth on the side! Emma is offically a five chomper gal! :)

Please excuse the horrible coloring on this photo. I was way too close with the flash...Emma is definitely not that pale! She was hugging on Lizzie so I took advantage of the moment...we realized the tooth later! Can you see it?!

She also has a new big girl bed that is courtesy of Gamma & Papa (Emma's new names for Gramma & Grampa) this weekend. She has actually fallen asleep in it once and has slept all the way through the night in it three times (after being put there already asleep.) She doesn't even hop out of bed in the morning, she waits on us to come get her. She loves being able to climb up on her bed with her Boo Bunny, Lizzie and her books in the evening when we play in her room though. I have caught her in there "reading" several times.

Don't you just love the Colts bedding? We are going to keep using her bedding that Granny made because it goes with her room...pink, green and lavender but the Colts will stay on during football season! I can't believe how well she is doing with the big girl bed. She would scream every single time we tried to put her down in the crib...like please don't put me in that cage! She is now mama's little big girl and that is a little bittersweet. :)

Can you tell she just woke up? :)

Elmo Makes Music...LIVE!

2007-11-14T22:44:00.000-06:00

So tomorrow is the big day...Emma gets to see Elmo in real life! I am not exactly sure how great our seats are but it is going to be so much fun. I wonder how Emma will react to the lights going down and seeing Elmo running around on the stage below us (I think our tickets are in the balcony.) I have been telling her for two weeks now that she is going to see Elmo in real life. She says "Elmo mama?" and grabs one of her Elmo book and hands it to me. She will so totally "get" it tomorrow night! :) I am planning on fixing her hair up with the adorable new Elmo bow I found online for the concert. I hope our camera does not choose tomorrow night to be on the fritz again! I want to have pictures of the memories we will make at Emma's 1st concert! :)

Oh yeah...tomorrow is also Emma's 17 month birthday!

Go Colts!!

2007-11-04T05:08:00.000-06:00

I hope they kick some serious Patriot booty today! :)

Can you believe Emma wasn't even 7 months old yet in this picture?!

Trick or Treat!!

2007-11-01T22:11:00.000-05:00

I picked Emma up at the babysitter's house and headed to Nashville after work yesterday. She was not too keen on putting the Roo outfit on again...she liked it just laying beside her. I showed her the tail and she was ready to put it on! We went to Jon's parents' house first and Emma carried her big ol' pumpkin tub to the door like she knew what she was doing. :) We also tried to take pictures of her in front of their Halloween display but Emma was more interested in their little bitty pumpkin. She wanted it as her Trick or Treat...not her bucket of goodies! Grandmama had picked out a Leap Pad book, three kinds of puffs and a Thanksgiving bib. Thank you! She also did not really care for the whole aspect of giving out the candy to the trick or treaters either. She would cry when we would hand out some candy!

She was getting sleepy so we headed on over to Granny and Diggie's house before the Roo costume had to come off. She walked up to their porch carrying her pumpkin tub again only this time it had the mini pumpkin she swiped from Grandmama's display in it! I wish I would have thought and took a few pictures of her walking up but alas...I didn't think about it at the time. Granny had Emma a cute little stuffed pumpkin man and some yummy homemade snickerdoodles. Yummo! We really didn't get too many great pictures as our camera is still doing this annoying "buffer memory" thing and stalling out before taking a picture...if it even takes the picture!

Our camera actually went on a joyride last night, Jon left it on top of the car on the way to Granny's house and amazingly it was still up there! Needless to say...we are going to be getting a nice, new Nikon SLR camera for Christmas as our gift to each other. :) We have missed too many little moments lately due to this annoying, will it or won't it work, camera. I am too much of a picture person to not have pictures!

I think we might actually stick closer to home on Halloween next year and check out what our neighborhood has to offer. Get Emma out in her costume and wagon and go door to door just trick or treating and pass out some candy at home. It'll be fun because I think she will really "get it" next year!

Save, save, save!

2007-10-30T23:14:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching "Unwrapped" on the Food Network. They had a blurp about a lady names Teri who saves an insane amount of $$ on groceries using rainchecks, sales and coupons. She had a huge cartful of groceries that rang up at $293 and some change and after all the discounts came down to $79! She has a website where she tries to share all the information she has uncovered in her quest to be thrifty...I just came from her message board and it is so informative. Anyways, please check it out...I am going to try to put more than a few of her tips to good use since we spend entirely too much $$ on groceries!

The Grocery Game

4 Times a Tag!

2007-10-30T19:05:00.000-05:00

Please name FOUR things in each catergory and then tag FOUR fellow bloggers!

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life
(1) IGA Grocery cashier in high school
(2) Christmas help at Wal*Mart (what was I thinking?!)
(3) Financial Dept. Team Lead
(4) Admin Temp

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
(1) Sweet Home Alabama
(2) Toy Story
(3) Tommy Boy
(4) Friends on DVD

Four TV Shows I Like to Watch
(1) Grey's Anatomy (have never missed it!)
(2) Jon & Kate Plus 8
(3) Really anything on HGTV like Color Splash with David Bromstad, Divine Design, Design on a Dime, Househunters, etc.
(4) Really anything on Food Network like all the Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, and the Deen Boys shows

Four Places I Have Vacationed
(1) Niagra Falls
(2) Texas
(3) North Carolina
(4) Jamaica

Four of My Favorite Dishes
(1) Corn Casserole
(2) Spaghetti with meat sauce
(3) Poppy Seed Chicken with rice
(4) Dog 'n Suds footlong Coney (I want one now!)

Four Websites I Visit Daily
(1) Blogger
(2) Gymbofriends
(3) The Nest
(4) Myspace

Four Places I Would Rather Be
(1) Back home in Indiana
(2) Savannah, Georgia
(3) Austin, Texas
(4) New York City

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging
(1) Lovelyn
(2) Patty
(3) Chelsea
(4) Wendy

It finally feels like Fall! Some more random pics!

2007-10-27T22:44:00.000-05:00

Emma & I ventured out to the pumpkin patch again this morning along with Peyton & Noah. We actually had to wear a jacket this time!

I also tried to snap some pictures in front of our house this morning of Emma dressed up as Roo but she just wasn't in the mood for pictures.

We were out with Peyton, Noah, Ella and Cameron last weekend at Wilson County's Octoberfest. It was so warm out for October!

She was being sweet with Mommy and Daddy the other night...

Trying on her new coat...that is at least a size too big! We need to go exchange it at The Children's Place soon!

Oh yeah...Jon & I finally painted Emma's room today. It is a mint green color and we only painted the bottom half of her room. I can't wait to see it all come together in the next few weeks. My Mom & Dad are giving her a "big girl" bed and we are redecorating her room a little bit. I am also doing a massive closet reorganization at the moment too...so many cute clothes! I'll try to post a pic soon -- our camera is on the fritz so I have to catch it on a good day!

An update: Emma weighed 24 lbs 4 oz at her 15-18 month check-up on Thursday. She is in the 60th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height at 33 1/4" long! She also had three shots and she had a bad reaction to, we all assume, the flu shot. She was one miserable little baby by about 6:30 PM that night and I felt so bad for her. We spend the evening snuggling. :) Emma was feeling much better today...as you can see! Thanks for visiting us!

Look what Granny made Emma!

2007-10-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

Granny decided to make Emma this adorable cape, vest and pants to keep her mind off the breast cancer that she has been battling with surgery and radiation. She finished it up this past week and gave it to us last night. Isn't it amazing? The cape is trimmed in the same ultra-soft material as Emma's favorite blanket.

Can you tell that Emma loves it? We're so happy and thankful to see Granny feeling pretty good these days even though she is still fighting through the radiation blahs. She is the best Granny! :)

Louisville Zoo

2007-10-17T23:17:00.000-05:00

Guess who we saw on Sunday?! Peytonn! He is turning into such a little man. Our time went way too fast but I really enjoyed seeing them again. Emma was her usual hamming it up self. :)

We were all looking at the orangatans when one jumped down to take a better look at the two kiddos playing around in the window. Emma was a little shocked when she turned around to face a big monkey! He reminds me of the 80's movie, Harry and the Hendersons! lol

Just a few random pictures from the day at the Zoo. I need to finish uploading the rest of them but its late and I am finally getting sleepy. Yay!

By the way...Emma has become a great hand holder. :) She was very good about it at the Pumpkin Patch on Saturday, the Zoo on Sunday and today at Chik-Fil-A. Mommy's little big girl!

Forget Pebbles....Emma is gonna be Roo!

2007-10-17T23:05:00.000-05:00

I know it is not the typical girly Halloween costume but it is soooo us! We are postponing the Pebbles idea until next year...we found this adorable Roo costume at the Disney Store for only $7.99! I love Roo, I collect Roo figurines and stuffed animals. They are hard to find and up until two days ago, I didn't even realize this costume existed! Emma loves to point at our cabinet full of Roos and she also has one that she plays with in the bath tub. We also have three Pooh books that focus on Roo too so I think she'll love being Mama's little Roo for Halloween!

GAP Casting Call, Bath Time and the Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-13T20:25:00.000-05:00

We took Emma over to the Stones River Battlefield area for some fall pictures on Thursday evening. We took some great pictures and decided to enter the best five in the GAP Casting Call. I can't post the pictures here but you can see them by going to...

http://kodak.eprize.net/gapcastingcall

Just search the current gallery using my email address. For some reason the best two are not showing up yet. Hmmm...I must email them. Well, please keep your fingers crossed that the panel of judges finds Miss Emma*Cakes as adorable as we all do! The twenty finalists will be announced around October 30th and the voting begins on November 20th. You will vote for our Punkinhead, right?! Although...I am sort of thinking I should have waited and used a few of these! :)

I absolutely *love* this one. So sweet. It will be framed and hung in her bathroom soon.

We went to the pumpkin patch this afternoon and had an absolute blast. Grandma and Granddad enjoyed the pumpkin patch with us. Emma even picked out her own pumpkin and tried to pick it up several times then decided just to hug it until Mommy picked it up for her.

She was everywhere...busy as a bee...she wanted to pet a baby goat but it just wanted to sniff her Crocs so she pushed his head back in the fence. :)

I'll leave you with a few more fun snapshots from the pumpkin patch...

She didn't want to leave the tractors or the farm! Hmmm...maybe she's an Indiana girl at heart?!

Big news!

2007-10-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

Emma has been without a pacifier except for naps at her babysitter's house for nearly two weeks! We are still working on the bottle but I am so happy with how easy it was to just...stop giving it to her. She doesn't even look for it except for at naptime if you put her down in a crib (like at the babysitter's house.) I usually lay down with her on our bed until she falls asleep on the weekends or she passes out in her carseat. I love my little big girl!

Pictures!

2007-10-07T23:57:00.000-05:00

Is this Emma's way of confirming that she is ready for the big girl bed that Nay-Nay-Nay and Grampa just bought for her?!

Christmas in...October?!

2007-10-04T23:10:00.000-05:00

The Children's Place was having an incredible sale about a week ago online. A bunch of stuff was marked down to like $3-4 dollars and then a code to take an additional $10 off the total order over $30. I discovered this sale while I was at work so I was blocked from getting to actually see what was offered. Jon went to their online store and decided that it was too good of a sale to pass up so he ended up spending $34 with tax and shipping. I had almost forgotten about this when I noticed the small box on our doorstep as I pulled into our driveway! Jon had picked out some majorly CUTE stuff...it makes me sort of sad to have to put most of it in her closet for Christmas.

I also had scored some major CUTE stuff today at our Carter's Outlet on my lunch break. I went there looking for a pumpkin shirt for Halloween and the pink/chocolate butterfly shirt from the ill-fated Kohl's shopping trip to cheer me up. Shopping for Emma makes me happy. :) I also went looking to get some stuff for Peytonn's Christmas. They were having a huge sale in anticipation of moving across town to our new mall...like some shirts for $0.49 and $1.99 and some outfits were 70% off! I was disappointed that all of the adorable blue/chocolate stuff that I was looking at for Peytonn only went up to 9 months! I did leave with like four shirts, a skirt, a skort and a pair of pajamas for Emma*Cakes and it only set me back $22 with tax! We pretty much have her entire fall wardrobe covered in these two purchases...I was so happy with our finds and it didn't hurt the wallet too much. Now if only I could find the elusive "Kaiya Eve" style pettiskirt on the cheap!

Emma & I also exchanged the weirdly sized Old Navy jeans tonight too. I held them up to another pair like we have in 18-24 months that fit well (just a little long) and the size in this style was a 2T! Old Navy sizes definitely seem to run small since Emma is wearing mostly 12 months & 18 months stuff! A pair of pink sherpa boots caught her attention as I was comparing these jeans so I helped her try them on...so CUTE. The 18-24 mo were huge on her. Seriously...what is up sizing?! She did grab ahold of a completely adorable turqouise shirt that said "R is for Rock Star" so I let her get it. They were 2 for $12 so I held up the other styles to let her choose...she went for the "A is for Awesome" in grey/pink. :) I have such a smart, fashionable, adorable, precious girl and I love every minute I spend with her!

Have a mentioned that she knows where her nose is and where her toes are now? She is also becoming quite the little mimic and so expressive in her face...she even rolls her eyes sometimes! I also have to admit that I am beginning to tire of the "Wigs" ... she wants them on as soon as we get home and then she dances around the room. :) I'll try to upload a video of it whenever Jon gets the computer cleaned up. You'll smile...

Kohl's...I'm no longer a customer!

2007-10-03T21:33:00.000-05:00

They just opened a new Kohl's in Smyrna and I stopped by there after I picked up Emma tonight. I love Kohl's and today was their Grand Opening Sale but there was nothing grand about it. A good bit of stuff was marked 40-50% off and another 15% off if you used a Kohl's card. The employee greeter at the door did not say hello, welcome, want to open a Kohls card...nothing. There were no employees to be found in the childrens dept. and it took me forever to locate some adorable two piece pajama sets in 9-12 months for a boy! The employee at the front where they had the aisle partitioned off by the check outs was RUDE...she made me walk all the way back to the end when we ducked under it to get in line (no customers!) and the employee at the other end in turn made me go right back to where I was to get in line. This is really fun with a fussy toddler in a stroller and an armful of clothing! I had decided that I would go ahead and sign up for the Kohl's card to save a little on Christmas presents and they always harrass you to sign up for one when you go to check out anyways. Apparently not at this Kohl's, according to the clerk, the employee at the front door should have signed me up because "they do things differently here." Obviously, so I dropped my stuff on the counter and left....seriously. Are you kidding me? If this is how they treat customers at a Grand Opening then I do not want to be a customer. Three strikes and you're out...I didn't need to be out shopping anyways!

Nashville Flea Market

2007-10-02T06:57:00.001-05:00

Small Potted Bamboo...$3
Sunglasses...$4
Sterling Silver Necklace...$10

Time spent together as a family...priceless.

Noah T's Birthday Bash!

2007-09-29T22:03:00.000-05:00

We spent the afternoon at Noah's birthday party and Emmacakes had a blast. She picked out a pair of fur lined boots to wear and I tried to talk her into wearing her Puddle Jumper Mary Janes but she wanted the boots. So she wore the boots in our 90 degree heat for most of the party! I have to admit that it was very cute but we did manage to get her to change into the Mary Janes eventually because her poor legs were turning red!

Noah has one of those battery operated ride-on Hot Wheel racecars. At some point Emma managed to get on it while we were busy and took off! She was going in circles and we were trying to catch her...she even ran over Taylor's foot when she tried to catch her. I sooooo wish we would have had our video camera there. He had a pirate ship cake and a pirate pinata. Emma enjoyed the Dora sucker that he got out of it and gave to her. She was a sticky, sticky mess!

Happy Birthday, Noah T...er, I meant Spiderman!

Ever heard of Upper Case Living?

2007-09-29T18:53:00.000-05:00

I went to a friend's party the other night and I love this stuff! It is textured words, phrases and embellishments that you "rub-on" to walls, tiles, glass, etc. They are kind of like the rub-on transfers in scrapbooking only much bigger! They do custom phrases so we are getting "emma*cakes" in the echelon font and in bubblegum pink and mint green to hang above Emma's bed. We are about to redecorate her bedroom after Christmas when we get her a toddler bed. She hasn't tried to climb out of her crib or anything yet but it just had a recall on it. She is also becoming more "big girl" by the day...talking and picking out her own clothes...so we want to upgrade her room just a little. Like move out the changing table and the crib. It is unbelievable...where did my baby go?!

I am so excited to finally add some decorative touches to our house. We are getting "Love Lives Here" in a cranberry red color to put above our couch. I am planning on putting it directly on the wall and creating a frame around it. We've been looking for some kind of red artwork to put up there but have always came up emptyhanded so I think this will be the perfect unique touch. We also got "Watch for Falling Bubbles" in mint green to put across the top of the mirror in Emma's bathroom. There are so many other things that I'd love to get and place on tiles to hang around the house like in our bathroom and the laundry room. She has a whole book of examples showing how other people have decorated around their homes. I am so inspired!

Anyways, I am going to host a party with her on 11/11 at 2:00 PM so if you are interested in coming or ordering anything please let me know! :) By the way, the latest catalog is on their website at www.uppercaseliving.com and her name is Robyn McIsaac.

PS: Please check it out...it seems like something you would love, Love! :)

Whew...what a weekend!

2007-09-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

We met my parents in Owensboro, KY for my cousin's wedding this weekend. We left here around 4:30 PM on Friday and traffic was heavy through Nashville...we almost got sandwiched once! We made it there by about 8:45 PM and were going to meet Mom & Dad at the Texas Roadhouse near the hotel. We are BIG fans of the Texas Roadhouse and that is usually a staple restaurant when we meet somewhere.

Anyways, we get there and there is a wait so we are hanging out in the parking lot. I, assuming that my wonderful husband has the keys close the door with my purse in the backseat since I am carrying the diaper bag. I actually think twice about just throwing my keys in the diaper bag but go ahead and close the door. Not even twenty seconds later...Jon walks over asking if I have his keys...no way, no way, no way! Seriously...I am like borderline OCD when it comes to checking and rechecking that I have my keys and the doors are locked. My Dad immediately starts trying to get the door jimmied open but we cannot locate a flashlight and they call us to be seated. We all order and Emma is just not acting herself at all...suddenly she throws up all over my Mom so we rush her into the bathroom. She is burning up and we have nothing to change her into...I took her extra outfit out of the diaper bag since we brought a whole suitecase of clothes along for the trip. My poor baby...she has never been sick like this ever and of course we are in a strange town and have no access to our car or belongings! I was so happy that I had not left the diaper bag in the car...we at least had wipes, diapers and Motrin! They bring out our food so Mom goes to get Dad & Jon...Emma gets sick again so Mom asks them to just pack our food up to go. We hop in Mom & Dad's van and drive the 1/2 mile to the hotel.

I am sitting there cuddling my sick baby girl when a lightbulb goes off in my head...our car came with FREE road side assistance to 60,000 miles! So Jon gets on the phone with Kia and about another hour later he is in our car on the way back to the hotel. We got a dose of Motrin in Emma and got her to sleep but it wasn't very restful sleep. She must have picked up a bug at daycare and she is also cutting her top two teeth...too bad the amber teething necklace I ordered didn't arrive before we left. She was happy to snuggle with Grampa most of the weekend...he was enjoying every moment of it too...only wishing she wasn't sickly. She did enjoy the mirror in our hotel room...she was trying to figure out where the little girl kept going at the end of the wall. So cute. She did not care much for the pool but she did float in a time or two with Grampa just to splash around a little bit.

I think we have decided to write off any future weddings in Kentucky. Three years ago we went to his friend Pat's wedding and we had a tire blow out on the interstate. This time Emma gets crazy sick and we lock the keys in our car. Apparently, we do not mix well with Kentucky and weddings!

BTW, Jon stayed home today with Emma and took her to see the doctor. She thinks she is on the mend from a viral infection and suffering the effects of cutting two teeth (they are starting to poke through!) The teething necklace was in the mailbox when we got home last night so I put it on her...she slept so soundly and she also took a peaceful four hour nap today. I think this necklace is awesome...and its cute!

Some of the better moments from this weekend:

Okay...I am off to give my sleeping punkinhead a squeeeeeeeeeeze then head to bed. :)

Our Little Fashionista...

2007-09-20T20:57:00.000-05:00

Emma has one pair of jeans that I thought "fit" for this fall. They were from the Children's Place, size 12 months and pink lined. I put them on Emma on Tuesday and they were fugly! They were so ill fitting and definitely not a size 12 months! We bought them around last Christmas at an outlet store and she is now old enough to wear them and yikes! It was too horrid to even take a picture...the legs were the right length but the crotch was at her knees. I don't even know how to describe the sizing...a 2T waist with 12 month legs?!

It has been a little chilly in the mornings lately so I decided I would splurge and get her a new pair of jeans. Old Navy had them marked down to $9.90 when I was there today so I picked up two pairs. The weird sizing "cloud" must have followed me to Old Navy. Both pairs were marked 18-24 months and were within an inch or so of the same length. One pair fits perfect (a little big) and the other pair won't even button up with Emma in them! So it looks like they will be going back tomorrow. The other pair was soooo cute on her!

She went to her closet and pulled out a black boot and a brown shoe. Silly girl...she wanted Mommy to put them on her. She amazingly had both a left and a right so I obliged her request.

Its funny...I just told Jon today that it looks like we need to retire the hippo dress since it was getting short on her. I kind of like how it looks with her jeans though. I might need to pop a seam around the middle and let her wear it like this. Hmmmm...I love my little fashionista!

I found the perfect color!

2007-09-19T21:38:00.000-05:00

So I color my hair about 2-3 times a year and I try to keep it about my natural color, dark brown. It is sooo hard to find the right hair coloring...most of the time it ends up with a hint of too much red. I've tried a different brand each time since the one I started out using was discontinued about two years ago. This time I tried Feria Espresso tonight from reading a tag on Chelsea's blog the other day. It is perfect! There is almost no sign of red in it...it almost seems like it has highlights in just the right places. I love it!

Now I need a pedicure...and a real haircut. I am getting myself out of my blahness funk slowly but surely. I want to be a hot mom. lol

Wordless Wednesday - Sweet Feet

2007-09-19T06:44:00.001-05:00

Saturday

2007-09-16T08:54:00.000-05:00

We had one successful morning of taking the sippy cup of milk instead of the bottle! By 10:15 AM, she was getting sleepy and wanted her "baba" so I let her have it so she would take a nap with me. I have a feeling this is going to be a long road. The funny thing is that she'll take her sippy cup with water, juice, anything but milk and drink it happily but she gets stubborn and only takes a few sips from it if its milk. Ugh! Any suggestions? She is also very stubborn and will only take two kinds of sippy cups...the NUK Trainer Cup and the Playskool Straw Cup. Two cups that are hard to find in stores around here so we have to make sure we always bring them along!

How do you...

2007-09-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

cover up your black eye?! With spaghetti sauce and make a shampoo mohawk to distract from bruise. Ding, ding, ding!

How do you fall asleep?! By evading bedtime and snuggling with Mommy in favor of curling up in between the rocker and couch with your bottom in the air. Ding, ding, ding! Such a silly girl!

Pictures

2007-09-13T19:18:00.000-05:00

We scored an almost new Maclaren stroller on Craigslist last week and Jon picked it up on Friday. He got home late and set it up in the living room for me to check out. I *love* it and so does he...he doesn't have to hunch over to push it! The next morning Emma woke up and toddled in there and pointed like "what is that?" and had to check it out as soon as she got dressed.

Jon's parents asked us to join them and Granny & Diggie at Millers Grocery on Saturday night for dinner. It is this yummy restaurant that is less than five minutes from our house. Emma likes it because there is always a live bluegrass band when we go so she can dance around. Here are a few pictures of her with Grandmama and Granddad. Also...Emma*Cakes has a big surprise coming on November 15th...they got us tickets to go see Elmo LIVE!

We also had Patrick's birthday dinner at Granny's on Sunday evening and he got some Colts gear so we dressed Emma in her jersey too. The last picture is mostly for Tatum, if Mom ever has a chance to show her my blog. :o) They were flower girl and ring bearer at our wedding and were a little sweet on each other...

Emma *loves* spaghetti so we strip her down to her diaper and let her eat up. She ends up a tomato-ey mess but her tummy gets full and she is so fun to watch with it. I love these moments.

She has also started "dancing" slong to the Wiggles...seriously doing what they do. Touch your head, spin around, stomp your feet, shake your arms. It is amazing. I tried to catch her in action but she started showing off by running around me like crazy so I couldn't get any better pictures that this. I am amazed by how much she picks up from the show and playing with Peyton at Nanny's house each week. This is the best stage right now...it is literally something new each and every day.

Here is a not so great one of Emma & I using our new sling. I love the color. She is becoming a big time clingy girl and this make its much easier to get some cleaning chores done.

It fits much better than my other Lucky Baby sling...another sign that I need to lose weight big time. This medication that I have been put on for PCOS has made me so incredibly nauseous every time I eat so I have been having tiny meals so hopefully I'll start seeing some results soon! I'll try to post again soon because we got some cute ones of Emma with a shampoo mohawk in the tub tonight. I love her so much!

I need some help!

2007-09-13T18:25:00.000-05:00

I have had this idea swirling around in my head to create a Pebbles costume for Emma's second Halloween. She was the usual pumpkin last year since she was like four months old and I wanted to follow the tradition of the baby pumpkin idea. She was a cuuuuute pumpkin I might add...especially since she is affectionately known as "our lil' punkinhead." The octopus costume was very hard to pass up so we decided she would be it this year when she would be toddling or walking which would be even more adorable. Well, the octopus idea has been replaced with Pebbles.

I bought some white flannel and backing to create a little bone clippie for her hair. I just need to find the alligator clips to finish it. I have been on the look out for some crazy animal print fabric but I haven't had much luck. I had decided that I was going to just buy some pink fabric and embellish it with some brown patches to resemble Pebbles' tank top. I stopped by Old Navy yesterday and I found this perfect pink onesie...

That is why I need help from Mom, Granny, Chelsea, Patty...anybody that is a seamstress! How should I go about turning this $1.97 onesie into a Pebbles-esque tank top? I want it to "flip" out at the waist but I do not have a serger or anything just a pretty basic Brother sewing machine. Also, I was going to try to rip the seams out on the sleeves and sew them under like a hem but should I leave them kind of jagged looking? I am planning on just pairing it with brown bloomers that came with one of her skirts. Is that too simple? I have so many ideas and I think I am too much of an amatuer to pull half of them off!

Chuck E Cheese, black eye and a hug

2007-09-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

Emma and I met my best friend Ashlea and her two kids at Chuck E Cheese on Friday night. Emma was loving it -- running around and going down the slide. We sat down at the booth to have our pizza and she wanted to sit in the booth like the other kids were, not the high chair. She was sitting there right beside me as I was cutting up her pizza...she was laughing at Noah and then BOOM...her little noggin went right into the table. I felt like such a bad mommy....she curled up in my lap and was screaming. She has had several bumps and she has never screamed like that before...when we got home and I gave her a bath, I noticed there was a knot and a bruise beside her eye. He eye is also incredibly bloodshot so we took her to the on-call doctor yesterday since she was having allergies too. She said that it is fine, just bruised but she gave us some eye drops to put in her eye three times a day for a week on the chance that bacteria entered her eye when she hit the table. So I can't believe that my baby girl now has a black eye and I was RIGHT THERE! :(

She has also started giving big bear hugs this weekend. She came up to me last night and reached around and hugged my neck and gave me a kiss. I love it. So maybe I am not a horrible mommy afterall.

I finally have the photos downloaded.

How do you get three kids to look at the camera at the same time?!

This is about an hour after the table incident and her poor eye was still watering!

Mommy...I don't know that I like this Chuck E place...

Seriously way too much to blog about tonight!!

2007-09-06T22:17:00.000-05:00

The long weekend at the lake was amazing fun and so relaxing. I admit that I have been soooo tired ever since we got home though. The six hour drive home, working 40 hours a week and cleaning up around the house just isn't nearly much fun. My family was awesome as usual which makes me miss them even more!

Lets see...the homemade icecream rocked, Emma loved the splashes coming up off the boat, we lost and found Babee and Boo Bunny a few times, we took several golf cart rides around the lake, I discovered Guardian Service Ware aluminum pans, my Dad caught a trifling mole, Gramma & Grampa bought Emma two new DVDs and let us borrow their mini DVD player for the car ride. Thank you, thank you, thank you...it made for an easier drive home.

I finally got to hug on my adorable nephew some more. He is getting so big...yet he still has that baby scent that Emma has outgrown. We met them over at Portrait Innovations in Carmel and had the kiddos portraits made together. It was pretty cute! I'll have to get Courtney to send it to me so I can post it here.

Just a little here & there. :) Courtney has turned me on to Diaper*Swappers and I really want to check the site out some more because it looks awesome. I just got a new sling from Lucky Baby and I can't wait to use it with Emma. She has become my little shadow the last few days and it makes it hard to get anything done. Oh yeah, we are getting an almost new RED Maclaren stroller for cheap tomorrow...you gotta love Craigslist! We are trying to transistion Emma to a "big girl cup" for her morning bottle. It is a Playskool Flip Top Straw Cup and she seems to like it a lot...except in place of her morning bottle. She wants her Playtex 4 oz nurser! She has been so finicky with sippy cups anyways...she will only drink well from her NUK Trainer sippy with the latex spout. Silly girl! Elmo LIVE is coming to Nashville in November and I hop that maybe someone gets Emma tickets. She *loves* Elmo and I can only imagine what she would think to see him for real! One last little thing...Grey's Anatomy is back in just three weeks from tonight!

The Colts played tonight...woowoo! Emma started clapping and running around the living room when the team ran onto the field. It was adorable especially since she was wearing her jersey! We are working on getting her to say "Go Colts!" and she almost has it down...she was about ready to pass out for the night by the time the game got started. It didn't help that it was bedtime and she is sick and on Benadryl. She is so stuffy and sneezy. My poor little Colts fan. Well, it is 34-10 right now and they better whoop it up and keep it up because I am about to head to bed. I really want to watch some BB8 After Dark on Showtime but I can barely stay awake now and its only 10:36 PM!

I think that about covers everything and I'll leave you with Emma & Retto snuggled up on me watching the game...minus most of me this time. :o) Even Retto is wearing Colts blue!

Toot toot, chugga chugga...little red car!

2007-09-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry, but I couldn't resist a Wiggles headline! Our neighbor had one of these cars and I saw some people posting about them on the Celebrity Baby Blog last week. Yes...apparently Britney Spears mom was pushing her son around her neighborhood in one. Okay...now that I got that out, Jon...we had thought about getting one for Emma but they are like $45 everywhere. While we were in Indiana this past weekend, we stopped at the Crawfordsville Wal*Mart and they had one on clearance for $30. So Emma was a toot toot chugga chuggin' most of the weekend at the lake just like the Wiggles.

Please excuse me from the last picture. Shuddering...

Just a small BB8 vent...

2007-09-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

I cannot stand the Donatos, especially Daniele. If it comes down to Dick and Daniele then I hope Dick wins. He is a scumbag but he is more straight forward about it than Daniele. Ugh. I never curse, it just isn't me but I had a little song going in my head after tonight's show.

B-i-*-*-h...b-i-*-*-h...b-i-*-*-h and Daniele is her name-o.

I seriously hope that her boyfriend of 2+ years does not take her back after how she was on the show about Nick. They were in the house together for what...like 5 weeks? She has sobbed over him so many times and how many times did she wah wah wah about voting him out? Okay, I apologize for that crazy moment but it was just too clever not to post. Now back to your regular E*Cakes programming. :o) I am about to post some total cuteness!

Church Nursery, Ducks and Crocs!

2007-08-26T08:05:00.000-05:00

We are about to get ready for church...waiting on a load of clothes to dry so I can get dressed. We are going to try out Sunday school this morning. We've been attending just the church service here for about five weeks and we are going to place Emma in the nursery for the first time today. I am a little nervous to leave her in there just because that's who I am but I know she'll have fun. She has never met a stranger and as long as there are other kids in there she is happy.

We also went to the Duck Derby yesterday and Emma had a duck painted on her cheek! Our six ducks did not win but it was a fun adventure anyways. I'll try to post some pictures later.

We got sooo many compliments on her outfit. I gave out your name a few times, Chelsea, so I hope you get some good business from Tennessee!

Afterwards, we went to Binks because I have been wanting to get some chocolate Mary Jane Crocs and a friend of mine told me they sold them there. It was like walking into a sea of Crocs! They were everywhere in the store...big ones and little ones...every style...every size. Seriously, I wish I would have taken a picture! We even bought Emma a pair of baby blue Crocs in the Mary Jane style. Den and Courtney had bought her some knock off Crocs at Pay Less a few months ago since Crocs start at size 4/5 and she needed a 2/3. She loved them and she keeps pulling them out of her closet wanting to wear them. So I saw these and just had to try them on her...she dropped to the floor and put her feet up. :) Jon even bought her two little flower things to snap on to them so they are extra cute now. She started crying when I tried to take them of last night...silly girl!