My baby arrived...

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

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!

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

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!

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!