Happy Valentine's Day

We spent Valentine's Day at the park with some good friends of ours, Mindy & Tony, and their little boy AJ a.k.a Emalee's boyfriend :) The two had fun playing on the slides and the swings. Emalee would run away crying whenever AJ got too close, and of course Tommy would say "That's a good girl, boys have cooties!"

All in all it was beautiful day to be outside, and the kids had a blast!

Christmas Festivities

We had a wonderful, fun filled Christmas this year. Our family tradition is to spend Christmas Eve with Tommy's mom and step dad, we do Christmas morning at home, then head over to Tommy's dad and step mom's, then lastly my parents house for Christmas dinner. It is a very busy two days. :)



Christmas Eve at Mark & Janet's is always celebrated with famous Grandma Betty (Betty Bolling) burritos. It is the ONE time each year we have them, they are delish! Then we open presents and play games. Shuggie and Paca Mark got Emalee a fold-out couch, she drug it around the house for the rest of the night. :) This year, we had a smaller crowd and a few people fighting colds, so we skipped the games and just visited with each other. We were home at a decent time, that way we could get everything ready for "Santa."



Christmas morning came and Tommy and I were awake first...we actually had to wake Emalee up, poor baby. :( She wasn't too sure what was going on at first, but once she saw her new car she woke RIGHT up! Emalee also opened her gifts from Aunt Cathy, my wonderful Godmother who spoils us both rotten. Her most favorite gift from her was her talking My Little Pony doll. You feed it a bottle or food, and it sings songs. Emalee also got her first pairs of dress-up shoes, tiara, and earrings from Aunt Diana and Uncle Kevin. We enjoyed our morning at home, opening gifts and having cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I think I had the most fun this year, seeing Emalee open her gifts and actually knowing what she was doing this year, I can't wait for next year when she's yet another year older.



We headed over to Tommy's dad and step mom's around 11. Emalee opened her new talking baby doll (yes it makes noises, sometimes it's a little freaky) and she was in heaven! We spent an hour or so there visiting with them, and Tommy's sister Haley and her boyfriend Sean. I was ready for a nap already and we were barely half way through the day. :)



Once we got to my parents house, we did round three of gifts. Emalee loved her new Tinkerbell chair from Nana and Papa. Dae Dae (Uncle Jarrod) got her a play camera so her new favorite thing is to walk around with it and say "Cheese!" Uncle Tim & Aunt Kim got Emalee her first Lego's, she actually understands the concept and does really well with them. Aunt Shannon got Emalee an adorable outfit and new jammies.



Mom does Christmas dinner very year. We have ham, Grandma Joan's cheese potatoes, strawberry jello, and cornbread casserole. After dinner we played some Flash Uno...it's a great game. It's fast paced, so you have to pay attention to everything.



We had a wonderful Christmas. It's so nice to be surrounded by family. We aren't sure what we will do if we end up moving and have to spend Christmas apart. Emalee was spoiled by EVERYONE this year! There is not one more thing she needs. Santa, her great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles...they all spoiled her rotten!



We are ready for a new year and all of the excited possibilities that are to come.

Tis the Season!

I am behind on my posts...sorry! December has been a very busy month so far, but we are still finding the time to enjoy the season. What a difference a year has made, Emalee is so into everything this Christmas - the lights, the baking, the wrapping...she loves it all!

We made a trip to Reno at the beginning of the month to see my little brother Jarrod graduate from UNR. The whole family stayed in a vacation home together, so it was nice to be able and spend our time with each other instead of being couped up in a hotel room.

Emalee got to help my mom "Nana" bake cookies this year. Her favorite part was playing in the flour and sprinkles, and I think she may have eaten more dough then we think :) We took her to look at Christmas lights and out of nowhere said "Pretty, pretty!" Her vocabulary seems to be growing daily :)

We went up to the snow the other day, and Emalee smiled and laughed the WHOLE time, she did NOT want to leave. She caught on real quick to the idea of throwing the snow...thanks to Daddy. She loves to mimic right now, if you do it you can almost bet she is going to do it too. I love seeing her grow each and every day.

My grandparents, Emalee's Great Grandparents, came out at the beginning of the month and we had our gift exchange. That made me even more anxious for Christmas morning!

Halloween

We had a very fun Halloween this year! On Friday we took Emalee to a Halloween Party at our friends house. There were quite a few kids there. They played games, went trick-or-treating, and had played their hearts out. Emalee spent most of time "grazing" (eating all the other kids food off their plates) while they played, but she had a blast!




On Halloween we made our rounds to all the grandparents and great grandparents houses, and then headed out to go trick-or-treating!! We spent about 2 hours in a small subdivision of homes, and got a lot of candy. Emalee was a trooper, she walked her little feet for as long as she could, but in the end ended up in her stroller while my niece and nephew (Meghan & Devin) literally ran from house to house. What a difference a year made, I can't wait for next year when she is even older and will enjoy going trick-or-treating even more!

Pumpkin Carving

Emalee wasn't too sure about helping Daddy clean out the pumpkin...but she did take a little sample tasting to make sure it wasn't something she'd like to be eating :) Tommy spent a lot of time carving our pumpkin this year, and I think he did a fabulous job!

Pumpkin Patch

Last year Emalee was still too little to really enjoy going to a pumpkin patch, but I was pretty sure she was old enough this year. After driving all over Las Vegas trying to find one, we finally found one. It was not only a pumpkin patch but also had rides for the little ones, a petting zoo, and a huge blow-up slide. Emalee walked around like she owned the place :) She got to play with, and pet, goats for the first time, she and Daddy went down the big slide twice, and she rode on the swings. We all enjoyed ourselves and can't wait to do it again next year!

Playing in the hay

In the petting zoo!

Slidin' with Daddy :)

Riding the swings!

Emalee's 1st Hair Cut!

She wasn't too sure what was going on...


But surprisingly she sat really still!

All done!