Alabama Part 3

This is our last installment of pics from alabama. After these, I'll finally post pictures of Snowpocalypse!

One of our favorite things to do in Alabama was go outside and play on the playground right outside our room. The weather didn't cooperate as often as we would have liked, but we still enjoyed it.

Emily's three favorite things to do outside were driving the car (she only knows how to go in reverse)


Climb up the big toy to the top of the slide and slide down


SWING!! This was definitely her favorite.


When we drove back to Maryland from Alabama, we arrived one day after the first of two large snow storms that hit the DC/Baltimore area. I think the piles of snow in our front yard will be here until May! I'll get the snow storm pictures up soon.

These are a few of my favorite things!

Here are a few of Emily's (current) favorite things.

1. Playing on the stairs. Going up and down and up and down.
2. Throwing things down the stairs when we put the baby gate up. By the end of the day, the stairs are covered with her toys.
3. She loves to play in the cardboard box Chris puts our 'to burn' papers in. She will stand in the box and hand him papers from the box as he adds them to the fireplace.
4. Not snow. Definitely NOT snow.
5. She still loves her books.
6. She loves to walk on her own, and twirls her hands in an especially cute way when trying to maintain balance.
7. She loves kissing her mama's belly - which is kind of ironic becaaaaaause....

EMILY IS GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER IN LATE AUGUST!!

Jonah's Blogl,

I wanted to take a moment and share with you all a blog that I've been following for a while that has really touched me. The spirit and strength of their faith has been very inspirational to me as I have followed their blog.

Jonah is an (almost) 1 year old boy who has epidermolysis bullosa (commonly called EB), a very rare skin disease. Please click on the first link and read about this amazing little boy.

To co-inside with his first birthday, Jonah's friends and family have put together an online auction where 100% of the items are donated, and all proceeds will go to DebRA, a non-profit organization focused on finding a cure for EB. I encourage you to check out Jonah's EB Auction page and see if there's anything there you'd like to bid on. There's a large variety of items, so take your time! The auction will run from Feb 23 - Feb 27.

Thanks for reading this!

Walking and Gerogia

So, last week Emily took her first steps!!! We were sitting on the bed, and she was standing up and falling over (like she normally does). But all of a sudden, she shifted her weight from one foot to another, and then started taking a couple steps!!! We were so so excited and clapped and cheered for her. She realized quickly this is a good way to get a lot of attention! She's been practicing and practicing ever since!

The following weekend, we went to visit Uncle Jeff, Aunt Keiko and Grandpa Mike in Atlanta, and she showed off her walking skills to them! Aunt Keiko caught it on video, so you can all see her wobble around. She took up to 13 steps at a time before falling over!



That weekend, Grandpa Mike took us all to the Aquarium in Atlanta which we LOVED. It's such an awesome aquarium. If we lived in Atlanta, we'd definitely get a membership!

Emily's favorite tanks were the large ones with lots of fishies in them.


Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko touching a ray! It was slimy and rubbery feeling....gives me goosebumps thinking about it!


Emily also had a good time drinking splashing in the water in the splash tanks.


Aunt Keiko and I enjoying a delicious desert that she made! We may or may not have enjoyed it the next morning for breakfast too....I not quite sure...;)

Alabama part 2

Here are a few more pictures from the last couple weeks in Alabama.

After-the-bath messy hair fun!



Posing for the camera with a super cheesy smile.

From 2010.01 Emily

Out to dinner with friends! This is Carly. She and Emily are good friends.


This is Colin. He loves to get kisses from Emily. He will walk up to her, point to his cheek and say 'kisses'. Lucky for him, Emily loves to give him kisses just as much!

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

This is Mikey and his mom. Mikey is Em's 'boy toy' for the trip :). Unfortunatley, he doesn't seem to like Emily's kisses as much as Colin does.


We all went bowling one night, and between the bumpers and this awesome ramp, all the kids had a blast!

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

Playing on the floor

Winter fun at our house!

Here are a few photos from December before we went to Seattle for Christmas.

Playing with puzzles


"Helping" Mama with the tree


Preparing for some fun in the snow!


So much fun!


Chris and Emily got into a little fencing match after mom was finished wrapping christmas presents.


What if I have two swords daddy?


Alright, alright, you got me! I surrender!

Alabama part 1

We have officially passed the half point of our stay in Alabama. While we've gone out and done quite a few things as a family, and with other mommas, I keep forgetting to bring my camera. Here are a few pics we have from playing inside, but I promise to have more fun pictures from the second half of our time here.

Emily's favorite thing to do lately is play with her baby. She loves to rock the baby, hug the baby, kiss the baby, chew on it's ear, stick it's foot in her mouth - so many fun things to do with a baby!

Hugs for the baby!




Rocking the baby

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

Tasty foot!


Snuggles with the baby

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

The other thing she loves to do is stand! She can stand up on her own, and is so proud of herself, but is still hesitant to take a step. Apparently she favors the faster crawling over the scary walking. This too will change soon ;)



I call this her superstar pose

From 2010.01.05 Alabama

Atlanta, GA

Last weekend we went to visit Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko in Atlanta! It's about a 2.5 hour drive (when you don't take scenic detours, thanks Chris!:).

We had so much fun! Emily was being goofy!



As some of you know, Emily is generally scared of women if I'm around. She loooves men. But for some reason, it takes her a long time to warm up to most womem when she can see me. So, in an effort to lure her into Keiko's lap, we gave Keiko all of Emily's favorite toys.



Sadly, it didn't work :(. But she was giving Keiko kisses later that night, so maybe it helped a bit?

Emily was exhausted after lots of playing with Uncle Jeff, so she fell asleep on his arm!



We plan to visit them at least one more time before we leave Alabama. Can't wait to see you again Uncle Jeff and Aunt Keiko!

As most of you know, Chris and I are in Alabama for a month (Jan 5-Feb 5) for a class he is taking at Maxwell AFB.

One of my goals while we are here is to get all of my photos organized and edited. I've officially made the switch over to picasa, and should make uploading photos (and thus, picture posts) a lot easier.

So, hopefully there will be pictures soon! I've finally got pictures from the last 2 months on my computer.

More from Alabama to come soon!

Birthday Party!

We had a big first birthday party for Emily. Grandma Susan was able to come out for the party, and boy were we glad to have her here! In total, there were about 25-30 people here!

Emily had a "test run" the night before the party so she could get used to cake and icing.


Then we opened presents from Grandma


Emily loves opening eating presents!


The next day we set up for the party!


Emily checks out Granmda's party hat!


Dad joins in on the fun! This is probably the first (and last) time you'll see daddy with a pink flowerly birthday hat on! He's such a good dad.


birthday cake!


Opening more presents!


Emily's personal cake!


Thanks to all our local friends for coming to the party! It means a lot to us that you came to celebrate with us!