Life Lately

Well, it's been almost a month already since I last posted...how that happened is beyond me. I just can't keep us with how fast the days go by! Here's what's been going on our in our little life lately...

Emery got to try out coloring this month! She loved it and was super focused the whole time.

She's now tall enough to reach our kitchen drawers and she *loves* the drawer with my measuring cups and spoons. Sometimes she'll bring me one measuring spoon at a time and pretend like she's feeding me something.

These sweet girls love riding in their car at my parents' house. Vanna is such a good little driver. Every time they come to a stop, Emery says "uggie" because she wants to go again. :)

Daddy picked Buffalo Wild Wings for his birthday dinner. It was pretty cruel if you ask me. He'd been saying he wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory all week and changed his mind at the last minute.

Emery loves her Sesame Street place mats. She says "Elmo" and "Cookie" for Cookie Monster...

...and she does this for Oscar the Grouch. We die laughing every time she does it. It's like the least grouchy thing ever.



Trying on her new winter coat...I can't hardly stand how cute it is!

I can't hardly believe my baby is big enough to walk with me and hold my hand. She's constantly reaching for our fingers to hold and wanting to take us places {usually to the spot where we keep M&Ms "emmys"}.

Playing peekaboo with herself in her crib. She'll cover herself up, say "Emmmyeeeee", pull the blanket off, and laugh hysterically. It is just too funny. <3

Celebrating my birthday at Chuy's!

Since our birthdays are just a few days apart, we always go out on a joint birthday date. We went to Starbucks after dinner and sat in the same spot where we sat on our second date. <3

One of Emery's newest phrases is "no way!" Oh yes. Sometimes it's hilarious and sometimes, not so much. This video makes me laugh every single time, though. I'm glad I caught it on video, and now that I have it forever she can stop saying it!


My sweet, sweet little pumpkin!!! How can this sweet little person yell "no way!"?? :)

Daniel was out of town last Sunday and I was scheduled to sing on praise team, so I had to take Emery with me to rehearsal on Sunday morning. I couldn't have asked for her to be any better! She played with her blocks and entertained everybody with her dancing.

This girl *loves* music and will dance to just about anything! I love how she tries to tuck the block under her chin so she can clap!!



Daddy got home Sunday night and Emery got in some extra snuggles. <3

We had a bunch of gloomy days, so when we finally had a sunny morning last week, we went to the park! I just love how she holds my hand.

She's all over the park now! It amazes me!

We went to our first fall festival of the season this past weekend. Vanna was so sweet and wanted to carry Emery's backpack. :)

These girls are just too sweet. There was music playing, so of course Emery was dancing. And how adorable are those little cat flats?!

Emery was worn out from all the fall festival fun.

I rode a spinning ride with Vanna that night and I have to say, I was definitely feeling my age. These spinning rides used to be my absolute favorite! I could ride them over and over again, but wow, I was pretty glad when this thing finally slowed down. We had so much fun together, though! {And look at that sweet little snow cone face!}

I bought this fun little cookie pop kit at Walmart and we had so much fun making these jack-o-lantern Oreos! Emery was hanging out in the big chair watching Elmo...her current favorite!

What a cute little pumpkin princess!

We had lunch at church with our deacon family today and Emery made her way around the room collecting name tags. She's really starting to get into stickers. :) Vanna wrote some of the name tags and on my dad's she wrote, "Mike Gampa" because she calls him Gampa. I just thought that was too cute and funny! She wrote Emery's name tag, too. I love that sweet handwriting.

Emery kept coming to get Nana and Gampa so she could get them to walk around the halls with her.

Then we came home and had some Sunday afternoon snuggles.

It really doesn't get much better than this.

Daniel had a deacons' meeting tonight at church so Emery and I went outside to check out the leaves and acorns. I'm not sure what was so fun about it, but she loved throwing these acorns off the bench.

We are just absolutely *loving* this stage she's in right now! We are so thankful for her and the joy she brings to us!

  

Five on Friday {September 18, 2015}

Yay for Friday! I thought I'd do a little "Five on Friday" during nap time today. :) Here's a little peek into our life lately.

One.
I started Kindermusik classes with Emery last week. She *loves* music, almost always saying "uggie" {again} when a song ends, and she's super shy in new situations and around people she doesn't know very well, so I'm hoping these classes will help her come out of her shell a little bit. She seems to really like it, except when she has to give back the ball. I took this picture at our first class after she had to give the ball back. She cried and then eventually went over to my purse to get herself another "ball" {my chapstick}.

The classes are close to Daniel's office and they end at 11:00, so it's perfect because we can meet him for lunch! We got her pasta and she made the biggest mess she's ever made. We tried to control it at first...wiping her hands, feeding her with our forks, and it just wasn't happening...so we just let it go. First of all, thank goodness for baby wipes. Secondly, I put her straight in the bathtub when we got home! {And her high chair cover in the washer to soak!}

We had our second Kindermusik class yesterday and she definitely seemed more comfortable. She even danced! :) The classes are at the church where Daniel and I got married. We went there while we were dating and until we moved across town...lots of sweet memories in that place. Yesterday as we were walking to our classroom, I stopped and took Emery's picture in the same spot where Daniel and I first saw each other on our wedding day. <3

Two.
We officially started our Christmas shopping yesterday! I am determined to get it all done much earlier this year! Mostly so I can enjoy the Christmas season more, but also because I love a Christmas tree with a ton of wrapped presents under it, so I want to have lots of presents under there as soon as possible! :) The first thing we bought was Emery's "big gift"...a kitchen! I've had my eye on it on Amazon for a while now, and I saw the price drop by $40 the other night! Daniel was outside, and I was going to order it as soon as he came in and could talk to him about it. By the time he came in, the price was back up. What in the world?! Well, thank goodness for camelcamelcamel {say what?!}. Yes, you read that right. It's an Amazon price tracker that emails you when an item goes down to a price you specify. So, that night I set it up to track the kitchen and I got an e-mail the next morning that the price was back down so I ordered it! Yay! The price only went down for a couple of hours again. Emery loves to play with the kitchen at my sister's house, so I know she's going to love it! I can't wait to play with it with her! Now to find some fun kitchen accessories! :)

{source}

Three.
September is a huge birthday month in our family! We have several family birthdays and Daniel and I both have birthdays next week! My mom's was yesterday, so we celebrated with dinner at my sister's house. Emery even colored Nana's birthday card!

We got to pick Vanna up from her piano lesson at church before the birthday dinner yesterday, and Emery discovered this little raccoon in the preschool lobby. She's obsessed with "beeping" noses right now, so she was touching it's nose and saying "beep, beep". :)

Happy birthday, Nana!

Four.
I started a new Bible study at church last week and I am loving it so far. It's Hosea: Unfailing Love Changes Everything by Jennifer Rothschild. Redeeming Love is a book by Francine Rivers that's based on the story of Hosea, and ever since I read that book several years ago, I've been fascinated with the story. Well, Jennifer Rothschild is an amazing teacher and I'm learning so much about God's love for me and my identity in Him. I've highlighted so many parts of the book, but I just love this:

"To be chosen by God means you are His first choice and His best choice. He didn't shrug His shoulders and say, 'Well, I guess I'll take her if no one else will.' No. When Jesus' hands were nailed to a cross, His fingers pointed to you--He chose to die for you. He chose you and He chooses you every day. He doesn't love you because you are cleaned up, religious, or even because you are a Christian. He loves you because He is love."



I was doing my Bible study the other morning when Emery was awake and I started to feel guilty about it because I thought, "I should be playing with her". Let me tell you, "mommy guilt" is a huge struggle for me. Then I came to my senses and was like, "What am I thinking? She absolutely needs to see me reading and studying my Bible!!" And what do you know, she climbed up on my lap and sat with me while I read. That was a precious gift.

Five.
Emery has become quite the little block stacker. She used to love it when we would stack blocks for her so she could knock them down and we'd say "boom!" Now, she will stack them herself, knock them down, say "boom!" and laugh like crazy. She's stacked all 12 of her blocks before! It's so amazing to me to watch her be so careful and make adjustments so it doesn't fall down. She's also started counting. She'll say "one, two" pretty consistently, then she'll say the "s" sound when it's time for six, she says "eight" almost perfectly, and she'll usually say "ten!" It's so funny how she matches our tone when she counts. Whenever I count with her, I say the numbers really slow and kind of sing-songy {especially ten}, and now she does it! She's just learning so much every single day! It makes me so happy and so sad because she's growing up too fast!

She loves to watch this video in my lap and laughs hysterically when the blocks fall over! :)

  

Labor Day Weekend {2015}

We just had the *best* long weekend ever. We packed in so many fun things...I'm always so sad to see these long weekends come to an end.

Both of us have birthdays in September, so our long weekend started on Thursday night with an early birthday celebration at the Sam Hunt, Hunter Hayes, and Lady Antebellum concert.

I'm still really puzzled about why Sam Hunt had flowers on his logo?!

It was so, so fun! They were all really good, but Lady Antebellum was just amazing. You know how some singers are just not that great live? {I'm looking at you, Rascal Flatts!} Well, Lady A was amazing. They didn't miss a single note!

And at one point, they walked out into the crowd and played a few acoustic songs.

Emery spent the night with my parents since the concert ended so late, so Daniel and I pretended like we were dating again and went to McDonald's for a midnight treat. {We regretted this decision. McDonald's is terrible. Chick-fil-A, you need to stay open late because you never disappoint us.}

The next morning we slept in {yes, 7:45 is now considered sleeping in for us} and went out to breakfast before going to get our sweet baby. We always miss her so much! She had so much fun at Nana and Gampa's that she fell asleep on the short drive home...snuggling with the new bear they got her. She *loves* this bear and calls it "Boo"!

We pretty much hung out together at home all day on Friday. I love laid back time at home with my little family. I also decided that September 4th isn't too early for Halloween jammies. :)

We took it easy again on Saturday. Daddy did a little more babyproofing...with Emery overseeing, of course.

Emery loves to play peekaboo in this little shelf under our kitchen table. We did a lot of that and got to hear lots of sweet giggles.

This girl loves her bear and her blanket. This is just so sweet to me.

So, Saturday was a pretty big day in Alabama...it was college football kickoff day for Auburn and Alabama!!! We did a little photo shoot with Emery in her cute Alabama football shirt. I mean, I love this picture so, so much.

Daniel got some pretty precious pictures. It's always *torture* for me to narrow down pictures and pick which ones I want to print. It's like my least favorite thing to do.

Touchdown!

Once Emery was in bed, we ordered pizza and watched the game! I ended up redoing our chalkboard during the game. I've had this verse on it for the last few months.

I've been wanting to put our fall bucket list on it, and I love how it turned out! Yes, I realize the overwhelming majority of things on this list are food related. What can I say? I love fall...and all of the food that goes along with it!

Click here for my chalk art tutorial. :)
Click here for my blank printable fall bucket list.

We all took naps on Sunday afternoon...and on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, too! Long weekends are the best! It felt so good outside on Sunday night, so we went out for Mexican food and ate out on the deck.

You know that Sunday night feeling when the next day is a holiday...it's just the best! Emery seemed to know it was a holiday and slept until 8:00 and then we all had pancakes for breakfast. She used to not really care much about pancakes, muffins, waffles, etc...but she seems to be starting to see the light! Ha!

Labor Day morning swinging... She just brings us so much joy.

We wanted to do something special with her that afternoon, so we took her to Itty Bitty Magic City at McWane Science Center. Apparently, lots of other parents had that idea, too, because it was a little nuts, but still a lot of fun! Emery totally knocked down a kid's Lego tower while we were there. We stack blocks and knock them down all the time at home, and I could see what she was thinking as soon as she saw it, but I just couldn't grab her in time. I felt bad for the little boy, but it was also hilarious!

Daniel was like a kid in this place. I *love* seeing him play with her and teach her things! <3

She loved rolling balls down this pipe and then peeking at Daniel through the hole.

Hesitantly milking the cow...

She walked back and forth across this bridge probably 20 times. My big girl...

She also went down a slide for the first time, too. She didn't cry, but when we asked her if she wanted to do it again, she said "no". :)

I'm in love with those little curls.

We went to Jim & Nick's for some Labor Day BBQ that night. It seemed like the right thing to do. ;) We introduced Emery to the cheese biscuits and she was definitely a fan! She was also a fan of the lemonade and would bounce up and down reaching for it.

And just like that, our weekend was over. Long weekends are so much fun until they're over. :) I'm so thankful that I got to spend so much time with my sweet little family. <3