Our little Emilie

It has been a while since I've posted on Emilie... I LOVE HER.

She has blossomed so much lately. If I could pick one word about her it would be: smiles. In the morning when I get her out of her crib, she turns over and smiles. When I feed her breakfast: smiles. When she's playing on the other side of the room and we exchange glances: smiles.

Of course, she is definitely getting more of a personality and has her share of cries during the day, but she is smiling so much, I can't stop but smile with her.

She is doing her first sign language! She basically does it to everything- but at least she's doing it! This is the first time she signed "more."

She is mobile and out on the loose. I need to child proof my kitchen asap before there is a major disaster sometime soon.

For good and bad, Maddie grabs her, and moves her around the house at will all day long. Fortunately, Emilie likes it 50% of the time.

I love this shot because it's semi distorted, but so funny. She doesn't like it when I hold my camera, because she wants to hold it...

I love this little face.

She is obsessed with grabbing our kitchen chairs and pushing them around the house. It's her little walker.

Loves them.

Well, only until one of us rescues her b/c she can't let go.

love you emi.

Giving Tree

I usually drag my feet into the month of December...it's not usually my favorite. But, this year, I helped coordinate The Giving Tree for our church and it definitely has put me in the right Christmas spirit.

We anonymously adopted 16 families in our community from a local elementary school as well as our church community, and made sure that each child received a gift, and the family had Target and Safeway gift cards to help with what they needed.

We collected donations and I was AMAZED and very HUMBLED by the generosity of people around me. Not just in money, but in their time...

One donor spent hours making baby blankets for each baby on our list...

These are the canisters we put candy in with their gift cards.

Fruit/treat baskets.

One of the fellow elfs that is really more like angel than an elf.

I wanted to to use shrink wrap over our gifts, but it didn't seem to work like I wanted. Oh, well. I think it looked good enough.

Operation Giving Tree is done! YAY.

A bit overdue

I think this might be the longest since I haven't posted... urgh!

So- I'm going to summarize as best I can...

Maddie's Birthday
- Maddie's Birthday was on Thanksgiving!! We threw a party for her the Saturday before the day of thanks for obvious reasons. The theme was NEVERLAND. She loves Wendy, and I'm a little burned out on princesses, so we were excited to go with it...

It was a little out of control, I'll admit. But, it was fun, and I was only tired for 1 day after :)
I made Peter Hats out of felt and we bought Tinkerbell crowns from the party store for all the kids to wear. Here are some highlights:


We made a shadow wall were we traced their bodies (remember when Peter chases his shadow?) I think I liked this more than the kids!!

My friend made the cake- yes amazing. We went back and forth about what it should look like, and I thought having peter and wendy flying over the city would be cool... and she nailed it. She even made the figurines out of clay. amazing.

Maddie loves blowing out candles and was practicing almost everyday up until the party.


We made a pirate ship and waves around it for lunch. Unfortunately, I don't think the kids liked the spaghetti, but whatever! I should have bought mac and cheese! The pirate ship was cool... I give all the credit to Steve. He even put a monkey on the top of the mast.

Another shot of the table.

Outside, we played in Mermaid Lagoon- we threw black water balloons (canons) on the "x marks the spot."
Maddie's throw!
Then, we searched for seashells in the sand...

Steve made a plank for the kids to walk off and jump on a mattress. I thought it was a pretty cute idea- again, props to Steve.

And- we had a tipee. I can't find a picture. But, it was cool, and also made by Steve.

So- all in all, the party was fun and I think Maddie had a good time!! Now, our baby is 3. It is going by very fast!

Thanksgiving

We were invited by our very gourmet friends to Thanksgiving- they went all out. It was such a nice treat to not cook. But, let me say, it is not easy to have kids at Thanksgiving. It was basically impossible to sit down, but Steve and I took turns. I felt bad for the other guests... but, what can you do? I guess this is why you get invited over less the more kids you have! Ha ha ha.

Emi, with her very serious face!!!

They were so nice to make Maddie her own Cherry pie and sing for her. So cute!


Grapefruit Sorbet- yes, very fancy.

Delicious.

The day after Thanksgiving, we were feeling sad to not have left overs, so we decided to cook another Thanksgiving, and had some neighbors over. It was a hoot- two single women... picture click and clack from NPR. We were entertained for hours.

What happened to November?

Photography
I have been very blessed to be busy with photography sessions this season- so it has been fun and a little hectic. But- I'm so happy because I've saved enough money to buy my NEW CAMERA and LENSES! YAY. All with my very own hard work. Hopefully, I can get them sometime in the next month and start adjusting....

Europe
Steve has been burning the midnight oil for some new prospects in his job for a company in Europe. We had some visitors this last week in our garage (aka Steve's den of medical device madness). I can't believe that he starts companies in garages ( I could never in a million years do that), but I guess it has been done before...

Those are the highlights. CONGRATULATIONS if you've read all the way down to here!