Grandma Nancy

Today marks 11 years since my mom got to meet the Lord face to face. I can't believe it's been that long since I've seen her smile, heard her voice or felt one of her famous hugs. I miss her so much...every day. Especially now that I'm a mom too. It makes me so sad that my daughter will miss out on being loved by her. But I'm going to do my very best to make sure that Emmy will grow up learning all about my mom and hopefully, through me, and the stories I share with her, she will feel her love. And then someday, when we're all together again, she will learn for herself what made her Grandma Nancy so special. And boy was she special....

 

Mom, Dad and I...15 years ago :)

Josh took this tonight at supper, he wanted to take Emmy and I out to celebrate Grandma Nancy....it was perfect.

18 months!

Last week we had Emmy's 18 month check-up...I can't believe our baby is a year and a half! I love having this blog to help me remember all these precious details before I blink and she's heading off to school!

 

What is she up to now? Emmy is growing like crazy! As you'll see below, she shot up in these last few months. She is wearing 18 month-2T clothes and wears a size 5-5.5 shoe. She also runs, everywhere. Her favorite place to run is outside in the backyard, (where I don't have to worry so much!) and she loves going down the slide, kicking her ball and chasing bubbles...or birds!
Favorite things: Emmy still loves her books and puzzles and to talk, non-stop! A few of her favorite words are: Hug, Book, Outside, Shoes, Eat, Hand (for when she needs our help or wants to grab our hand) and our favorite one is when she says "Amen" after we finish praying. It is so precious. And whenever we say, "I Love You" she always comes back with "Yeah" haha She also loves to dance. Recently I was in the kitchen doing dishes and had the radio on, she comes running in when she hears the music and slowly started spinning in a circle to the music, so cute! She also loves singing the ABCs, especially when we're in the car. She'll say "A-B, A-B" and want Josh and I to start singing...even if it's our 5th time. ;)
Favorite food: Anything and everything! We are very lucky and our girl is not picky at all. She does great with veggies and meats and loves her fruit too. But some of her favorites are bananas, peas, chicken, fish, green beans, grapes, yogurt, and thanks to Gramps, breadsticks!
Teeth: Almost all of them! She's really been working on those canines, poor thing, they have been the hardest ones!
Emmy's 18 month stats: Weight: 28.5 lbs  92%
                                           Height: 32.5 in   72% (She grew 2 inches just in the last 3 months!!)

Emmy at her picnic table in the backyard :)

Baby D, Part 2

Here are the rest of the pictures from Emmy's Baby Dedication, taken by Joel Cookston (who happens to be the photographer from Justin & Whitney's wedding) They are awesome!

Easter Blessings

Our Easter weekend was filled with friends, family, fun and a whole lotta' Easter eggs! :) In the pictures below you'll see Emmy opening her Easter basket from us and then our Easter egg hunt in the backyard. It was so much fun...she is so much fun. After church on Sunday, on the way to Grammy and Gramps' house for Easter, Josh stopped by Falls Park in Pendleton to get a few pictures of just Emmy and I. It was such a nice surprise...not sure if you'll be able to tell in the pictures but I was missing my mom so very much that day and had a few tears. Having him stop for a little impromptu photo session for just Emmy and I was so sweet, and I know my Mom was right there with us in the pictures...I can almost see her. We then headed on to Chuck & Sue's and had such a nice visit with them and Justin, Whitney and Colt. The kids opened their Easter baskets and then we had a massive egg hunt. And by massive, I mean that there were over 125 eggs hidden in Chuck & Sue's backyard! I'm not sure who had more fun, Emmy and Colt finding the eggs or us adults hiding the eggs!

 

Happy Easter Everyone!

 

Emmy seeing her Easter basket for the first time

We just loved how excited she was...for every egg!!

Emmy and I both were pretty excited about the new bubbles!

Emmy has been all about saying "Cheese!" for pictures lately, can you tell? :)

You can barely see it, but Emmy is literally running right over an egg to get to another one in front of her! haha!

Baby D, Part 1

This past Sunday we were able to participate in the Baby Dedication "Baby D" ceremony at church. We were scheduled to do it last Fall but my dad had his heart surgery so we decided to postpone it to the Spring. It was such an amazing day and we were so glad to have our family and friends there with us as we asked for their continued prayers and support as we raise Emily Jane to know and love the Lord. Here are just a few pictures of the day...and stay tuned for a few professional pictures in the next few weeks! (A great surprise from the church!)

 

We love you Emily Jane and are so very proud of you precious girl!

  

Emmy loved getting to spend time with Alice, Lauri and Jesse's little girl.
 All she wanted to do was kiss the "baby" :)

  

Emmy loved having a chance to play with Papa earlier in the day, those two are so darn cute together!

 

Our reserved table at church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cape

After everything we've been through these last few months, I wanted to do something extra special for Josh. He has been simply amazing...the way in which he supports me, understands me and loves me is beyond words. He is such a wonderful man, and I am truly blessed to have him as my husband. By surprising him with a little getaway, just the two of us, I wanted him to feel just as special as he makes me feel, every day. I knew how hard it would be for both of us to be away from Emmy for a few nights, but I also knew how very much we needed this time together. So, I happened upon a little B&B off the coast of FL and without hesitation, I booked it! It was so fun surprising Josh :) And this past week, over his Spring Break, we took our trip together. Together, we fell in love with what the locals call the Cape, officially known as Cape San Blas. It was simply beautiful, quiet, relaxing and exactly what we needed. We had such a great time together and will treasure this place always.We promised each other we'd come back, as often as we can, to our little slice of paradise....



Cape San Blas Inn, Wendy's breakfasts were ahhmazing!



The table where we shared breakfast with the new friends we met each day. It was so fun to share stories and have the chance to meet so many good people from so many different places, even Germany!



The Inn had canoes and a kayak for us to use



We went on a 2.5 hr canoe ride on St. Joe Bay where we saw star fish, crabs and even fish jumping in front of us



We enjoyed the hot tub at the end of the pier late one night, so relaxing



Back deck of the Inn with a great view of the Bay

Across from the Inn was the beach, and as you can see it was almost always empty, which totally spoiled us! No hotels or highrises, just homes. You might also be able to see that on this day, we had 20-30 mph winds!

On that same windy day we decided to use the bikes they had at the Inn and ride down to St. Joe Park. It was a very windy 14 miles there and back, but SO worth it! You can hardly see it, but there is a little bench in the distance...like a scene right out of a movie, absolutely beautiful :)

The dune path to the beach

After our 14 mile bike ride, we stopped at this little place called Cone Heads to split a Banana Split. This is BEFORE....



And this is AFTER :)

The sunset on our last night there..Josh and I almost missed it as we were coming back from dinner so we parked the car and took off running...just in time to see God paint the sky for us. Perfect end to an absolutely perfect trip...sigh ;)