Christmas Pics

For now, these are the girls Christmas pictures. I tried yesterday after church (before lunch - mistake!) to get their pictures while they were still dressed up, but Audrey wasn't much for cooperating. I'll try again later, but for now, this is what we have. The one of Audrey I took later in the day. I think they are so adorable, but then again, I'm biased!

Audrey's Happenings

I'm not for sure what it is about turning 1, but Audrey turned over a new leaf when she turned 1! She is all about making discoveries. She learned to climb up on the step stool. I now have to be very careful of where Emily might leave it in the kitchen!! She uses other items to attain her goal. Example - she is sitting in the play grocery cart. She managed to get in there herself!! Very creative. Every day brings something new. We just have to love her!!

Lights Before Christmas

Last weekend we went to Fernwood Botanical Gardens to visit their "Lights Before Christmas" display. August and I have made this a tradition for many years now. Even Audrey went last year even though she was just a few weeks old! The lights were nice, but not as many as last year. We still enjoyed ourselves though. In the one picture, Emily was writing her name on the "Nice" list for Santa. She didn't want a picture taken with Santa, so that is why you only see Audrey.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Emily has discovered this year it is great fun to play in the snow. Here are some pictures of her having fun!

Audrey's Birthday Party

I know I am several weeks behind on posting, but here you go!

Audrey isn't in to many characters yet, so I decided to just go with a teddy bear cake. At this age, it's not like she knows the difference! She decided it was a lot of fun to share her cake :)

She did a great job opening her gifts and best of all, posing with her gifts!

Thanks to all of the family who came to celebrate with us!

Fly to Jesus

Monday night we received word that my grandma had gone home to heaven. She had been in declining health recently, so it was not a surprise but it was still hard. We had planned on a family get together this weekend in Berne to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family including grandma, however that get together ended up happening a few days earlier but for her funeral instead.

She was a great woman and leaves us with a great legacy. She was truly a prayer warrior and loved her family very much. The final song at her funeral was Fly to Jesus by Chris Rice. I know Monday night she was flying to meet her precious Savior. She will be truly missed but will forever remain in our hearts.

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

My little girl is 1 today! I can't believe that it went so quickly. She is such a joy and my heart melts everytime I see her smile :)

She continues to learn new things. She loves, loves, loves to climb!! She will use anything as a prop to allow her up onto the couch. She loves walking and trying to run to follow her sister around. She has 8+ teeth. There are some new ones in the back (probably her molars) but she bites my finger everytime I try to feel in her mouth! She is learning to point to what she wants. Last night we started her on whole milk and she didn't seem to notice a difference from formula. I also tried yesterday giving her milk in her sippy cup instead of her bottle at lunch and she didn't complain! I hope soon we are done with the bottles. She brings us so much joy just watching her learn and grow.

I will post pictures from her B-day part last week as soon as I can get them off of my camera (I had to get a new camera last week and already it doesn't work!)

Happy 1st Birthday Audrey!!

Tagged!

I was tagged by Jessica. Share 7 facts about yourself. Some random and some weird.

1. I hate socks and shoes! I much prefer to be barefoot. When I can't be barefoot and opt for sandles or flipflops. That obviously doesn't work well with Michiana winters, but I put off wearing "real" shoes until as late as possible.

2. I was a manager for sports team for 9 years! In middle school I tried out for the volleyball team, but got cut. My coach asked if I would be a manager and I agreed. So I was manager for volleyball and basketball in middle school. I also was the track announcer in middle school. Then in high school I was manager for volleyball and basketball and my freshman year I was the statistican/announcer whatever they wanted for track. I only did track one year so I could get my varsity blanket (you had to have 9 varsity letters and they agreed to give me a letter for that and since I was varsity manager for v-ball and b-ball, I got a varsity letter for those - 9 total). Then in college I was manager for basketball for 3 years. I would have managed my senior year, but I got married after my junior year and had to go to work while going to school, so there wasn't enough time.

3. I love to cook and bake. My family are my guinea pigs for new recipes. We normally have at least 3 new meals a week! I have 8 years of cookbooks and I continue to get a new cookbook a month (Quick Cooking & Taste of Home - they alternate months) so I have plenty to choose from.

4. Back in the day before kids, I played the piano. I have a piano that was graciously given to me by my parents several years ago, but I just can't seem to find the time to play. I can't play during nap time because the piano is too close to their rooms so that also rules out after they go to bed at night. If I attempt to play while they are awake, I have 4 little hands trying to "help" me!

5. I don't like to do dishes! I have a dishwasher and I try to use as many dishwasher safe dishes as possible, but I always end up with a lot of "hand wash only" dishes.

6. I have this weird obsession with typing. If I am a passenger in a vehicle and we go by a sign, I mentally type the sign. I find myself doing this while watching tv and other odd places. I have no idea where the obsession came from and it doens't seem to be leaving anytime soon! I guess I get good practice.

7. I enjoying sometimes helping with construction projects. I have helped with 4 roofs (yes I actually get on the roof). I have helped put siding on 2 houses.

I am now supposed to tag 7 other people. The only problem is I don't know anyone else who hasn't been tagged. Until I can think of someone, I'm not tagging!

Getting Better - Sort of

Well, I can't say that this week was a whole lot better than last week, but God gave me the patience to endure another week. Audrey I believe is completely over her ear infection. I for the most part am fine, though very tired!! Emily has a cold, I think. That's the hard part about being sick, you never know if what you have is contagious or not.

August on the other hand came home early Wednesday not feeling well and went straight to bed where he has remained except for our 2 trips to the doctor. Thursday morning he went to the doctor and was told he had severe strep throat and 2 minor ear infections. He has been in a lot of pain and the ibuprofen he was taking didn't even help. Saturday night the pain got so bad and he wasn't feeling the slightest bit better so we went to Med Point (thankfully Papa was able to come watch the girls and put them to bed). Thankfully there was no wait and we were seen immediately. I can only thank God for that. This doctor however did not agree with his prior diagnosis. Go figure! So either his ear infection and strep had gone away or our primary doctor was wrong. They did a strep test and flu test and those both came back negative. He feels that August just has a viral infection of some sort. He did prescribe some stronger pain reliever which I was able to get filled today and August has said it does help a lot. The doctor said he is contagious, so we've been washing our hands a lot and August has had to stay away from all of us, which is hard on all of us. I've spent the past 4 nights on the couch. I just can't risk getting sick!

I started getting worried this morning because I woke up and when I stood up I was really dizzy. I wasn't feeling the greatest this morning, but I seem to be fine now. August and I had already decided that if I get sick then we were going to have to call my mom and ask her to either come stay with us or come get the girls and take them to her house. Thankfully we haven't had to resort to that yet, though I know my mom would could help us out if I ask (and yes mom, I would ask if it comes to that!).

The girls and I were able to get out some this week. We went Wednesday to the library and for the girls to get flu shots. Emily made it very clear that she did not want a shot. I finally bribed her with a frosty if she was good. She did an excellent job and was able to get her frosty.

Saturday we were able to get out for a few hours to go to the Bethel Women's Basketball Alumni Game. I enjoyed seeing some old teammates and watching them play. The alumni lost, but they did a good job. Bethel also had in the other gym inflatables for the kids. Thank you Seth for taking Emily over there with you! I really appreciated it!! Coach Martinez was being recognized that night for being Alumni of the Year. I had hoped to go to the presentation, but with August being sick, I wasn't able to make it. Congrats Coach!

I'm hoping the sickness will leave our household very soon and I can get the house clean and sanitized for Audrey's birthday party on Saturday. I don't want to get either of our families sick. Thank you for all of your prayers. I wouldn't have been able to get thru another week without them!

Rough Week

Here's a long summary of my week!

Monday - I wake up at 5:00am feeling pretty good. A few sniffles and a little bit of a sore throat, but overall just fine. At 5:30 I head off to work for my 12 hour work day. By lunchtime it was quite clear that I was coming down with a cold. By the end of the day it was pretty much pointless to answer the phone because they wouldn't be able to hear me or understand me since I have no more voice. Work day is done so I go to the grocery for milk and some comfort food since I'm sick! I get home and Emily asks "Where is your voice?" Daddy and Emily decide it is best to head to the grocery and pick me up some orange juice. They come back with orange juice and some comfort food (I hadn't told them of my previous purchase of the evening!). Chips and cheese dip were hubby's choice and Emily had picked up Peanut M&M's. I don't think she understood they were for me because she kept asking when she could have some.

Tuesday - Still not feeling well, but I still have to take care of the girls. August comes home from work not feeling well and blaming me for getting him sick!

Wednesday - Audrey has a fever and I don't feel like going to library day, so we stay home.

Thursday - Fever continues

Friday - Fever continues. Emily at lunch time has this prayer "Help me to go to Halloween". Now, I'm not a fan of Halloween, so we don't go trick or treating, but who can resist a kid who prays that? She has been saying the last couple of weeks that she is going as a cheerleader, I'm presuming because her best friend at daycare is going as a cheerleader. I figured she can talk about it all she wants, but we just won't go. Well, of course now I'm feeling guilty. So after hubby comes home from work we decide we are going trick or treating. What to wear? Fortunately Audrey had an outfit that someone had given Emily for her first halloween. Emliy though? Well, I managed to pull together an outfit. As long as you have pom-poms, which we did, it doesn't really matter what you wear, does it? So, we pulled off a cheerleader outfit and best of all it didn't cost any money. It didn't really look like a cheerleader outfit, but Emily was happy and that is all that mattered.

Saturday - Hubby is gone allllll day working ND football game (did I mention it went into 4 overtimes?). Audrey's fever continues and the question becomes, to call the doctor or not?? I made up my mind when she started crying several times for no reason at all. My thought - ear infection. So, do I wait until Tuesday or call the doctor (can't go on Monday because I work). I decided to call the doctor. Lucky us - we have a pediatrician who has Saturday and Sunday morning hours for sick kids that can't wait until Monday. We've used this more than once! So we leave an hour before the appointment to make sure we get there on time since we have to drive thru the ND football traffic. Get there on time only to wait an hour at the doctor, though who can complain when they are seeing you on a Saturday? Verdict - ear infection, sore throat and something else I didn't catch. So we head to Walmart for her medicine. The wait - an hour and a half until the medicine can be picked up. Now, I'm not waiting that long with a sick kid at Walmart. So we head home. We head back after an hour and a half and pick up our medicine. I decided Audrey was not well enough to go to church on Sunday. So when hubby gets home we have to figure out our game plan since I was suppose to run computer. Hubby decides I get to stay home!

Sunday - Hubby goes to church, then to ND to work VB game, then to church for a meeting. Meanwhile the clocks got set back an hour last night, but what baby knows that? Especially a sick one. So Audrey is up earlier than normal and I want to know where is my promised extra hour of sleep? Of course today Audrey is acting like a sick child: crying and doesn't want to be held, doesn't want to sleep, doesn't want to play, runny nose, watery eyes, etc. It makes for a fun day and it seems like someone has set my clocks on slooooooow. Is today ever going to end?

I sure hope this next week is better!

The Past Month

It has been a while since I have blogged. We've just been busy with the girls!

Here is a sampling of what each of the girls have been up to:

Emily -

The bottom left hand corner is of Emily playing in the clothes basket. The others are of her having fun outside, which she loves to do.

Audrey -

Audrey has been busy this past month. In the top left hand corner, it is fuzzy because it is hard to get a picture of her standing still. She is now walking all over the house now. She is extremly mobile and I think she is liking her mobility! The top middle picture is of her playing in the lego bin. For some reason, she thinks it is really funny to crawl into it. The 2 pictures in the middle and the bottom left are of Audrey's climbing adventures. With her new found mobility, she has discovered it is fun to climb! Fortunately for us we don't have stairs, though she did discover at Anitra's house that she can quickly master them. But in these pictures, she climbs onto the chair and then onto the table. I am discouraging this new adventure! The final 2 bottom pictures is where she discovered daddy's mowing hat. She thinks this is sooo funny! She loves playing with it. It is hard to believe she will be a year old in less than a month!!

The girls playing nicely together (for now)!-

Of course they love playing with daddy whenever they have a chance. They were enjoying playing in the laundry basket together. Audrey can climb in there herself. The bottom 2 is where Audrey was being Emily's customer! Emily was fixing food for her in the microwave and then Audrey was consuming them, which she does best! Everything still goes in her mouth. It will be nice when those days are over.

Happy Birthday August!

Happy Birthday August!! We love you very much!!

Apple Festival Parade

This afternoon we went to the Apple Festival Parade. This was Audrey's first parade, not that she cares! We were able to meet up with Papa and Grandma to watch the parade. The parade started at 1:30 though I don't know what time it got to us, but it didn't end until 3:45! I knew it would be long because it always is. I was very happy that Audrey was well behaved. Emily was happy that the church down the street gave her a purple balloon. She actually started out with 2 balloons - 1 for her and 1 for Audrey, but somehow Audrey's slipped off her hand. As you can see in the one picture, we now have plenty of candy to last us a long time! Thanks Papa and Grandma for watching the parade with us!!

Niles Apple Festival 2008

Emily has been eagerly awaiting the start of the Apple Festival. We saw them starting to set up the tents and stuff last week so we couldn't wait for it to start on Thursday. The one nice thing about being close to the Apple Festival is we can walk, but on the other hand they are close so Emily sees it and asks lots of questions!

Thursday was wristband night, so Emily was able to ride whichever rides she wanted and as many times as she wanted. Finally at 9:30pm I told her it was time to go home! Poor Audrey was only able to sit and await her turn next year!! She was a good sport about it and very well behaved. Emily's favorite ride of the night was the Merry-Go-Round. I have no idea how many times she rode it, but it was a lot!

August thought it would be fun if he and Emily rode a ride together so he picked out the Spider. I really didn't think Emily would go for it, but surprisingly she said ok. She said afterwards her tummy hurt a little bit, but besides that she was fine. I even got in on the action at the end of the night as Emily all night had been saying she wanted to ride the Apples. This would be the Spinning Apples. Now, for those who know me well, I do not like rides, nevertheless ones that spin, but for Emily's sake I did it since August had already gone home with Audrey. I figured we would just sit in the apples and not spin them ourselves, but to my good fortune, there was a kid in our apple who liked to spin fast! I managed to be fine, I just couldn't look out of the apple, otherwise I would have been sick!!

To end our special night out, Emily and I went to the Apple Products tent and bought 2 of the apple shaped cookies with the big worms. We took those home and enjoyed them with August!

Last night they had fireworks so we all sat outside on the deck and watched them. This was Audrey's first time seeing fireworks as she slept thru the 4th of July ones. She seemed to enjoy watching them and wasn't scared by the loud noises. They have fireworks again tonight, so we are planning on all watching them again. It is so nice being able to sit on your front deck and watch fireworks!

Apple Pickin' Time

Last year we started a family tradition of going to Jollay Orchards in Coloma, MI to pick apples. Emily loved it last year and this year both of the girls enjoyed it. They have lots of fun things to do at Jollay Orchards besides apple picking. They take you into the orchard on a tractor and wagon, then you pick your apples (and eat one too!).....

...then it is time to go fishing! Now, I don't think they really expect you to catch anything given the fact you have a very flimsy fishing pole and you are using kernnels of corn for bait. But it is the effort that counts! Then you can pick out a pumpkin from their patch.

And then they take you on a wagon ride thru the rest of their fruit orchards and then you can take a picture to compare how big you were as compared to last year. They also have a kids zone where they have a minature petting zoo (goat, duck and chicken) and a small playground for the kids.

We had a great time with the girls and hope to continue the tradition.

I'm an Awana Cubbie

Last week after much pleading on Emily's part, she went to Cubbies for the first time. Last night she earned her first patch and was very excited. She is doing a great job memorizing her verses.

Play Time

Yesterday was such a nice day outside. The girls had a great time swinging and playing on the playset.

Open Wide!

Emily had her first trip to the dentist yesterday. I was a little concerned that she would throw a tantrum, but she did a great job!! I didn't get to actually watch her because I was in the waiting room with Audrey, but I could hear everything that was going on. I am so proud of her! She has not even a hint of a cavity. Way to go Em!!

Our Children's Ever Changing Lives

The past few weeks have brought lots of challenges and joys. I'll explain these pictures.

Top left - Audrey decided she was going to be adventurous and crawl thru the end table. I happened to capture the picture just as she was falling out on the other side! She loves to find something to crawl under or thru!

Our non-swimmer Emily, now loves the pool. She even stands in the pool, which it's only 3 ft tall and as you can see, is not a problem for Emily; however she wouldn't do it all summer until now. She now asks every day to go swimming and she makes sure to tell us how big of a girl she is since she doesn't need her tire tube anymore. She can walk by herself in the pool! Way to go Emily!!

The middle row of pictures are of Emily's tent that Audrey has now found great joy in playing in. We just got it back out recently and Audrey just loves following Emily into it and the 2 of them are having great fun.

The bottom couple of pictures are of Audrey getting into and playing with Emily's play food. Now, there is no shortage of play food in our house thanks to Aunt Cathy's Christmas gift a year ago. Audrey is now discovering all of Emily's hiding places including the drawers in her desk that we thought were a safe place - well it is now a safe place no longer. Audrey can open the drawers!

Audrey just had her 9 month appointment and is still growing like a weed! She is 29.25 inches tall (97 percentile) and 18lbs 10 oz (55 percentile). She's taking after her big sister!!

I am enjoying watching the girls interacting more and more as Audrey continues to grow up. It is so much fun to listen to them make each other laugh. I can only pray that they continue to get along so well!

Happy Belated Birthday Grandma!

We hope you had a great birthday. We were glad to have a birthday party for you tonight! Hope you enjoyed your outing to the Silverhawks game with the family!

Emily's Week at Grandpa & Nana's

Emily had to patiently wait her turn to spend a week at Grandpa & Nana's house. We met my parents half way and switched the girls. The girls were able to spend about an hour with each other, besides that, they spent 2 whole weeks apart from each other!

Emily loves being a helper at Grandpa & Nana's house. I'm still trying to figure out how I can get her to do everything she does at their house at our house! She loved spending time with Aunt Cathy and Uncle John. She doesn't get to see them that often.

Thanks everyone for taking good care of her! Emily is looking forward to her next week there already!!

Audrey's Week at Grandpa & Nana's

I'm a little late posting this, but Audrey enjoyed spending her week at Grandpa and Nana's house. As you can see from the one picture, she still was chewing everything in site. We were very impressed that Daisey (my parent's dog) and Audrey got along very well. Audrey isn't around dogs, so we weren't for sure how she would do, but they each tolerated each other well.

By the end of the week, I think she was missing mommy and daddy, but we were very proud of how well she did. Thanks Grandpa and Nana for taking good care of her!

What Can You Learn from a Kid's TV Show?

Plenty! Emily likes to watch Arthur in the afternoons when she isn't taking a nap. The other day the subject of the show was exercising. Well, as soon as it was done Emily told me we need to exercise. Now, I have been trying to exercise, it is just hard when you have 2 young kids, cleaning, laundry, cooking and work so it typically doesn't happen. I told her we would exercise after supper. Sure enough, as soon as supper was done, "Mom can we exercise?" So, we started watching my exercise videos (they have some great exercise videos on Comcast On Demand - just $1.99 a month and there are tons of free shows and videos). Emily decided they weren't interesting enough, so she started her own exercise. The next day, she told me again we need to exercise. So, we went outside and started exercising. Maybe she is going to be my exercise accountability partner?

Emily's Week with Mom & Dad

This week was Emily's week with just Mom and Dad. I think she enjoyed herself. We tried to do a couple of special things with her. In the pictures above, you can see she helped me make cookies, we went to the park to play and feed the ducks. She really enjoyed feeding the ducks.

Now Emily is at Grandpa and Nana's. I hope she has a fun week!

Weekend at Grandpa & Nana's

This past weekend we went to my parents house. We worked one day on the garage my dad is building. Emily and Audrey enjoyed spending time outside swinging and playing in the pool. The real purpose of this trip was to celebrate Cathy's birthday, but also to drop Audrey off. She gets to spend this whole week with Grandpa and Nana! It is sure different not having Audrey around, especially not having the morning wake up call at 7:00am! It will also be nice to have one-on-one time with Emily this week. She has me all to herself this week, so I'm hoping she will enjoy it. Then this weekend, we will switch the girls and Emily will spend next week with my parents.

Happy Birthday Cathy!

We celebrated Cathy's birthday when we were at my parents this weekend. Hope you have a great day Cathy! Hope you liked Emily's card :)

Outdoor Fun

Emily enjoys spending time outside. Audrey still doesn't know what to think! In one of the pictures you can see her trying to crawl in the grass without putting her knees in the grass. I thought it was pretty funny. Emily also likes to play tag. Fortunately on this night, we were both home, so we took turns playing tag.

Emily's Library Picks

Every week we go to the library for story time. Emily enjoys going to story time and seeing the other kids. Each week we pick out a few books to checkout. Emily loves to "read" and to have us read to her. The past 2 months we have been doing the Summer Reading Program, so I have had to track her minutes. When we turn in her paper this week, she will have received all of the prizes. I think she will be excited to get all of the prizes.

Her favorites this week: Rosie to the Rescue, Little Miss Spider, Curious George Goes to a Restaurant and The Rainbow Fish.

Even Audrey gets in on the action as they have a class for her called Squigglers. It's right after Emily's class, so it makes it convenient. In Squigglers they work on a letter of the alphabet, a nursery rhyme, a sign language sign to go with the nursery rhyme and sing the ABC's. Every week they sing Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Audrey gets a big smile on her face whenever we sing this song. Emily's favorite part of Audrey's class is the band at the end. The librarian gives each child an instrument and they get to play in the band for a few minutes.

Stay tuned for future Emily's favorites.

Audrey is 8 months old

Today Audrey turned 8 months old. It is hard to believe that time goes by so quickly! She has had a busy month. She now has 5 teeth, can crawl, sit up, pull herself up and she is saying ba and da. She's not quite saying dada, but she is close. We also started stage 3 foods this month, though she really only likes the fruits. Today I gave her pieces of a banana, and she really liked that. We also tried yogart and little pieces of peaches. So, it looks like I am going to start fixing more of her food instead of buying jars. I guess I will have to start planning ahead, because when she is hungry, she lets you know!

We moved Audrey up into the convertible car seat, which meant Emily got a new car seat, so she was happy! We even had them both checked out at a local car seat inspection day and got some good tips and corrected a few things. I would recommend all parents get their car seats checked. They say 8 out of 10 seats are installed incorrectly.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Ready, Go!

That's right, I left out the Get Set. Babies don't let you get set! As I mentioned a week ago, Audrey started crawling and pulling herself up. Well, I assumed it would take her a while to master both of those. Well, I was wrong. She is getting efficient at crawling when there is something she sees that she wants. And today she pulled herself up to one of our end tables.

As soon as I got the picture, I went to get her down. Somehow in doing that, I knocked down the M&M basket that you see. Well, it broke and shattered into pieces. The kids are fine, but not the basket. I should have known better than to leave it out. I actually was going to put it away last night, but it was going in Audrey's room and she was sleeping.

The signifigance of the basket? The first flowers that I received from August while we were dating were in that basket. On Easter my freshman year in college, while most everybody else was at home, I was still in my dorm room. And in walked a flower delivery person with a beautiful bouquet in this basket. So, it is kind of sad.

This note to all of my new parent friends - start cleaning and putting away all of your breakables. Your kids will start crawling soon and getting into things :) I actually need to stop blogging and start putting things away!

Craft Time

For the past few months, Emily has taken a great interest in cutting paper. She can sit at the table and just cut and cut. I have learned I have to be careful what I leave around, because if she finds a piece of paper, it is fair game and she doesn't always ask before cutting a piece of paper! She keeps refining her cutting skills, and today she impressed me! She was able to cut out this moon and star from a full sheet of paper.

She did cut the moon once, but that was my fault. She was asking if she could cut there, but I was too busy taking pictures to answer her!

We decided to use the moon and star to make puppets. Emily wanted to paint her puppet, so we have to wait for it to dry before she can play with it. I have a feeling we are going to be playing puppets for a while once they do dry!

It was time...

For those of you who have seen Emily's "duck" (it is really a chicken, but at the time she got it, it was easier to tell her it was a duck) you know that it is really dirty! She has had this duck since she was 15 months old. Well, a few months after she got it, we realized if anything ever happened to that duck, we were going to be in big trouble, so we bought a back-up one just in case. Her duck used to go with her almost everywhere. I have tried to clean the thing with special cleaner, but nothing seems to work. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know! Well, I recently got tired of the duck being so dirty, so I asked Emily one day if she would like a new duck. Of course, I got an immediate NO! Every few weeks I would bring it up again and one day, I got a YES! So, here is her new clean duck!! I am now limiting where the duck can go, and I don't think it is going to leave the house!

We told Emily we were going to give the old duck to Audrey, but she's too young for it now. If I ever get it clean, Audrey might get it! This picture makes you realize just how dirty that duck is :( Emily loves her new duck just like her old one. I was really proud of her for exchanging it!

Aunt Cathy's Softball Lessons

Aunt Cathy wants to make sure Emily learns to hit and throw correctly, so whenever she has the opportunity, she is helping Emily learn. Emily's attention span isn't to long, but she is trying. The funniest part was she wanted to catch the ball sitting on her tricycle!

Aunt Cathy, am I throwing correctly?

And then there is the hitting lesson!

We even managed to get an entire family softball game going. Even Nana and Grandpa got in on the action, including Nana hitting the ball on her first try!

Swimming with the Cousins

Emily is still working on enjoying getting in the pool, but she enjoyed spending time in the pool with her cousins over the 4th. Audrey and Papa even got in on the action as well.