December 30, 2007

Emma can’t get any cuter then she is now. Yesterday she stayed the day with me and we had so much fun. She really likes her “Hokey Pokey Elmo”. We did the Hokey Pokey over and over most of the day! If we keep this up, maybe I will lose some weight! She likes how Elmo says “oopsie, Elmo fell over, help me up please” when it would tip over, so she would push him over and then help him up to hear him say “Thank You”. She is really into the dress up jewelry also. Everyone was wearing necklaces and bracelets… Elmo, Baby alive, Tara…

Thursday we went to see Aunt Cassie. She was coloring my hair and Emma was finding anything she could to get into. She doesn’t have a problem making herself at home anywhere. Last time she helped herself to some lady’s purse and some guys cell phone which was hooked onto his pocket. This time she helped by getting the broom (sorry to those who got in her way, the little train just plows through anything and anyone). Nothing got broke though, so it wasn’t so bad. Then she watched Cassie’s boss give a manicure to some lady. Next thing we knew she was on Cassie’s boss’s lap getting her finger nails painted. Oh, she was so proud of that. She would blow on them to help dry them and would hold her hand out for everyone to see and say “ooo” If we said “oh, pretty” she would grin from ear to ear. Then when Cassie was fixing my hair, she picked up Emma and told her to help. She said “we spray, then we poofy, poofy, poofy” while puffing up my hair. Emma would do the same saying “poofy, poofy, poofy” then laugh. It was so cute.

Emma doesn’t want Grandma to rock her to sleep anymore. Now when she needs a nap she will choose to sleep on her princess sofa that Grandpa Lee bought her. She has to fight the dog for it though. It makes me so sad that she doesn’t want our cuddle time anymore, but it just means she is growing up so fast. I am so glad I took the time to have it all those months when she was willing and wanting it. She still comes over and gives me lots of loves though.

The Baby Alive is the first doll that Emma has that has the eyelids that close. I told her “shhh, baby is sleeping” and she goes around with her now saying “shhh..”, then she usually drops her!
She got a shopping cart for Christmas which they keep over at their house since she has one here. Brianna said she loves shopping with it and if they are missing anything, they go check out the cart first. I guess she pushes it around their house and puts anything she can find in it.
Emma is a problem solver also. I never seen a child who can get something tangled up and work on it until she has it fixed. She doesn’t let anything keep her from doing what she wants and will try different things until she finds what works. I am worried that she will be getting my front door open and we won’t be able to keep her inside. She already pulls the handle down, just doesn’t pull it open. I will have to keep it locked pretty soon.

Brianna is potty training Emma. I bought her some big girls panties and Brianna isn’t sure she wants to deal with wet pants that aren’t disposable yet. I think Emma would be one who won’t like them wet and will only wet in them once. She already knows when she needs to potty and does pretty good for them. She was pretty happy when I put pull-ups on her yesterday. I can’t get her to go potty for me over hear. She likes her potty chair but won’t go in it. Brianna said she will only go on the toilet so I will have to pick up a seat to go on mine for her. She does put her babies on the potty chair, holding them on there by their legs. She is so funny and cute!

Emma is getting pretty tall. She can see on the tables now, which is a problem since mine is the catch all. She sees what she can take off with and gets it then runs. She is also trying her hand at crawling up on things. She likes to stand on the bench of her picnic table and we worry that one of these days she will fall off and get hurt. She is in a size 5 shoe and size 18 mo to 24 mo clothes. She is starting to look like a 2 year old rather then a baby. My baby is no longer a baby but a toddler who has such a winning and loveable personality. She was blowing kisses to some guy in the Alltel phone place the other day. Oh and she now puts her hand over her mouth when she coughs, but always throw it like when you blow kisses. She has to be one of the cutest children around (Grandma thinks she IS the cutest of all of course)!

Emma with her 4 wheeler video

December 25, 2007

Christmas came and went fast this year. It seems like time is flying by so fast, soon Emma will be graduating and we will be wondering what happened to our little girl.
Emma’s second Christmas was fun and exciting. We started out with going to Grandma Eda’s and Grandpa Don’s around 11 am on Christmas eve. Emma really enjoyed it, Tara went with us and also Pam’s dog, Speckles, was there. Speckles is the dog that was there on Easter which Emma loved so much, even trying to bite her. Speckles was so happy to see Emma, she gave her kisses and more kisses (yucky puppy dog kisses). Emma would just laugh and go for more kisses. This is where I wonder about Emma’s train of thought. When we go to kiss Emma she will lean in her forehead, allowing you to give her a kiss there. When the dogs want to kiss her, she opens her mouth and lets them lick her, then laughs (see, yucky puppy dog kisses). She won’t eat a pea or corn but she likes sharing food with the dog.
Emma enjoyed getting into the cookies and other Christmas goodies but wouldn’t touch dinner. I fixed her some eggs when we got home and she ate a bit of that but was more interesting in feeding it to the dog. She did well with opening presents there. Aunt Pam bought her the cutest black leather jacket with a pink fur collar. It is so cute on her.
Grandma Eda and Emma played the piano and sang The Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolf the red nose reindeer. She was so cute sitting there with Grandma Eda.
Jordan and Brianna and Emma left early to head over to see Grandma Bev. They got out on the highway and had to turn around. It was so nasty with freezing rain and snow. Brianna felt horrible about missing it, but maybe they can go this weekend and see them. We would all rather them be safe then to take chances out on the road.
The kids all stayed over night here. Emma didn’t know what to think about mommy and daddy spending the night at grandma’s house too. She wouldn’t sleep in her crib very well and when I peeked in on them this morning, Jordan had just a little section of the bed, Brianna had a good share of the bed, but Emma laid sideways with her head up against Jordan and her feet in Brianna’s face. It was so cute.
Emma didn’t know what to think of Santa leaving her things. She stood there looking confused at the stuff, but soon enough went over to the little 4 wheeler and when grandpa showed her to push the button and how it would go, she would push the button but not sit on it. Finally Cassie got her to sit on it and when she pushed the button, she was done with it! She didn’t know what to think of it moving on it’s own. After a few more times of pushing the button, she got gutsy enough to try it. Soon it was her favorite toy. She also got twin babies and a high chair. Cassie bought her a Baby Alive and she thought that was pretty fun too. Opening presents wasn’t so interesting to her though. She decided after the first couple that she should just sit on the package and tear the paper in little tiny pieces. I am not sure if Jordan and Brianna ended up opening her presents or if she finally decided to tear into them. At Grandma Mert and Grandpa Lee’s she opened one and decided that was enough opening. She wanted to play and all that gift opening was getting in her way.
The greatest gift I ever received wasn’t the ones I open but my children and my little Emmalyne. Thank you God for my family and loved ones.

Tuesday I bought Little Drummer Boy DVD for Emma along with a little drum. She thought that was great fun. While watching the movie, I told Emma “look, the drummer boy is going to play his drum for baby Jesus!” She jumped up, took her drum and went to my nativity scene. I thought “aww how cute, she is going to play for Baby Jesus”. When I went over to see what she was doing, she had piled all the nativity figures on her drum except for baby Jesus and Joseph which she still had in the stable. I just laughed. Maybe she should be getting a doll house for Christmas since she is so interested in the stable and playing with the little figurines.
Last night we had Customer’s appreciation dinner at the ARO. It was a lot of fun with a buffet and Karaoke. Jordan and Brianna brought Emma for it. She had a really good time with the dancing and eating and singing. She wanted to go up and sing in the microphone so bad. She would stand there and dance and watch whoever was singing. She was so cute. I enjoy her so much. Everyone at the ARO is crazy about her. Even the people who are buying the restaurant really enjoyed watching her last night. I think she will enjoy the music program when she gets into school.
Only 5 more days until Christmas. I can’t wait! She will be so fun this year with the magic of the holiday. Brianna said they would spend the night here on Christmas Eve, so when Emma wakes up, she can go see what Santa brought her. Santa is coming to my house since there is more room. Great Grandma Eda bought Emma a nice stocking with her name embroidered on it. Now if I just can get my house cleaned up by Monday!

December 16, 2007

I have slacked off on writing about my little favorite subject. She still is being as cute and sweet and loveable as can be. I don’t know if anything is more enjoyable then spending the day spoiling her whether it is shopping or just spending the day home playing.



Last Wednesday Brianna, Emma and I went to finish up Christmas shopping at the mall. Each time we went by Santa, she would look and really keep track of where he was. She was such a good girl, never crying, throwing fits or even asking for anything at all. Then when we dropped off the stroller we had to walk by Santa again. She took my hand and led me right up to him. He held out his hands for her to sit on his lap and she looked at him then turned and held her hands out to me. I guess she just wanted a good look at him, but no touch. I don’t think he was thrilled when he saw her shirt though. It said “Who needs Santa when you have Grandma!”
I liked it, but he didn’t even laugh. We didn’t get home until 10:30 that night so I kept her over night. She got a second wind when we got inside the house, chasing the dog and playing with her toys. Finally around midnight she settled down enough for me to rock her to sleep and put her in her bed. Then around 4:30 am she woke up screaming. I had to move her crib next to the bed to block that side then put her in bed with me for her to settle back down. She laid her head on my stomach and went to sleep making sure I wasn’t going to put her in her bed again. During the night she started making her way up towards the pillow and cuddled right up next to me. It reminded me of when I was a little girl cuddling up with my grandma when I spent the night over there. I was a grandma’s girl also. Emma enjoys spending the night but she is always happy to see her momma the next day. She didn’t want Brianna to be out of her site much at all on Thursday.



Emma helped decorate my Christmas tree. She put the candy canes around it. We have a line of candy canes along the bottom, just in her reach. We have slowly been moving them up higher though. She has Grandma’s sweet tooth for sure. I wonder if she will get into unwrapping the presents when she sees them under the tree. I just put them under it today so she hasn’t been over yet to see them.



She also started singing Little Drummer Boy with me. It is so cute. I sing the verse and sing the pur-um-pa-pum and she will sing “pum pum” afterwards. She has such a sweet voice when she sings.



I got a phone call from Jordan tonight. He said “We have something to tell you” I could hear Brianna in the back ground yelling “NO, I am NOT pregnant!” How did she know what went through my mind when he said that?! Anyway, our little baby… well toddler, went pooh-pooh in the big toilet. She didn’t want to go on her little potty chair, kept looking at the big one. They had to call so grandma can tell her how proud I am of her and how big she is. They said she walked around the house like she was hot stuff after that. She is hot stuff! One of my friends asked if we fished it out and bronzed it. I told him I didn’t think of doing that, but wonder if they flushed yet… maybe we should! Ok, Ok, even I won’t go that far… well….

November 18, 2007

Thanksgiving was nice. I really missed Emma before the day was over though. They went to Grandma Neil’s house for dinner. They did come out to Grandpa Lee’s in the morning so Megan and Laura and Terri could see her. She was cute like always, making us all laugh.
Black Friday we went shopping, brave souls we are. I was buying some stuff at Kmart, Brianna was behind me, waiting to pay for a movie. Emma was in the cart between us. She reached out and took Brianna’s $10 bill and Brianna said “oh you are wanting to pay, ok?” letting her have it. She turned to me then and handed me the $10 bill. I took it and said “Thank you” She then smiled and tried to take the pile of bills I had in my hand… she was trying to trade me the $10 for the $400 I had in my hand! She is a smart little thing.
We took her to see Santa at the mall while we were shopping. She could hardly wait for her turn to go sit on his lap. When it was finally her turn, she sat there and looked up at him, then at me, and was about ready to be down. I said “Oh Emma, Santa is going to get your belly!!!!” and she smiled, they took the picture and then she held out her arms to me to take her, she had enough. She still gets excited when we say “look there is Santa Clause” though.
I had to laugh this morning. Brianna said that as soon as she got up this morning Emma told her “Grandma” Brianna said “you want to go to Grandma’s house?” Emma nodded and said “yes”. So over they came, pajamas and all. Emma got into my bread drawer. She kept getting out the loaf of bread so I set it up on the counter. A short time later, I was in curling my hair and I heard her giggling in her bedroom and figured she was in there playing with the cat. I kept waiting to hear the cat hissing but didn’t, so I went in to check out what was so funny. She had gotten a hamburger bun out of the bread drawer and was hiding behind the bed, eating it! She was so proud of herself for getting away with sneaking that hamburger bun. I told Kevin that she is only 1 year old, she shouldn’t know how to sneak yet! She will be a handful when she is older for sure! I still laugh at her hiding while eating that bun though. What a crazy kid!

November 20, 2007

November 20, 2007
Emma is growing like a weed. She is in size 18 months clothes and a size 5 shoe. I think she is going to sprout up more soon since she outgrew her size 4 shoes so fast. That is how I knew her daddy was going to grow over night… he would eat and eat and eat… then he would outgrow his shoes… then one morning he would wake up 2 or 3 inches taller then when he went to bed. The other two kids grew slowly but steadily, the only way I knew they grew was when their pants were too short. Makes me think if we checked Jordan’s dna and Emma’s they would have almost all the same traits.
Jordan and Brianna and Emma were in Casper all last week. Man did I miss my little “burger butt”. When they came over on Saturday, Emma gave me a cuddle or two then ran after Tara saying “dog… dog… dog…” guess we know who she missed the most! Sunday I worried she would cry when I left to go to work, but Grandpa was here so she hardly gave me a bye-bye kiss. He took her little buggy out to the garage to fix it so it wouldn’t come apart all the time. She wasn’t to sure about that… Brianna said she really freaked out over it until he brought it back in. Sometimes she doesn’t share well. Emma really shares with Tara though. She spends the day giving Tara one toy after another to play with and tries to feed her her plastic play food. Tara takes it all in stride, she sure loves Emma now that Emma is big enough to want to play with her and learning not to pull on Tara’s hair and ears.
Emma doesn’t say much, but talks all the time. She tells you something that is just jabber, but acts like she is telling you something important. She will repeat words and say some words that you can understand too. The other day when I tried to give her baby food, she spit it out and looked at me like “what in the world are you trying to get me to eat??” So I said “oh you want some of grandma’s cooking?” She nodded yes and said “Grandma’s cooking” just as plain as can be. I think she wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to feed her anymore of that jarred baby food!
If I ask her if she wants lunch, she will go get the bread out of the drawer. That means she wants a pb & J sandwich. She likes peanut butter and jelly and also turkey and tuna sandwiches. She isn’t much of a ham eater or even beef she doesn’t eat a lot of.
She had her flu shot booster yesterday. When Brianna brought her into the restaurant afterwards she took one look at me and came to me crying to have me make her feel better. She cuddled up to me and got some loves and then she was all better. She headed in the kitchen and said “Zach?” She loves our cook Zach. He is the same age as Jordan and such a cute sweet young man.
I can’t wait to find out how she likes the snow. Today will be the first day she sees it and can actually play in it. Last year she was to young and was over covered when outside. She is so fun to watch as she learns new things. I love her so much!

November 2, 2007

I can’t believe it is already November and Halloween came and went so fast. Soon it will be Emma’s second Christmas.


Halloween was fun. Brianna brought her over all dressed in her Elmo costume and she looked so cute that Tara felt jealous. We know this because the first thing Tara did was put her front paws on Emma’s chest and pushed her over on her bottom. Emma got her back after I put Tara in her bumble bee costume from last year. Emma thought that was so funny she would bend over with her hands on her knees laughing so hard. It really tickled her to have Tara all dressed up.


Emma thought that Trick or Treating was loads of fun. She really likes the idea that you go from door to door with a little Elmo bucket and people put CANDY in it. Brianna and I took her to the nursing home, Energy Electric, Aro and a couple other businesses and to one of my co workers, Bobbie, who makes the best popcorn balls for Halloween each year. Emma made herself at home at Bobbie’s house. She always has loved Bobbie who is everyone’s Grandma. Cassie came over and while I worked she and Brianna took Emma out door to door. Cassie stayed the night with Emma, well and Brianna and Jordan so I went over to their place when I got off work at 10. Emma was still up and going strong on her sugar high. Cassie tried to rock her to sleep but she wasn’t having it. So I took her and rocked and sang to her, putting her asleep in 5 minutes. Now that I think of it, I think she goes to sleep so she doesn’t have to hear my off-tune singing anymore! Oh well, whatever works!


Yesterday we went to see Grandpa Lee and Grandma Mert since they didn’t make it out there trick or treating. Emma had a good time trying out the dolls chairs and seeing what she could get into. She had a good time having all that attention on her. She always does.

October 30, 2007

Emma is just so much fun. I don’t think I have laughed so much since her daddy was a baby. She is so full of imagination and so smart, she keeps us going that is for sure.

Grandma Mert, Brianna, Emma and I went shopping on Sunday. Emma was showing her independence by wanting to walk instead of ride in the stroller. Brianna has a harness for her so we put it on and let her walk. She liked stopping at everything she could, it took twice as long to go anywhere. A nice family had rented one of the car strollers from the mall and when they seen Emma they gave it to us to use since they were leaving. Emma thought she was really big stuff “driving” around the mall. She would look back at Grandma Mert who was pushing her just to make sure she was watching her drive. We went to lunch and Emma had spaghetti which she ate about all of it (no complaints about Emma’s eating habits here). Grandma Mert was surprised since she is use to Emilee and Skylee’s eating habits which is not to eat much of anything. We wore Grandma Mert out early and she headed home (or Deadwood we found out later!). This leaving Brianna and I chasing Emma who again decided she wanted to walk instead of ride.

We were in Target and found a little shopping cart. I have been looking for one for Emma that looked at least sturdy enough not to be tipping over all the time. Oh how Emma thought that was a lot of fun, shopping like us big girls. She pushed that cart around the store and would pick stuff off the shelves to stick in her basket, usually items that were almost to big for her to pick up (a full size doll and a Pooh Bear). She would just laugh when we would put it back and she would move on to the next thing that caught her eye. Finally (after at least 20 minutes) we made it out of the toy isle. I started putting my stuff in her cart so she felt she was shopping. Everyone thought she was so cute, pushing that cart around. We went and paid and put the small sacks in her cart… wrong thing to do. She didn’t know if she wanted to carry a sack or put it in her cart and push it. She stopped every 3 steps to take the bag out start carrying it for maybe 2 steps while I pushed the cart, then stopping to put it back in the cart and start pushing it again. Finally we decided she needed to move faster so Brianna picked up her cart to carry while I held Emma. This wasn’t to her liking at all and Brianna claims she was throwing a fit but I think she was just showing her independence on doing it her way. We finally got her to walk while Brianna pushed her stroller and carried the shopping cart and all was good and we finally made it out of Target.

Outside of Target is a long slope down to the main floor of the mall. Emma thought that was so fun walking down the slope, she laughed all the way down it. I made her hold my hand so she wouldn’t unbalance herself and she was ok with that. Our shopping trip was going well again, we were all happy (except for Brianna who had to maneuver both the stroller and the shopping cart). Then we went past Victoria Secrets. Emma liked that store, she would look at all the pinks, blacks and reds and want to go in there. I had to get something from there anyway so we went in. She eyed the little shopping bags with the pink stripes and really liked those so I picked up a little purse that says “Angel” on it and had perfume and lotion inside. I asked the lady for a separate bag for that so Emma would have her own shopping bag to carry. She thought that was really cool but kept dumping it. We stopped again so I could tie the strings together so she wouldn’t lose her little purse out of it and she thought I was taking it away. She started crying (Brianna called it a fit) and we knew our shopping trip was about done with. All in all she was a good baby, especially when we let her do things her way, and we had a lot of laughs as she showed how grown up she was getting to be at 1 year old.

Grandpa Kevin got to laugh with us when we got home and she showed him her shopping cart. I put a doll in it and she would take the doll out, hug it and pat it’s back and say “aww” then put it back in the shopping cart. She would drop the doll and I would say “whaaaaa whaaaaa” and she would giggle then pick up her baby to comfort her. She is really enjoying the shopping cart, I am just waiting for her to start shopping in my cupboards!

Emma spent Sunday night with us. She was so tired after all that walking around the mall that she was really easy to get to sleep and she slept so soundly, not waking up until 10am on Monday morning. I never seen a child sleep 12 or more hours like she does. When she woke up we had some oatmeal and a bath and enjoyed playing the rest of the morning, having a short nap about 1 and then going strong until they left last night around 9. Brianna handed me her coat to put on and I said I didn’t want to be the one who makes her cry since she hates coats. Brianna laughed and started taking the laundry out to the car. I said “Emma, better get your jacket on, Mommy and daddy are going to go home and you will have to spend the night again!” She loves her grandma but she was ready to be home at her own house so she hurried to put her coat on and met them down at the door, waving bye-bye to Grandpa. She wasn’t about to be left again!

I am so glad I am able to spend so much time with Emma, she is my sunshine. I love being her grandma!

October 22, 2007

Emma is so funny. She does all kinds of odd and fun things. Today we went to Gillette to see Cassie and have her color my hair. Emma loved playing the hair stylist, combing and “fixing” my hair. She thought it was really funny when Cassie waxed Brianna’s eyebrows. She really liked being able to walk all around the beauty shop. Cassie had gotten her some fake tattoos. Emma picked out the one she wanted and Cassie put it on her arm. She thought she was big stuff with tattoos like Aunt Cassie. Cassie would rub her tattoo and then show Emma hers. Emma would rub Cassie's tattoo then rub the fake one on her arm and say something, what we don't know. We went over to Cassie’s apartment afterwards. Emma made herself at home checking out cupboards, closets and everything she could there. When we tried to leave, Emma was trying to take Cassie’s phone with her. When Brianna got that away, she grabbed a hold of a candle, wanting to take it with us. Brianna got that away and the only thing between Emma and the door was a long mirror hung on the wall. Emma tried to take it off the wall, wanting to take it with us “have this?” I laughed and said she takes after Cassie in so many ways. Cassie use to have to bring something from Grandma’s house each time she left. Cassie found a little Hug Me doll and gave that to Emma to bring home with her. Emma was so happy with that, she carried it all the way the car then held on to it until she fell asleep on the way home.

We stopped in Moorcroft and visited Jarrod at the bowling alley. He was bowling on a Monday night bowling league and it was the first time Emma ever seen a bowling alley. She really was enthralled with it. Jarrod stood in front of her talking to her and she pushed him aside so she could watch. She wasn’t to happy when we left.

Shopping is getting interesting now. She found a pair of pajamas she really liked and grabbed them saying “want this” Of course she got them… Grandma’s can spoil, it is allowed! I will have to put a stop to it if she gets bad enough to throw a fit when (and if) she is told “No”

There isn’t another kid around who is loved more by everyone she meets, that is for sure. Even my brother says she is one child that just seems to have a glow about her.

October 12, 2007

Emma is walking all over now. She is also so cute with the play dishes and kitchen set, pretending like she is eating and drinking. She has a big My Little Pony which is her “baby”. She carries it around and pats it on the back or bottom saying “awww” It is so cute. She puts it in her buggy and pushes it around then takes it out and puts it up to her shoulder and pats it again. She also has this new face she makes. If you tell her “No” on something she will stand there with a shocked look on her face… her mouth drops open and she looks at us like “I can’t believe you said that to ME!” Then she makes you feel guilty when she starts to pucker up.
She is talking a lot. She carries on conversations with you like she is so grown up… now if only we could understand what she is saying! She also pretends to talk on the phone. She holds it to her ear and says “hello….. Yes….yes….” That we can understand.

Emma is such a smart little girl. She knows which shapes go in which holes on her toys, but she can’t get it turned right to put them in. She also follows simple directions like “take this to your mommy”. She brought me a diaper when she had wet pants yesterday. Wednesday night she went potty in the potty chair…. Yeah!!!!… but then she stuck her hand in it… yuck! She will be easy to potty train I am sure. She laughs and gets such a kick out of everything. The simplest things seem to tickle her. She sings to me and dances around. She has a little chicken that does the Chicken Dance which she loves. She gets to flapping her arms and dancing around to it, laughing all the while. I plan on getting a video of it if I can get her to do it when I have the camera.

I have to say she is one sweet and loveable little girl who has grown and matured so much in just the two weeks since her birthday. She isn’t a baby anymore but a toddler, right down to the fits when she doesn’t get what she wants. They aren’t too bad though and very few of them. I sure love her lots and lots.

October 3, 2007

Emma is walking pretty good now. She still falls, but can make it across the room. She has more trouble when she has her shoes on, of course, but by the end of next week I bet she will do better even with the shoes.



Sunday I left for Casper to see Elton John in concert and didn’t get to see Emma before leaving. So with them being in Casper the week before and my leaving on Sunday, the only day I had time with Emma was Saturday and that was filled with Birthday fun. Monday when I returned home, Brianna and Emma were at my house doing laundry, so when I drove up to the house I could see Emma and Tara standing up at the door just as excited as can be. It was so cute, I wish I had my camera.



Yesterday we took Emma for her year checkup. She is 30 and half inches and 22 pounds. She has slowed down on her growing. She is just above the 50% at weight and 75% in height, which is down from where she was before on height and a little more in the weight. I think she is going to be sprouting up soon. I think she might end up growing like Jordan did where she would gain weight then shoot up an inch or so. He use to go to bed at night at one height and when he woke up in the morning he seemed to be a inch or two taller. Jarrod and Cassie grew much more slowly but constant. I would know they were growing by the pants being to short, never as noticeable as with Jordan. Emma is in good health and a happy little thing.



Emma spent the night with me Monday. She doesn’t like my putting her in her bed though. She breaks my heart when she cries and wants me to pick her up. I usually rock her to sleep then put her to bed, but she wakes up as soon as I lay her down. I won’t let her sleep in bed with us since I am afraid of her being rolled on. I also thought about laying with her on the extra bed, but afraid she would fall off the bed, so she has to sleep in her crib for a while longer at least. She already rolled off the ottoman when I laid her down to change her diaper. She was almost asleep and drinking her bottle when I realized I didn’t change her, so I laid her down on the ottoman and turned to get the diaper when she rolled over and off. She wasn’t hurt but it scared her pretty good. My, did she cry!



We were at WalMart and there was Halloween decoration that was a scary dead looking guy from the chest up and when you went by it, it would talk and say his head was hurting or something like that, then he would reach up and lift his head off his shoulders. Emma saw that and her mouth dropped open and she just stared at it. She wasn’t so sure about it all. I laughed and called him a funny man and she would just give me a forced laugh like she wasn’t so sure it was funny. The look on her face was priceless. I have a video of it on my phone but I can’t send it to my computer. My phone doesn’t send out the video.

Video of Emma starting to walk

September 29, 2007 The Birthday party

What a day for Emma. We had her birthday party and it was a good time for all. She had two grandmas, two grandpas, 4 great grandmas and 2 great grandpas to dote on her. She also had Aunt Cassie, Uncle Jarrod, Aunt Pam, Al, Jenny, Skylee, Baily, Trey, Kaydence, Stormy, and Emilee to help celebrate. There was 24 of us in all.

We had spaghetti for dinner, then she opened her presents which we had to take a break in the middle of since she seemed to lose interest on the opening and would rather do the playing. I think her favorite toy was a Harley rocker from Aunt Cassie. She thought that was pretty cool. Her sit and spin Zebra from her mommy and daddy was another popular toy. So was her stroller, her shape and color bug and many other toys she received. We wonder now with this many new toys how we will ever figure out what to get her for her Christmas presents this year!

She loved the Elmo cakes and thought it was pretty fun digging into the cake with Aunt Cassie. All in all she had a great time and was a very, very good girl throughout it all.

Emma’s Halloween costume came in. She is going to be Elmo. We tried it on her and she was so cute. She wasn’t sure she liked it until I showed her how she looked in the mirror, then she smiled and laughed.

Now that she is a year old, her car seat can be facing forward. Emma thinks that is the greatest thing. Brianna said she kept laughing and saying “Look.. See?” I will have to turn her car seat in my car around also before we go to Spearfish on Tuesday for her year old checkup.

I was giving Emma a bath this morning. She had a little fish that I filled with water and then would squirt her with it. She thought that was so funny so I started filling it then letting her squeeze it to squirt it. She was laughing so much and then she squirted herself right in the face with it. That would upset most kids her age but she laughed even harder over it. She thought it was so fun. I think SHE is so fun!

Emma is also blowing Kisses now. She is so cute when she does it. She puts her hand over her mouth then smacks her lips. I can’t believe how fast this year went and how much she has matured through out the year. She is one smart cookie.

September 12, 2007

We took Emma in for her year old pictures today. I know it is a couple weeks early, but we had the time and the next two weeks are going to be pretty busy with her birthday party and work and going to see Elton John in concert.
Emma is such a sweetheart and she always smiles and enjoys herself. The photographer had her work cut out for her working with a lively little Emma. She took some wonderful shots though. Emma liked eating the apples (they were fake and has a few bites out of them now) and she wouldn’t sit still for anything. She was crawling towards the camera ever chance she got. She was full of smiles though.
Emma took 6 steps today. Of course this was when we wanted her to stand still for the picture, but she will be walking (well running) in no time.
We took Emma to the developmental screening yesterday. She is doing very well except she has some stigmatism in her eyes and she has one foot that turns in when she walks that we need to check out with her doctor. She loved all the people who was there paying attention to her. Everyone asked the same thing “Is she always this happy?” Yes she is… well not when you are not letting her do her own thing, but almost always. She did some things that are advanced for her age. That doesn’t surprise me at all!

September 5, 2007

Emma helped herself to some shortcake cups I had in the bread drawer. She was pretty proud of herself.

Emma will be a year old this month. It is hard to believe how fast this past year as flown by. She is trying to walk (looks like a drunken sailor when we hold her hand to help her) and can get a couple steps out before plopping herself down. She also can stand on her own as long as she is busy and doesn’t realize that she is standing on her own. My mom told me that I was that way until my first birthday on which I stood up and ran across the room.

Emma was up in the living room with me when I ran down to the kitchen for something. The phone rang just as I walked into the kitchen and when I grabbed the cordless I noticed it said “line in use” I was confused for a minute until I turned it on and said hello and heard the beeping of the buttons being pushed. Emma had answered the phone in the living room and was busy pushing buttons. It was Aunt Cassie, luckily and she thought it was so cute. Emma would say something then push the buttons some more. She also threw the biggest fit I ever saw her pitch when I wouldn’t let her keep playing with the phone. A nice nap on grandma’s lap took care of that though. She woke up all smiles again.

I found out that there is a Mountain lion that has been seen at different places around town including my front yard. I keep a close eye on Tara while she is outside and we have limited our time outside with Emma. I hope that they catch him soon.

Emma is fighting naps really bad now. She will go and go full speed and when I go to rock her she will let me until she figures out she is going to have to go to sleep and then she wants down to play. I still can’t bring myself to put her in her bed to fall asleep like they do at home. She cries and it breaks my heart to think I have upset her so. I don’t want her to feel I have abandoned her to her lonely little bed!

Brianna isn’t working anymore so I don’t have her in the mornings. She is missing Grandma’s house though and crawls to the door and tells Brianna “Grandma, bye” At the restaurant when they come in to see me, when it is time to go they tell her to tell grandma bye. She will hold her arms out to me and I would take her to give her loves and she turns to her parents and waves bye -bye to them. She lets them know what she wants and when she wants it.

She really likes Spaghetti-o’s. It doesn’t surprise me as much as she likes Spaghetti. She isn’t so crazy about baby food anymore. Doesn’t surprise me, I don’t think any of my kids were still eating baby food at a year. She likes M & M’s though. She doesn’t get candy often and doesn’t get much of it when she does. At least she loves to brush her teeth.

We will be taking her over to Sears for her one year pictures soon. We are going to use her flower girl dress for one of the outfits for them. I don’t know what else we will dress her in yet. I hope that she will do well taking them now that she is so busy and always wanting to go. She hasn’t had them taken since her 6 mo pictures and of course the pictures at the wedding.