Christmas #2

On Christmas Eve we left EARLY in the morning again and headed to GiGi's. We had a wonderfully relaxing day just hanging out, eating, napping and visiting with everyone!

One of Emily's gifts from GiGi was a Cinderella stepstool. So, after we had all finished opening presents she decided she wanted to give us a Christmas Concert. So, she stood on her stepstool, in her pj's, in the middle of everyone and sang as loud as she could whatever song popped into her head (or was suggested to her). When she would finish a song she would just clap and smile! It was the cutest! Here is some video from her concert as well as some pictures from GiGi's.

Posing with Aunt Jeanie & Uncle Cecil.

Her new bouncy ball...which she loves...but can play with when she gets bigger

(a whole other story)!!!
Hugging her new Care Bear...Oopsy Bear.
Modeling her new "Socks"...she loved to put stockings on her feet!

Getting ready to rip and tear!

Posing with Daddy & Gigi!

Concert Video

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Christmas #1

I am so sorry that I haven't posted since before Christmas! I just can't believe that it is January 2009 already.....where does the time go! This year Emily was SO excited about Christmas!!! She loved everything about it....the decorations, the lights, the trees, the presents. Santa Claus, Rudolph....everything! She loved to sit by the fire, drinking hot chocolate and looking at the Christmas tree. She loved holding hands and standing around the tree singing "O Christmas Tree"....even though we still don't know all of the words to it! She loved belting out Christmas songs whenever she felt like it. This was definitely the funnest (is that a word?) Christmas yet with Emily!

It started on Christmas Eve Eve with our annual trip to Grandma and Grandpa/Ma and Pa's house. Emily still hasn't decided what she wants to call them! We did things a little different and drove up EARLY that morning. We were able to spend a lot of calm, quiet time with Grandma and Grandpa before all of the festivities started! Emily even took a good nap :) Grandpa found the BEST recipe for Little Smokies...1 jar of Chili Sauce and 1 cup of Grape Jelly. I know it sounds REALLY SHEW....but it is delicious... I think we ate 3 packages of them in one day!!!!

Emily got a computer, a digital camera (yes, they make such a thing for toddlers), lots of books and toys! The computer has all kinds of games and lessons for her to do, but she just "emails" and "looks at Emily on the Blog"! After our trip to Munner Pap's for Christmas #4, we realized that Emily did know how to use her camera! When we got down there, we found about 20 pictures of Emily's feet, carseat, the back of the front seat, her face, etc., etc. She is working on getting people actually in the pictures....pretty hard for a 2 year old. And we have already had to discuss the fact that we do not take pictures of anyone in the bathroom....that's all i'm going to say about that!!!

Thank you so much to everyone for all of our wonderful presents! I actually took tons of pictures so I am just going to post a few of my favorites!

Great Aunt Mary reading to Emily her new "Cordyroy" book!

Showing off "Cordyroy" and his book!
Modeling Grandpa's new scarf. She said she was "Mary".

Typing her first emails on her new computer!

Her new friend at Grandma & Grandpa's.

The Harrison "Fam"!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Here are a few pictures of Christmas at the Martins. I will post again after all of the festivities!

Our "Everything" tree

My Christmas VillageOur Tree

Our Stockings and the rest of my Christmas Village

Emily's Tree

Christmas Carols

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Emily has been learning all kinds of Christmas Carols during this season! She can sing Jingle Bells, Deck The Halls, Away In A Manger, Silent Night, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, We Wish You A Merry Christmas...pretty much anything else on her Little People Christmas CD. She doesn't sing all of the words to every song, but she can at least sing the chorus for most of them. She has also started recognizing them when she hears them. At Olive Garden the other night she would just burst out with "It's Rum Pa Pum Pum" or "It's We Wish You A Merry Christmas". Charles and I would have to listen for a minute and she was always right! So, she finally sat down the other night and let me video her singing her Christmas Carols. It is a little long, but I think it's cute! Enjoy!

Christmas Pictures

We had our Christmas Pictures made last weekend and I thought I would share some of them with you. Our photographer who has taken all of Emily's pictures except for once or twice has left us! So, this was our first experience with someone else! Emily did very well and the photographers worked really great with her! We hope you enjoy!

Santa Claus

Emily finally got to see Santa Claus last Friday. She has been SO excited about getting to see him! She is WAY more into Christmas this year than she was last! She even knew what she was going to ask him for and did! She talked pretty quiet and Santa had a hard time hearing her, but I think he got the gist of it! She asked for pink light-up shoes like Sterling, the fishing game like Jack and a Cinderella swim doll.

She even picked out what she was going to wear when she got to see him. For some reason she just had to wear her new sweater (I think it is because she is wearing a sweater in the picture from last year). Well, when she got up on his lap, the first thing Santa said was "What a pretty sweater you have on!", she just smiled! Santa knows all :)

"Tulsla"

Charles was off work on Friday so we decided to head to Tulsa to see the Christmas lights. I got the bright idea that it would be fun to go to the zoo while we were over there! Emily has not been to a zoo since she was 6 months old and I knew she would enjoy it! Well, needless to say it was a little cold on Friday, in the 50's. But, it was supposed to be a nice sunny day so I didn't really think it would be that cold!! Apparently, I was about the only one who had this thought as we were 3 of about 10 people at the zoo on Friday.

However, we got to see all the animals up close and personal and even heard the lion ROAR! I don't know that I have ever heard a real lion really roar before. Anyway, Emily loved it! Her favorites were the elephants and the monkeys. Before we left, when I stood her up on the changing table after changing her diaper, she gave me a big hug and said "Thank you for letting me see the elephants!" Totally worth it!!! We don't have any pictures from the zoo, but a good time was had by all (even though I don't think Charles would admit it :). It is a little scary to be practically the only people at the zoo!

After that we headed to Utica Square for to see the lights and have dinner. I was a little disappointed in their light display. There were a lot of lights, but nothing really cool! Then we headed to Rema Bible Church in Broken Arrow. They have a HUGE display that IS really cool! Emily loved seeing all of the lights and didn't want to leave!

We did have a minor catastrophe at Rema....we lost Tiger #1 (or #2, not sure which!). We had previously lost the other "extra" tiger somewhere in the house and were just down to 1. For those of you who know Tiger, you know that he is pretty important!!! Fortunately Emily was VERY tired and did not put up much of a fight for Tiger on the way home that night. However, he was sorely missed for the next 2 days. She finally understood that Tiger was gone and that she was going to have to pick another "lovey". So, we tried Rudolph, we tried Mommy's Bear (yes, that is what she calls it, I told you we were original on names :), we tried Daddy's Bear, we tried Aunt Vicky's silky. They worked OK, she was still very said about not being able to find Tiger and wanted to go to "Tulsla" to get him! Fortunately, I decided to do a little picking up in the extra bedroom and I FOUND the "extra" Tiger!! I waited until that night when Emily was going to be to lay it out as a surprise for her. She went CRAZY when she found him! We were at Mimi & Bub's house and she just screamed and laughed and ran around the house naked for about 10 minutes....it was hilarious!!! Needless to say, we have decided that Tiger will no longer take trips with us. He is going to stay home from now one. This is probably a good thing, Charles has been concerned about her dependency on Tiger when we are out somewhere. I agree, he needs to be more of a sleep lovey!

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Here are the few pictures that we took!