Happy Birthday to Me Again :)

My real birthday was Thursday the 19th. I had a nice, relaxing, unproductive day :) Emily and I had a playday at Scheri's house with her and Sage Lee and Tarah and Jack. Scheri had baked a cake that the kids put sprinkles on and they gave me a gift certificate to Motherhood Maternity...how did they know just what I needed :) We had lunch at Scheri's and then came home and both took a nap!!!

Charles left work a little early and came home with balloons and a cookie cake! It was delicious...I don't know when the last time I had a cookie cake was! I also got the new John Grisham book that i've been wanting too! Then, we went to Fast Lanes to go bowling! Emily LOVED bowling! She even got to wear bowling shoes...they were so cute! We bowled and had fried pickles and pizza....a very nutritious supper but oh well! After we bowled we went and played some games like they have at Chuck E. Cheese's. Emily collected lots of tickets and got to pick out 3 prizes!

We came home and had cookie cake! It was great 30th birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me :)

This year I turned the big 3-0! It sounds so OLD! I know in the big realm it is really not that old, but I still sounds old to me :) My celebration started on Sunday when the family came up for lunch at my favorite, Red Lobster! My mom and Emily baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing....just what I asked for! Mom and Dad had spent Saturday night with us and Mom had gotten up with Emily on Sunday. So, I got to sleep in a little which was wonderful! However, when I did get up, Emily is sitting on the counter, her face covered in brown and blue frosting! Her and Mimi were icing my cake :)

After lunch we came back here and had cake and ice cream and I got to open my presents! I got lots of money that I can spend on whatever I want to :) I have spent a little of it but still have quite a bit left! It is hard now to spend it on me...I never thought I would say that :) Thank you to everyone for coming over and sharing my birthday with me! Thank you also for my gifts!
I am sorry that I didn't get more pics than this! I think my Mom has them all on her camera!

Valentine's Day 2009

We had a nice relaxing Valentine's this year! It started on Friday when Charles brought Emily and I flowers! I got my favorite Gerbera Daisies and Emily got her favorite a red rose! I also got a box of Dove Chocolates! My absolute favorites! Charles started that several years ago, I always get a heart shaped box of Dove Chocolate. He knows me too well :)

We went to Penguin Ed's on Friday night for Emily's Valentine's. On Saturday at lunch, Emily and I surprised Charles at school with a picnic lunch and cake from Rick's Bakery....his favorite! We had planned on eating outside on campus, but it was too cold! So, we sat in the back of my car on beach towels! Emily loved it, Charles and I had cricks in our neck after....but we were all together...ahhh :)

Then on Saturday night Mimi and Bub stayed with us and Charles and I went out for our Valentine's. We went to Jonny Carino's....YUMMY!! I love their salad and this one dish...I don't remember then name of it. It is noodles, sauce and lots of cheese! You can't go wrong with that! Then we went to Target and bought baby bedding for Baby Girl Martin! The perfect Valentine's Day!

Like Mother....Like Daughter

So, I have to totally tell on myself. Sometimes on VERY RARE occations and when it is an absolute EMERGENCY I have been known to talk on the phone while using the bathroom.....come on, admit it.....you have too :) Sometimes I forgot how much Emily picks up and imitates practically everything I do. That is until I see a reminder......
Yes, Emily is sitting on the potty talking to Mimi on the phone. I was fixing supper while Emily was talking to Mimi in the kitchen with me. The next thing I know Emily is on the potty still talking to Mimi. I said "Emily, what are you doing?" She said, "I had to go pee pee!" Well, at least she did it in the potty :)

Ice Storm Entertainment

Well, while we were fortunate enough to have electricity back after only 36 hours many of our friends and family weren't! Aunt Becky & Uncle Bob stayed with us for 2 nights after 3 days of begging them to come on over :) Then, when they "moved" out our friends from church "moved" in :) We were so glad that James, Layne, Baylee, Tory, Jay and Maggie came to stay. They were in their house for 5 nights I think before they finally decided to come over!! I was so glad they did because I was very worried about them at their house. They live in an older neighborhood and said they heard trees falling all around them!


Emily just LOVED having everyone here! She was so glad to have someone other than me and Charles to play with....and play she did! Unfortunately we were gone most of the time Aunt Becky and Uncle Bob were here so we didn't get to spend much time with them. But while James & Layne were here she took full advantage of having 4 playmates! The older girls were so good to play with and entertain the little ones. Emily got spoiled having someone to play with 24/7. One night they even put on a play for us :) This was Emily's first play! I told Layne that I remembered putting on plays for my parents when I was litttle. I don't know if I started at 2 or not!

Anyway, here are some cute action pics from Emily's very first play! Thank you to Baylee and Tory for directing it and to Layne and James for staying with us so I wouldn't have to worry about them any more :)

We Have Electricity!

Well, I think we can safely say we have survived the Ice Storm of '09 (appropriate name huh :). We lost electricity on Tuesday morning about 9:30 and it came back on Wednesday night about 6:30. Let me tell you, almost 36 hours with no electricity and a 2 year old can make for some interesting times :) However, from reports we have heard, we were afraid it would not be back on until Saturday!

FORTUNATELY we have a gas stove, gas fireplace, gas water heater and gas grill so we were doing a lot better than some people. The coldest the thermostat said was 59. However, it is right next to the living room where the fireplace is and I KNOW it was colder than that in our bedroom and bathroom!

Also, fortunately we don't have any big trees in our neighborhood. We complain a lot because of the lack of "mature" trees. However, this is definitely one time when it is a plus that we live in a new neighborhood. There are trees in a ravine in between the 2 phases of our neighborhood. They do have powerlines near them, but I don't think any houses are close enough to be damaged by falling branches! It was kind of scary, you could just hear the branches breaking and falling off...shew!!

We made a pallet in the floor in front of the fireplace and pretty much camped out there! We also moved Emily's table and chairs in there so she could color and everything where it was warm! She actually ended up sleeping in her crib last night. We left her door open and put 2 extra blankets on the bed and when she woke up she was nice and toasty warm! Charles slept in the living room and manned the fire all night and I slept in our bedroom and woke up every hour as usual....one of the joys of pregnancy!

Emily loved the "snow". I don't think she ever understood that it was ice, except for the fact that Charles would take her Ice Skating ;) They would go out on the front porch and he would hold her hands and she would just slip and slide around....she just giggled and laughed!

We had grilled Pop Tarts for breakfast this morning. That worked pretty good! We used the backporch as our refrigerator/freezer! It worked REALLY well. We had nice cold milk this morning....not frozen! Charles made a Wal-Mart run this afternoon for "necessities" (including M&M's, Red Hots, Diet Cokes and the ingredients for No Bake Cookies). He waited in line at least an hour just to check out! He said it was CRAZY! I told him, now that he did that we would get power....sure enough 5 hours later it was on!

Ice skating...whee!!!! (Yes, she is wearing Elmo houseshoes, her Sleeping Beauty dress-up dress and her Sunday coat and hat :)

Our "refrigerator"

Grilled Pop Tarts...yum!
Icicles
Our bushes out front

The "whirly birds" as Charles calls them.

Ice on the fence

On the trees

On Emily's swingset

More on Emily's swingset

The trees in between Phase I and Phase II of our neighborhood

My tree in the front yard on Tuesday :(

Emily posing by my poor little tree Wednesday :(

Isn't she cute :)

Deep Thoughts....

I cannot begin to write down all of the amazing things that Emily says, does, remembers, everything! Each day it is something new and exciting for her! I thought I would just write about a few things that came to mind!


~ Emily has really started to think and ask about different things. Her favorite word is "Why?" and she says it ALL THE TIME! Anything we say, it's "Why?". Or, if we tell her not to do something...it's "Why not?"! Anyway, we drove by some houses under construction and Emily said "Why are those houses all torn up?". So, I explained to her that they weren't actually torn up but that they were just now being built, they were under contruction. Then, my brilliant 2 year old comes up with "Why do people build houses?"!! I promise these were the exact words out of her mouth :) I was so impressed first that that was such a big sentence and second that she could actually think that! So, then, I told her how all houses were built at some point and that Emily's house and Aunt Vicky's was under construction at one point too. So now, when we drive by those houses, Emily says "Those houses are building!".


~ Emily was sitting in my lap and started looking at my mouth. Charles has had a fever blister on his lip, so she's really into lips right now. Anyway, as she was looking in my mouth, she said "What's this?". I thought she was pointing to my teeth so I told her they were my teeth. She said, "No, not teeth. The pink stuff." Then Irealized she was talking about my gums :) So
I told her they were gums and that everyone had them. So, she had to feel her gums, then she had to feel Daddy's gums! Then she said "Why do we have gums?". Then we had to see Emily's in the bathroom mirror!


~ Her favorite hymn now is Holy, Holy, Holy. She can even find it in the hymnal...pretty easy being #1. So, tonight while I was rocking her she kept saying "Hold me, hold me". I said I am holding you baby girl. Then she said it again and I said I am holding you! Then she said "No Mommy, Holy, Holy, Holy in the book!"


~ She loves to say that she is going to get a Baby Sister in June :) We aren't really sure what to tell her about how she will get a Baby Sister. So, we just left it as she will get one in June!


~ We watched the Inauguration last Tuesday and tried to tell Emily about what was going on. She learned how to say President Obama but other than that, I didn't think she was paying any attention. Today while we were watching the weather channel a picture of the Capital Building came on and Emily pointed and said "President Obama"! I said, "Yes, that is where President Obama works." I guess maybe she was paying attetion ;)