Happy Holidays (a little late!)

We just returned from spending the past week at my parents' house for Christmas. We had a wonderful holiday with our family. Some quick pics..

Here's Emma looking to see what Santa left in her stocking (no coal this year, thank goodness!)


And here she is with her favorite gift...American Girl doll Julie!


We took a little walk on Christmas Day...no white Christmas for us this year, as you can see.


We did have a great time, but the drive back was tiring and we got back just in time for yet another snowstorm. I am so over winter!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas too!

We got socked

We had two ice storms last week and last night we got hit with the snow. About five inches so far, with more forecast for today. We've been super-lazy this morning and Emma didn't even get dressed until after lunch. We finally bundled up and went outside to shovel a bit. Then I pulled Emma around on her sled.


We have a very hilly yard (something I'm all too aware of during mowing season.) But it's great for doing a little fun sledding. I probably pulled Emma up our little hills and pushed her down about 100 times, with her giggling all the way down.


Hopefully the snow will let up pretty soon and roads will be passable. We need to go to the grocery store and get a few errands in today. We can only be housebound for so long!

Somebody has a loose tooth...

...fortunately, it's not me (although I constantly have that dream where my teeth are falling out.) No, it's Emma, of course. For the past several months, she has asked me to wiggle various teeth to see if they're loose yet. Nearly all of her friends have lost baby teeth and she's dying to have one fall out too. Although I would tell her on occasion that maybe a tooth felt a little loose, I never really thought they were. Until this morning. She asked me to wiggle one her front teeth and it definitely is loose!

I'm actually a little sad...she's got such cute baby teeth and I can't believe her front permanent teeth are going to come in straight because she was such a thumbsucker during her infant and toddler years. My dentist has already told me braces are definitely in Emma's future.

Anyway, Emma is sooo excited. I'll post a pic when the blessed event actually occurs.

PS a friend of mine told me that the going rate for the tooth fairy now is $5...could that be possible?!

Five years as a family...

It was five years ago today that I was handed a bewildered little 8-month-old little baby and was told she was now my daughter. I can't believe how fast five years can fly by. I feel like the most blessed person on the planet that I get to share my life with this amazing little person. Can't wait to see what the next five years brings!

Blast from the past

Emma was getting ready for bed tonight when she said "Mommy, look what I found!" I went in the bathroom and this is what I saw...


I guess one of her old binkys was stashed away in a drawer. It was pretty cute and reminded me of a funny picture I had taken of Emma when she was two...


You would never know it from this picture, but Emma never really used a pacifier. They were just toys to play with. She was always a thumbsucker and will occasionally stick her left thumb in her mouth when she gets stressed out which, thankfully, isn't too often.

On ice once again

It was a totally icky day here, with a bit of sleet and cold rain. But it didn't matter to us because we were in the 6th row for the once-in-a-lifetime High School Musical on Ice spectacular (at least I HOPE it's once in a lifetime - hehe!) Seriously, it was a pretty cute show, especially considering we have seen both HS Musical movies like 1500 times, not to mention the countless hours spent listening to the soundtrack in the car.

Emma and her friend Jia had a blast...here they are with their "Ryan" style souvenir hats (if you haven't seen the movies, I'm sure that means nothing to you!)


And here's Emma chowing down on cotton candy, as she always ends up doing at this kinds of events...


We really did have a nice time...but more importantly, as we were leaving, they passed out flyers for the Disney PRINCESSES ON ICE show, coming here in March. So I'm sure this afternoon was not our last On Ice event (sigh!)

I think I'm getting old...

Several things have happened in the past month or so that are leading me to believe I'm really getting old.

Clue #1 - At a staff meeting last week, this kind of boorish guy was getting ready to launch into another one of his dull stories when he said "You guys are probably all too young to remember this. Well except for..." and waved in my general direction. Apparently he considers me our historical witness to the Spanish-American War and the Great Depression.

Clue #2 - I've lost about 35 pounds this year, which is great. I've lost weight many times in my life, but what is different this time is that my skin appears not to have noticed. It's still at the old place I used to be.

Clue #3 - I have received not one, but two, pieces of mail in the past week or so exhorting the importance of getting long term care insurance. Am I really that close to being in a nursing home?

Clue #4 - For the first time in my life, I actually asked someone to turn down the music. I've always been a bit of a punker (even now, my favorite bands tend to be in the My Chemical Romance/Rage Against the Machine vein.) But we were at a restaurant recently and the sound system was cranked up so loud, I was getting a headache. I actually asked the manager to turn it down a little. I'm sure he thought I was like 70 years old or something.

Clue #5 - Our local FCC group had a bowling outing two weekends ago, which was great fun. However, I found that I was a bit stiff and sore the next morning. We're talking about BOWLING, people...not participating in a triathalon!

Anyway, all of this is leading me to believe that it's all downhill from here for me. Hopefully my five-year-old daughter will do her best to keep me young just a little bit longer.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving

We've been gone since Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and some other family members. It was kind of a weird holiday, mostly because my dad had a double-knee replacement two days before Thanksgiving. So he was still in the hospital. He's actually up and moving a little already and will be in rehab for like two weeks. It'll be a long road, but it's going to be great for him in the long run.

Anyway, other than the frequent trips to the hospital, it was a nice holiday weekend. We had a terrific Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house. Here's Emma at the dinner table just a few minutes before we started stuffing our faces...


And I snapped a picture of Emma as she jumped off the stairs...such a funny girl!


My mom and I got up at 5:00 am on Friday to hit the stores. It wasn't too crazy and we actually got some serious shopping done. But I still have a lot to do. I'm usually done with Xmas shopping at this point, but I've been pretty lazy this year about things. I think it's going to end up being a gift certificate year for many family members and friends!

Obligatory mid-week post

I really have nothing interesting to say today (or most days, probably!) But I did take a cute picture of Emma brushing her teeth last night. That will have to do for now...

My daughter...the two-timer

Yesterday, Emma's friend Amy celebrated her 6th birthday. She had her party at a local nature conservatory, which was really cool. Anyway, shortly after we arrived, a little boy from Emma's class showed up with his dad to tour the conservatory. You may recall from my Oct. 31st post that Emma already has a boyfriend in her class, a cute little guy named Evan. But any thought of Evan disappeared as soon as Emma saw Ocea (pronounced OH-sha.)

Emma ditched the party and she and Ocea started running around together (this worries me...is Emma going to be one of those girls who drops her friends the moment a boy comes into the picture...gosh, I hope not!) I have to admit, Ocea is quite adorable.


Anyway, eventually Emma had to rejoin the party, which reduced poor Ocea to tears (his dad told me he talks about Emma constantly!) Later, Emma told me Evan was still her boyfriend and that she and Ocea are just good friends (I'm not sure that's how Ocea feels!)

It does concern me how boy-crazy Emma is. But I was reminded of how, in kindergarten, I pursued this poor boy, Bart Bonsall, to the ends of the earth. I was soooo in loooove with him! But then I lost interest in boys until like the 6th grade. Let's hope Emma follows the same pattern...otherwise, I'm afraid she'll be married by the time she's 8!

How could it be?

Has is really been five years since I got the most important call of my life?

It was November 5, 2002 at 1:30 p.m. when CCAI called with my referral of 8-month-old Yin Yi Qian. A few minutes later, I saw her face for the first time...


And here she is five years later...


It's a cliche, but it's true...you never know how fast time can fly by until you have children. It sure has been the best five years of my life!

My little cowgirl

Every fall there is a huge national horse show here with all kinds of equestrian and rodeo competitions. I am so not into rodeo, but I decided to take Emma this year to some of the equestrian events. She is so horse-crazy that I thought she'd have a good time, and I was right.

Here we are on our way in...


We spent a lot of time wandering around the horse stalls, looking at all the beautiful horses. We watched someone grooming their horse for competition, including braiding the mane. Emma could have hung out there for hours.

Then we went to a junior jumping competition, with kids as young as six. Emma couldn't believe there were girls just a bit older than herself competing! It was incredible seeing these little girls jumping these huge horses! It was really fascinating and we were lucky to sit next to a couple of teenage girls who were long-time competitors and they were thrilled to fill us in on all what to look for.

Here's Emma wearing our big purchase of the day...




A pink cowboy hat is not the most practical thing, but I have to admit she looks pretty darn cute in it!

I've been mulling it over for some time now, but I'm convinced Emma's love of horses is more than just a passing fancy. So I've come to the conclusion that equestrian lessons might be in our future. They are not cheap to say the least, but I think we'll give it a try after the new year. I just ordered a book from Amazon with lots of background and advice on what to do when your child is interested in pursuing horseback riding. It would have been nice if Emma had developed a fascination for something a little more economical. But you can't decide what your kids will fall in love with (sigh!)

Happy Halloween!

Just got back from the Halloween party at Emma's school. As expected, it was total insanity, but the kids had a lot of fun. A couple of quick picks...

Here is Emma with her best friend Emme...


And here Emma is posing with her new BOYFRIEND Evan! He is quite a doll and they are already making plans to get married!


We're heading out to trick-or-treat with Emma's friend Helen in about an hour. I am so exhausted right now, and my only goal is to get back here before 8 pm. We'll see if we make it.

Have a great Halloween all!

Pumpkin carving '07

We picked up two pumpkins a couple of weeks ago at the pumpkin patch and Emma really wanted to carve our pumpkins this year. In years past, we either just painted the pumpkins or stuck Mr. Potato Head things in to make a face. It had been years since I carved a pumpkin and it's amazing how the mind forgets what a mess it can be!

But since my little girl wanted the experience of carving a pumpkin, who am I to deny her? So last night I covered the dining room table with a plastic table cloth and we started carving. After finally sawing the top off, I let Emma see the splendor that is the inside of a pumpkin. Here was her reaction...


After a few minutes of watching me scoop out pumpkin slime, Emma decided she was more interested in seeing if Marie would faint again on Dancing with the Stars, and wandered into the living room. She did come back in to draw a face on the pumpkin, which I somehow managed to carve out. It was a mutual decision that we would use our Mr. Potato Head things on the second pumpkin. I think had we opted to carve that one too, I would have been up at midnight.

Anyway, here are the results of our labors...


It's not fabulous, but Emma was so excited when we lit the candle and put it in the carved pumpkin. I didn't check this morning, so I don't know if the squirrels devoured it overnight. But I guess it's the experience rather than the results.

Photo session

We finally had our session with a very talented young photographer who's just getting her business off the ground. It was a beautiful day and I'm so happy with how the photos turned out. Take a look, if you'd like!

Emma photos

I took a couple of photos while we were waiting for the photographer. Just so you can see the contrast between a hack amateur like me and a really talented photographer like Rachael!

Xmas preview

Woke up this morning to BUCKETS of rain...it has been pouring for hours, which is just what you want on a Saturday with a young child to entertain. At least I've been able to get some housecleaning done. But I think we'll both go nuts if we're stuck inside all day.

We were supposed to get Emma's pictures taken outside today. I was going to have them take some of her in one of her favorite outfits and some in her holiday garb. I had a lot of trouble finding her a Christmas outfit this year. I usually go with something from Gymboree, but I'm not a fan of their holiday line this year. There's so much plaid out there this year, but Emma now wears a plaid uniform to school, so I'm not going to subject her to plaid for the holidays as well. We went to the Children's Place the other night and Emma absolutely went gaga over this outfit...


I'm actually not that crazy about the sweater, but she loved it and I like the skirt a lot. It certainly is the most grownup-looking Christmas outfits she's ever had.

The yearly trek to the pumpkin patch

Today we made our annual visit to a local pumpkin patch. To be honest, I really wasn't in the mood. For one thing, it's 90+ here today. Honestly, I'm beginnng to wonder if we'll even have an autumn this year. Usually Emma has on some nice new fall togs on for our trip to the PP. But once again, I had to drag out some of her summer clothes so she wouldn't get too hot. Okay, crabby weather rant over now...

Anyway, we were supposed to go with a friend of mine and her daughter, but her little girl is sick today with the croupy cough thing that half the kids here have now. Emma started hacking a bit last night, so I fear she's next.

So we headed out early to the PP in an effort to beat some of the crowd. There are tons of thing to do there, including...

Pony rides...


Mining for "gold"...


Making a pumpkin sock and running around like it's a kite...


Posing behind one of those silly cutouts so you look like a scarecrow...


Finally making it to the actual pumpkin patch and spending 25 minutes looking for the perfect two pumpkins to take home...


And lastly, taking a nature walk on a nice shady trail...


Needless to say, we were both beat and one of us fell asleep on the way home (it didn't get to be me, unfortunately.)

Extreme Makeover - Emma Edition

When it comes to home decorating, I tend to do things in spurts. I won't touch a thing around the house for a year, and then I become totally obsessed and start tearing everything apart. We are definitely in a "tearing apart" period right now.

I just had new kitchen countertops put in and decided I didn't like the color of the kitchen walls with the new counters. So last night, I started ripping down wallpaper (perhaps my all-time favorite home decorating chore - NOT!) Emma was excited and offered to help...


We got all the wallpaper down, but there are still a lot of spots where the glue is stuck to the walls. So it looks like tomorrow will be a wetting, scoring and scraping kind of day.

In the meantime, I had our bathroom sink hauled away to be refinished. It is an ancient cast iron pedestal sink that I love, but it was definitely in need of a little sprucing up. So we'll be without a bathroom sink for a week, which means brushing our teeth using the bathtub. That was fun for one day, but now we're over it.

Who knows what else I'll decide to tear up or out during this manic decorating phase. If only Ty Pennington would swing by to help out!

Our moony arty weekend

What is it about fall? It seems there is so much going on and everyone (including us) is so busy. I was trying to find a weekend day in the next month that we could go apple-picking, but we honestly don't have any time to do it.

We've been on the go all this weekend as well. Yesterday was our local FCC group's Moon Festival, which is always loads of fun. The weather was sunny and warm and the festival was at a really neat park this year. Emma and her pals had a blast...






After staying to help clean up, we didn't get home until almost 9 p.m. I think I was more tired than Emma, but we both headed straight to bed and fell right asleep.

Today, we skipped church (bad mommy!) to head out early for one of our favorite annual events...a huge local art fair. They have tons of activities for the kids and Emma had so much fun...






We must have run into at least 20 of Emma's friends there...it really is such a great place to take you kids. It was extremely hot out though, and we're pretty pooped. But I still haven't cleaned the house and gone to the grocery store. So somehow, we've got to summon up the energy to get those things done before the day totally slips away. At least I had the foresight to get the laundry done Saturday morning!

Queen of the roller derby

Well, I cheated death (or at least permanent paralysis) today. We were supposed to meet a group of friends this afternoon at the zoo, but it was a cool and rainy day, so we opted for the rollerskating rink instead. This probably was not my number one choice, being that Emma had never rollerskated and I hadn't for a good 20 years. But we went along with the majority and ended up at a super-crowded roller rink for the afternoon.

The one thing I remember about rollerskating is...you ARE going to fall down. If you don't hit the floor because of your own clutziness, some flailing child is going to grab onto you and take you down with them. And let's be honest here...at my age, taking a fall on a hard roller rink floor...let's just say that it's not out of the realm of possiblity that a DNR order will be needed at some point. When you're a kid and you fall on your bum, you pop right back up. When you're closer to fifty than forty (as I am now), when you fall on your bum, traction is almost always the result.

But my girl and I bravely laced on the skates and began to tentatively make our way around the rink, clinging to the wall for dear life. I think it took us like 45 minutes to make it all the way around, while fearless little kids zipped by us at lightning speed. But we made it and we didn't fall down once (I'm sure I would be writing this from a hospital bed if we had.)

Anyway, I wouldn't say I had a great time, but it was a small victory to try something I hadn't in a long time and live to tell the tale. Emma had a decent time, although she said she would have rather gone bowling (a much safer sport for both of us.)

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera to capture any of this thrill-seeking for posterity. But here's a pic of Emma at bathtime tonight. I think we'll both sleep well tonight!