Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning we headed over to the Normal Community Center to have Breakfast with Santa. Our friends Tami and Mike and their two children went with us. Emily was so excited (to see her friend Emma, not Santa) she could hardly contain her excitement.

When we got there, she got a santa picture and some crayons. Shockingly, she actually sat and colored for a while!

It didn't take long though and her and Emma were off and running!

The ramp over to the left of Emily in this first picture was where they enjoyed themselves the most.

They really liked sitting in Santa's chair (until Santa was in it...see below :)

Even though they were one of the youngest at the breakfast they weren't shy when it came time to get up on stage and sing Christmas carols. Once they stopped eating the bells, they actually had some rhythm.

But then, that scary man Santa had to come and ruin all of their fun :) Once she got off of his lap, the tears stopped immediately, she thanked him for the gift and quickly said bye-bye.

Daddy asked her if she wanted to go sit with him again, and I think before the question was out of his mouth, Emily's quick response was NO! We've got it on video, but I haven't figured out how to upload that yet!

After Santa took off, she was back to her happy self!!

I'm guessing she won't be up waiting this year to see the man in the red suit!!

Happy holidays to everyone!!

Baking Cookies

Things have been pretty busy for us lately so I apologize for the lack of posts. We traveled the circuit for the Thanksgiving holiday and visited all of our families. We have some cute pictures for you guys!

Since we've been back it seems like time is just flying by. I can't believe we're a week an a half from Christmas break!

This past weekend we had a visit from Kristy and Adam. We had lots of fun when they were here! We took Emily to the ISU basketball game on Saturday night. She actually made it through most of the game! She was a big fan of the popcorn that I did not want her to have ( of course ).
But the big highlight of the weekend was baking on Sunday. As many of you know, baking is NOT one of my favorite things to do but since Kristy, aka Martha Stewart, was here to help I thought it might be fun...and it was...for the most part. We made pretzels and cashew clusters and almost 8 dozen holiday cookies. I can finally say that they are all decorated!

Emily definitely enjoyed herself! Can't say she was much help, but maybe next year! The tradition has begun!!

Winnie the Pooh

This weekend we took Emily down to Springfield to see Disney Live-Winnie the Pooh.

She was so excited that she didn't take a nap all day. We were a little worried as to what the night would bring with no nap :)
She was pretty unsure at the beginning and true to her style, she just sat back and soaked it all in.

But by intermission, she was bouncing with Tigger, singing the Pooh song, and having a great time!!

We didn't get too many good pictures, but there's a couple below we thought you might enjoy.

Halloween 2008

Halloween was sure a lot of fun this year..and a lot of work :) We went over to our friend's Tami and Mike's house. Their daughter is about the same age as Emily. The duo dressed up as Pebbles and Bam-Bam. However, most people thought they were Tarzan and Jane! Whatever people thought, they sure were cute! And this is probably the only Halloween they could have pulled these outfits off. (Thanks grandma Shirley)

You had to know that Emily could never forget Elmo on Halloween :)

Don't they look so sweet??? (Pooh is the girls' friend Jack)

Emily caught on pretty quick to understanding that walking to the door meant getting some candy in her Elmo :)

But riding and eating was lots of fun too :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

Lovin' Elmo!!

Just a quick post tonight. Emily recently got some new Elmo pajamas. In case you have not seen Em lately she is completely obsessed with Elmo. If I had a dollar for everytime she said his name in the day, I could retire and move to the islands :) So, as you can see, she was truly delighted with her new pajamas!!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we visited the Pumpkin Patch down by Arthur, IL with grandma and papa rogers.

It was a a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun!

Emily didn't have any trouble picking out a pumpkin!

She jumped right in the wagon with it and that was fun.....

for about 2 minutes, then she quickly discovered it was more fun to pull the wagon then to ride in it!

She made a friend as she went through the maze.

Before we left we had to see how she measured up!
Can't wait to see how big she grows next year :)

Yes, Emily can dress herself....

.....well, sort of. Her newest thing in the mornings when we are getting ready for work is to grab anything of Chad's that she can get her hands on and try to put them on herself :)

I guess she doesn't think it's enough to look exactly like her daddy, she has to dress like him too!

On the morning of this picture, it was boxers, socks and shoes!

Looking good em!

The Circus

A couple of weeks ago Emily took her first trip to the circus. We went with our friends Tami and Mike and their daughter Emmalee. Miss Em is obsessed with being with Emma...with just the mention of her name she goes into the non-stop, over and over request to see her!

This first picture is Emily being so patient waiting for Emma to get to our house.

First stop concessions and toys!

I think the girls had the most fun eating and climbing around in the seats!

Daddy-switch-a-roo!!

Kristy and Adam's visit

Emily definitely enjoyed her visit with the Big Guy and Kristy this past weekend. They were fresh off of the Illinois game, so had orange and blue pom poms for Miss Em. She was in her Illinois outfit and ready for the cheerleading lessons that Adam was giving her! We did a lot of playing outside. We topped off the weekend with a trip to the park and of course a meal at Schooners! Here's some pictures from our fun adventures.

Thanks for visiting Kristy and Adam! Hope to see you again real soon!

We have a .....ponytail :)

Yes..the day I have been waiting 19 months for is here. Emily finally has enough hair to put it in a pony tail :) We think she looks like our own little Pebbles. As you can see, she's taken a liking to running around with no clothes on as well. Her dolly is her favorite toy right now and she spends hours taking her in and out of the baby high chair, feeding her and pushing her in the stroller. Don't worry, she has not forgotten about Elmo. Elmo in Grouchland is on daily at our house. Apparently it's her favorite movie because whenever we try to put a different one in Emily puts up quite the protest! However, there is a purple dinosaur who has been getting some screen time too (Much to Chad's dismay!

Over the Labor Day weekend we traveled to Springfield and then came back home to have Grandma and Papa from Sullivan come up to celebrate grandma's birthday.

First we stopped at Popo's and Momo's for a daytime visit. Emily showed them her hot dog dance :)

Then we went and saw our cousin's for Jackson's third birthday. The kids had tons of fun. Back at home Em spent some time eating corn and hanging out with the grandparents!

Kristy and Adam are headed our way this weekend, so I'm sure we'll

have lots more fun pictures to post soon :)

Goodbye summer days!

Well, it's back to work for me this week! Even though I've been working with the Early start program since July, it now truly feels as if summer is over being back at work full time. As you can see, Emily is not too upset by the fact :) For her the end of summer will be a good thing for one reason....her black and blue and scraped up legs! This girl needs to get into some pants for a while!

I hope you find the pictures below as entertaining as we did. Since we've been watching the Olympics EVERY NIGHT, Emily has become a big fan of the gymnastics...I personally give her somersault a 10! And yes, in case you're wondering, she is doing them in a skirt. Her Aunt Kristy would be proud :)

But that of course makes her very hungry and spaghetti is one of those favorites right now. It's definitely a meal she must eat in the buff. She goes straight from high chair to tub! And yes, she gets her messy eating habits from her mother! Just ask Adam about the buffalo wing sauce story. He never misses an opportunity to tell that one:)

HAPPY END OF SUMMER TO EVERYONE!

Ok, I'm going to try this....

So, I have been saying all summer I am going to try this blog thing. Since many of you live so far away and we don't get to see each other much as much as we would like to, this is a place where you can come, see pics of Miss Em, and see what we have been up to. I have talked to friends about it and they tell me how easy it is so here goes!

I am back at school already. I know, can you believe summer is about over!! I am administrating early start which I am actually enjoying doing. This means Emily is back with Kylie, which she is enjoying also :)

We had a lot of fun this summer. Didn't go on any big vacations, but took some weekend trips.

Since this is the first time, I'm going to keep this short and just put in a few pics of our summer time fun!

The first one is of Em being in a hotel room for the first time! Or...maybe she's just shocked I'm finally putting her on the web :)

This is at the Children's Museum in Milwaukee.

We hung out at the Pub II with our friends! We also did a lot of playing at the park!

And of course we spent a lot of time at the "poo" as Emily calls it!