No Words Necessary

Valentine's Day

Valentine's weekend we had a lot of fun family time. Emma spotted her ladybug tent and ended up spending half the afternoon and evening in it on Sunday.

Of course Emma wanted Mommy in the tent with her

Until she wanted to stretch out and then she kicked me out

She loved playing peek-a-boo in it too

Jaime got her some glow stick bracelets and they were hit. She didn't want to take them off!

Jaime also got her a frog balloon (left) and her daycare gave her the monkey balloon (right). She loved them and toted them around all day.

On Valentine's night, Josh and I were sitting on the floor with Emma playing and she just started twirling. She twirled so much that she was completely dizzy...but she still kept getting back up and twirling more...

For a Valentine treat, we gave her a rice krispy treat.

She shared with Mommy

And Daddy

Josh made scallops and a great cream and white wine sauce over pasta. Delicious! Hope everybody had as good of a Valentine's Day as we did!

Parents' Night Out

Emma's school raised money by doing a Parents' Night Out in order to go on a mission trip. We haven't done it in the past because it never worked out with our schedules. But Friday night, we gave it a try. They keep the kids from 6 - 10...play games, eat pizza, and watched Toy Story. At the end of the night, they change them into their pajamas and put them down to sleep on their nap mats.

Can I tell you how amazing this was? We don't have babysitters often but when we do, it's kind of hectic. Because we're rushing home so that we have time to pick Emma up from school, get her dinner ready, and then get us ready to leave. Then we feel bad for being gone, so we end up eating quickly and then heading home. BUT, not only is the Parents' Night Out for a good cause, it also eliminated all of that rushing around. Instead we got to enjoy a fantastic leisurely dinner out.

When I got to her room around 9:15 to pick her up, she was out like a light on her nap mat. I picked her up and she didn't skip a beat - just laid down on my shoulder as I gathered her clothes and talked to her teacher. However, halfway down the hall, she managed to get out a soft sentence (the sentence she ALWAYS greets us with when we pick her each day). She said, "I tee tee, Momma." And I said, "You tee teed on the potty?" She responded with a half-hearted "Yeah" and went back to sleep. I thought it was so cute how she mustered up the strength to tell me that!

Her teacher said she did great and had a ball. She was glued to Toy Story and although she had a fairly large piece, she ate her whole piece of pizza.

We had fun, she had fun - we'll be doing this again if they offer it! Here is a picture I took of Emma as we pulled up to our house. She was awake but barely. I think she was back asleep before I even laid her down in her bed.

Delayed Opening

Because of this:

Emma got to do this:

Emma's daycare opened late this morning because of the snow. So, Emma and I got to snuggle and watch a few cartoons before we had to get ready. She sat on Josh's pillow, drank her milk, pet Nala, and sat back and watched a couple of shows.

Warm Weather Play

We had a gorgeous weekend a couple of weeks ago. Naturally we played outside for most of it. Emma had a fabulous time.

On the four-wheeler

Playing with flowers

Hanging out in the backyard

Going for a walk and crushing berries (because Daddy did it, so our shadow had to start doing it too)

Our walk did not last long. At the end of our street, we ran into our neighbors who were outside playing with their dogs. We never made it past their yard.

She fell in love with Godiva (left). She chased Godiva and Fancy (right) around all over the yard.

She finally caught Godiva. It was so funny to hear her call for the dog as she was running after her. Her version sounded a little more like, "Dadiva, Dadiva!"

We also went for a treat to Krispy Kreme. Delicious! Emma wouldn't take the hat off.

After Josh spilled my diet coke on the car, he got the hose out to spray it down. Emma thought it was pretty fantastic...

She helped him pull the hose out

Such a little helper

Then there was a LOT of pouting when I told her it was time to go inside. At first she was serious about the pouting

It quickly turned into her being dramatic and you can see here that she is fighting the laughter.

I have to say that I think she has acting in her future - she did this "pout" over and over again with different variances of how upset she was. It was so funny!
I finally got her inside and we had dinner and a bath. After bath she decide it was absolutely necessary to put her shoes on her hands and walk around on all fours.

What a goofball

What Would You do for a Klondike Bar?

It's been a hectic few months in our household. On the spur of the moment, Josh and I decided it was time to getaway for the weekend. Starting next week it'll start to get busier at work for both of us. So if we didn't go this weekend, it wasn't going to happen until the summer. Nana came for the weekend to watch Emma and we took off.

It started off more like a Griswold's vacation. First I get sick the day before we leave. Of course! But I decided to fight through it because it was just sinus stuff from the weather change. We were off...and then it started...a SNOW storm!


Here is where I get to the title of my post. Since I was sick, we had to stop for medicine. While we were there the Klondike bars were literally calling my name! But they didn't sell just one. Clearly our only choice was to buy the whole pack and figure out what to do with melting ice cream later. Leave it to Josh to figure out what to do with them...

Do you see this? Genius. When it's snowing outside, put your ice on the outside of your car to keep it frozen.

When we made it to the hotel, two out of the three held on to the end. They were rock solid if you are wondering!

The next day we went to brunch at a great pancake place. This place always has a line out the door - rain or shine, sleet or snow. You may think, who would stand out in the snow for pancakes. Well, you can add us to the list because naturally as we were standing in line, it began to snow on us. BUT on our behalf, we were halfway through the line. We weren't turning around at that point. We stuck it out and it was worth it...Here is what I got:

Pancakes wrapped in sausage and a side of hash browns. Amazing! But sadly, I could not even eat half!

We met our friends Brittain and Eric for dinner. Great to catch up with them. A special congratulations to them for expecting their first child in July. They'll find out what they're having in a week. Exciting!!

On the way home today we toured the Jack Daniel Distillery. It was very interesting. Ironically, it is located in a dry county. You can neither buy nor consume the actual whiskey that they produce there.

The whole process starts right here at their Natural Spring

Outside the distillery

It was great to get away but we missed Emma the whole time! Thank you to Nana and Jaime for watching her for us this weekend while we were away.

Oh Man!

Emma's favorite phrase right now is, "Oh man!" It's so funny to watch her accidentally drop something and then follow it up with that phrase. It makes me laugh every time. She does the goofiest things lately...

1. She took everything out of the bottom of the pantry and took it into the living room and lined it up. When I noticed it, I just busted out laughing.

2. She is obsessed with her baby dolls lately. If Baby isn't with us, she is searching for her. The other day, Emma put her baby down on a chair and baby fell off. She was so upset - she kept saying, "Oh NO! Baby, Baby, Baby!!" Now she is extra careful when putting Baby in a chair.

3. She has recently started to instruct Nala on what not to do. If Nala jumps up on the couch, Emma is quick to say, "No no Nala." And the funny part is that it really confuses Emma when Nala doesn't do as she says. She REALLY thinks Nala will get down if she tells her to. Instead, Nala just looks at her with the "whatever" eyes and lays down.

4. Every morning on the way to school Emma picks out what we're going to listen to. Some days one CD is perfectly fine but the next she won't want that one. She'll shake her head and say, "No please." So I change channels or put on a CD. Yesterday, nothing would do. Then Taylor Swift came on the radio and Emma got all excited and said "Yeah Momma. Thank You." Hilarious. The rest of the way to school she danced and sang.