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.

Emma and Her Nala

Best Friends!! Emma took it upon herself to set up a little snack and tea party with Nala one night this week. Nala was so sweet and patient with Emma. She just sat there the whole time and let Emma play with her.

Free At Last

I feel free! I have worked every day for the past three weeks, so it was amazing to finally be free today. I didn't check my email, I didn't call my voicemail at the office, I didn't do anything related to work. These past few weeks have been tough to say the least. But now they're over and I can relax and spend some time with the family.

So, what did I do on my first day off in weeks? First, I slept in. It was wonderful to not have an agenda and to wake up without an alarm. Josh and Emma went to run a few errands this morning and then I went to meet them for lunch. Since we were feeling crazy, we let Emma have some ice cream after lunch.

She enjoyed her treat thoroughly. And she thought she was pretty cool with her hood on.

She even let me have a few licks

Then we played outside for a little bit. Emma and Josh have on matching Bass Pro Shop hooded sweatshirts. So, when they were walking back to our house, I just had to snap a picture of them with their hoods on and hands in their pockets. Adorable!

Of course outside play time is never complete without playing with Nala. Here Emma is playing "stick" with Nala. The cat loves to attack a stick as you run it along the ground. Emma is till learning how to correctly play this game.

For now, Emma ends up hitting Nala with the stick more than anything. Thankfully Nala is a patient kitty because she doesn't seem to be upset by this.

There was also a lot of cleaning and straightening today. I would've done several loads of laundry too, but our dryer is broken! Josh has taken it apart and pinpointed the problem. He ordered the part and it will be here Thursday. I don't know if I can make it until Thursday to do laundry. More importantly, I don't know if I can go that long with dryer parts all over the kitchen. I have moved them all to one central location, but it's still chaotic. I will be counting down the days until Thursday!

You Ain't Seen Nothin'...

...Till you've seen a teething diaper! You can add smell to that phrase too! Both of Emma's bottom two-year molars are popping through. When I picked her up from school today, her teacher told me she had a couple of really bad "teething diapers." Then she had another one tonight. Which brings me to two things I'm thankful for tonight:

1. That I was able to talk Josh into changing that stinky, terrible diaper! Thanks Josh!
2. That she did this before I gave her a bath instead of after. Otherwise it would've been a wasted effort and lately I don't have time for wasted efforts.

Two Year Stats

Last week we took Emma for her two year checkup. Here are the stats:

Weight: 27 lbs. 4 oz. (50-75th percentile)
Height: 33 1/2 in. (75th - 90th percentile)

Here are few of some more personal statistics:

-Favorite food: Shrimp, cheese, eggs, Cheerios, bananas, anything that can be dipped
-Favorite toys: all about baby dolls, baseball/glove, coloring, anything that makes music
-Favorite tv show: hands down right now - Curious George!
-Favorite words/phrases: Baby, No Dadda, I tee-tee!, I don't know, Where Nala?
-Prefers/Insists on sitting in a regular chair when we go out to eat now
-Uses her fork, spoon and big girl cup beautifully
-When we had the Christmas tree up, she would ask for the lights on as soon as we walked in the door
-Uses the potty every time you put her on there. And she goes immediately now. We're on our way to being potty trained!
-Loves being a little helper: she helps me clean up, put clothes in the washer/dryer, put silverware in the dishwasher, and cleans her place mat off after she eats
-Mimics everything we do now!
-Favorite thing of mine that she does right now: If you ask her what the crab does, she does her fingers like pinchers and then shakes her head back and forth while she says "pinch, pinch, pinch." It is the cutest little dance you've ever seen!!!!

Here are some pictures from this week...

She figured out that she could put these crayons on her fingers. Now she does it all the time.

Today Josh stayed home with Emma since school was closed for MLK Day. This is how she woke up from her nap...she had pulled her arms through the top of shirt and had it around her armpits! What a goofy girl...

They played outside for a while on her 4Wheeler. It wore her AND Daddy out. Then Josh showed her that she could put her hands in her pockets. He said she loved it and wouldn't take her hands out of her pockets.

Iced In

Since Emma's school was closed again today, I stayed with her and worked from home. Here is what our day was like while we were iced in...

Watching Curious George with two purses on, holding one baby and wearing 11 bracelets

Nala really enjoyed the fire

Emma came around the corner like this...she took her socks off and put them on her hands, found her ladybug sunglasses, and pushed up her pants legs.

Then for lunch (spaghetti and wheat toast) she insisted on keeping her glasses on for the meal. I guess she wanted to be prepared for her close up. We never use bibs anymore, but I figured I'd try it since she was eating spaghetti. She actually wore it! I still ended up giving her a bath afterward...

Josh left work early so he could come and watch her while I worked some more (the deadlines don't care that we got iced in!). Then we went to dinner at a place where kids eat free on Tuesday nights. We got her the mini corn dogs and she ate every single bite and then decided to eat some of my fries even though she had plenty on her own plate. Her favorite part was the rice krispy treat that came with her meal. She also liked that they had basketball on the television. Every time she saw somebody make a basket, she'd throw her arms up and say "goal." So cute!! She is becoming so much more talkative which I love because we can have full conversations now instead of me just talking to myself and trying to figure out what her grunts really mean.

FUN DAY...besides the work of course.