Happy Thanksgiving

We've been going strong for days and a four hour trip home turned into six and a half hours due to torrential down pours and gridlock traffic. This picture will have to tide you over until I have more energy to upload some Thanksgiving pictures.

This was Emma's happy face on our way out of town. It really got the trip started off on the right foot.

Hope everybody had a good holiday!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving a couple of days away, I thought it was fitting to say what I was thankful for.

This little girl!!

Even though she shredded paper towels on the floor of the kitchen while I made spaghetti.
She was so proud of her tower!

And then she was off to get into who knows what else.

I am thankful for her creativity, playfulness, laughter, kisses, hugs, giggles, cuddles, and complete love. Thank you God, for my little girl, my amazing husband, great family and friends that I know I can count on at any time.

Baby Hippos & Butterflies

Picture it...I'm in the kitchen one afternoon and I hear Emma scream from the other room, "Mommy, I need HELP!" As you can imagine, I drop what I'm doing and race over to her all the while asking her what is wrong. Here is how it went once I got to the room...

Me: Emma, what's wrong baby? Did you hurt yourself?
Emma: No - Mommy, you have to help me save the baby hippos.
Me: What?!?
Emma: Mommy, get on the boat with me {as she points to the couch}. I saved these baby hippos and they lost their mommy and their daddy and they are hungry...and they are sad. We have to help them!

Her imagination is running wild these days. The above conversation lasted a good 30 minutes. And for those of you on the edge of your seats, don't worry - we DID in fact find the baby hippos mommy and daddy. And along the way, we found them food. Logically, another one of our stops was to find them an outfit to wear...because they were cold - duh!

That whole story was 100% Emma. I love how imaginative she is and how she really gets into the story. She told me everything from how old they were to what colors they were (brown and red by the way).

Recently, we were in the middle of a bath and she stopped and got very serious. She said, "Mommy, look up!" I looked up half expecting to see a bug but there was nothing there. She could tell I wasn't getting it so she elaborated. "Mommy, look at all the beautiful butterflies. You see?" Once I realized we were in pretend land, we then spent the rest of the bath talking about how many there were, what colors they were, and where they were all headed.

I love it! You never know where you will end up traveling when you are with her. One day you're on a boat and then next day she needs my help fixing the choo choo train's wheel.

Daddy's Helper

I love watching Emma be her Daddy's shadow. She kept saying, "I help my Daddy." For two years old, she is very handy with a rake!

Look at her go!

Pink Duck, Blue Duck

This weekend was baby shower central! Leah's shower was Saturday night and Emily's was Sunday afternoon. It was great to catch up with friends and talk about all things baby!

First up - Leah's shower...baby girl on the way:

Emily and Jaime

Me, Rhonda and Rachel
Leah and Ann Lindsey

Strawberry cupcakes for dessert - YUM!
Group Shot

Then on to Emily's shower...baby boy on the way:

The Cake

The Food

Leah, Emily, Me, and Rachel

Emily with her grandmother - this blanket that she made brought tears to Emily's eyes...which made the whole room start to cry!
Emily in her vast sea of gifts
Game TimeCongratulations to Leah and Emily!! And a special shout out to Rhonda who is due ANY DAY now!

It's a Zoo Out There

We had a play date with our friends today at the petting zoo. It was our first trip there and it was so much fun! It is a farm so all the goats, sheep, ponies and peacocks are just roaming around. The pigs, ram, chickens and horses are in pens. It was great because all the big open spaces allowed the kids to run wild and since it isn't crowded, we didn't have to worry about keeping up with them.

Ready to go inside

I love this picture of Eli, Emma and Lillian, but at the same time it makes me a little sad because they all look so grown up. Emma couldn't even walk yet when we met this group and she was the baby...and now she's almost three!! Time flies...

Time flies so fast that now there are two more babies in the mix...how cute are these two boys?!

We stayed at the pig pen for quite some time. We even ventured away but then had to come back.

All the kids wanted their picture taken with Melissa - they're all drawn to her!

Emma didn't understand why the goat wasn't chasing the stick around like our cat, Nala, normally does.

Picnic lunch time

This was Emma's favorite part of the day - HORSES! She and Eli wanted to ride them so badly. We might have to make another trip out there one day and let them try it out.

Out of all of the horses, her favorite was this black one. He was so soft and gentle.

The kids thought it was funny that the goat came across the bridge to hang out with us. Eli spotted him and said "Oh, there's a goat." It was so funny to me because he was so matter of fact with his statement as if it happens all the time.

Then it was time to march back across the bridge and head home.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us today girls! We had a blast!

Snip Snip

It was time for another haircut. Thankfully, this time the person with the scissors isn't Daddy! She was so still for the haircut - I was shocked. It is my personal opinion that she was too enamored with her own reflection to try to wiggle around.