This week in the news . . .

Somebody had a birthday this week. It was a pretty nice day - I didn't have to cook any meals. :) Britt had the day off work , and I didn't have to babysit, so we had a nice, fun family day. Britt made me two delicious cakes and invited family and friends over to praise his hard work, er, I mean to celebrate. We didn't think to get pictures of the cake before digging in, so you only get to see the remains. They were both DE-LICIOUS! Cake #1 -- Strawberry Cake # 2 -- Multi-layer chocolate

Anywho, later in the week, I decided it was time to keep up with the Jones' (we'll use that term for anonymity). A friend recently put pigtails in her daughter's hair, and ever since I saw the picture, I thought, "I've got to try that with Emilee. But how am I ever going to get her to hold still long enough?" I decided to just go for it one morning . . . and it worked. I ran for the camera and took lots of pictures just in case it didn't last very long.

What does this mean? It means Emilee's hair is getting long enough that we have to pull it back in some way or it just looks unkempt. Really, it just means our baby is growing up. :( I put her hair in pigtails again today, so this may be a new trend for her. However, they honestly do not stay in place despite my efforts. After napping, wrestling, shaking her head, sitting in the car seat, etc, the controlled back pigtails turn into poof pigtails. This is how she looked later in the day! Still a cutie! And, we love her!

Summer swim

We went to visit my parents last weekend. Grandpa got a little pool for the grandkids to play in. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of that yet, but maybe I'll get some soon. Emilee enjoyed the water and the playtime with Grandpa and her cousins. Mostly, Em spent time shoveling/ladling water into one of Grandma's big bowls (I'm glad we took it out). She was quite focused on her task . . . it was neat seeing her so dedicated.

Since she had enjoyed that, we've thought we need to get her into another pool. Well, our chance came when I got called off work this Wednesday (WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Britt said we should have a family fun day, and we did.

First, we went to the zoo. We walked around opposite the way we normally do so we could see animals that we sometimes skip over. It was a good idea. We saw some pretty interesting stuff, too. Animals are pretty crazy. One of the best parts was seeing the lions. They usually look half-dead lying in the grass. But, this time the male was lying with his head up looking like a king. And, the female walked around in the grass pretty close to where we were. We told Emilee they were lions and she roared her whisper-like roar. Then I told her they were cats and to say (aka sign) cat. I made the sign and Emilee did it too - that's the first time we've seen her sign cat.

We also enjoyed watching the giraffe take a drink . . . such an awkward position. It was fun, and I think Emilee's noticing the animals more than she used to.

Anyway, lots of tangents before getting to the pool. After the zoo, we got lunch from Eegees (yes, we thought about Matthias) and headed over to Britt's parent's home. After eating we thought about scrapping the whole swimming idea because Emilee was tired and needed a nap. In the end, we decided we were just going to do it. We got video footage but no still pictures during the swim (only pre-swim pictures). But you can still see how cute Emilee looked in her SPF protective swimsuit.

Emilee loved the pool!!! But, it was hard convincing her that she can't just be in the pool on her own right now. She did not like the floatation device we had, and she did not like Britt holding her for more than 30seconds at a time. Little stinker. She ended up drinking pool water a few times; luckily she didn't seem to be bothered by it later. We plan on having more adventures like this to teach her how to be safe in the pool.

All in all, we had a great family day and tuckered ourselves out. Sigh. Good times.

Mother's Day

I thought I'd look at pictures to get an idea to post, but I guess we have slowed down a little on taking pictures. The last I have are from Mother's Day.

Britt fixed breakfast after Emilee woke us up (unfortunately she missed the memo about me wanting to sleep in until 8:00). He brought it down to the room so I could still have breakfast in bed. It was delicious!!!! French toast, eggs, potatoes (especially yummy), mango, and apple juice. I thought it was great! Emilee couldn't handle eating on the bed, so we had to put her in her high chair next to our bed - less mess that way though.

I was able to laze around a bit since we don't have church until 1. At one point I realized that I hadn't heard Emilee making noise for a while. I got a little nervous and called out to her to see what she was doing. To my surprise and joy, she was peacefully entertaining herself. Look how we found her. So CUTE!

Dancing Emilee

Emilee has loved the song, "If You're Happy and You Know It" for quite a while. If she hears it, she usually starts clapping her hands. Lately, I've been working with her on stomping her feet. She's finally gotten in to it. Now that's what she does when she hears the song (instead of clapping her hands). The other night, I wanted Emilee to show off for Daddy, and we were lucky enough to (finally) catch it on tape. Sorry for the background noises (ie: ME). Enjoy! She definitely loves music!!!

Oh, and by the way, if I do not receive an outpouring of comments, I will assume it is not worth the time to convert the video from the camera's file, crop the video, and upload it. :)