Thanksgiving Weekend-through the eyes of the iPhone

Well I went off and left my camera at my grandmother's on Thanksgiving. I wanted to do a post-since I have been lacking lately and all I have was some of these pictures on my phone. But put a few phone pictures together and I think it might make a pretty good post!

We headed over to Arkansas last Wednesday afternoon. Of course before we started the car someone needed to have all of her babies in her seat with her. You might not be able to tell but there are three babies in that carseat with her.
After the cooler was emptied and the food was cooking Thursday morning someone found an alternate use for the cooler. She thought it made a great wagon type seating for watching some cartoons.
I would love to tell you that Emma enjoyed all of the different foods that Thanksgiving had to offer but that was not the case. Her Thanksgiving food consisted of apples and plain pasta noodles. We timed her nap pretty good so that she slept while we ate lunch-it made for a relaxing meal-it is not often that we get the sit at a meal and not worry about someone else!

We headed home late Thursday afternoon to get ready for a weekend of some relaxing and some working on the house. My sister and I did some shopping on Friday. We did not get out early, more like lunch time, but I did score a good deal at Target on a portable DVD player-I even got the last one they had!!
In fact, we were so tired and just wanted to chill on Sunday that we let Emma go ahead and watch a movie on the player. Don't worry-I don't think in a month that she will remember she has already seen that present.
Why oh why were we so tired by Sunday? Well it might have something to do with Bradley and Gaines installing a new toilet on Saturday (sorry, no pics of that) or that Courtney and I painted our front door while the boys were working. Or it could be that Emma woke up everyday of our Thanksgiving break at 6:45am! Can someone please tell my child about sleeping in just a bit on the weekend? I would be happy with 7:30ish! Oh and then the little stinker was still asleep this morning at 7:15-the morning I had to get up.
My new front door. I was happy with how the color turned out. Courtney and I were very worried at first-it was looking really pinkish to begin with. But after 5 to 6 coats the color is correct and I am very happy with it! We were so lucky to have Courtney and Gaines help us out. After our work we enjoyed steaks and some Phase 10.

What else might you do if you get up at early every day or your break-decorate your tree of course! Emma is a little curious about the tree and I have had to move 1 ornament but overall I think she is doing well. I wrapped a few presents and she hasn't touched them at all. I am not sure she has even realized they are there yet.

I also got some sewing done this weekend. I have a lot of Christmas orders and I need to be shipping something out every day. Thanks to anyone that has ordered-your orders are coming and I appreciate you patience.

I should be getting my camera back tomorrow so be on the lookout for more pictures.

Fur Babies-Lilah and Cassie

This week at Kelly's Korner we are talking all about our pets. I thought this would be a great week to jump back into her blog forum and a good opportunity to introduce the other members of our family!
Delilah was our first baby. Bradley got her for me in July of 2003-right after I graduated college. I can always remember when I got Delilah because the first few days I had her Memphis experience crazy straight line winds that knocked out power to most of the city for weeks. I was standing outside urging Delilah to go to the bathroom before the storm started. By the time she had went and I got back inside to get ready to go to work, the power went out and I couldn't get my car out of the garage. I lucked out by staying in my house during the storm-instead of being out on the road!
I wish I had some puppy pictures of Delilah-I can't find any on my computer.

Delilah remained an only dog until after we got married in 2006. In July of that year we decided we needed two dogs! So Bradley went a got us a Golden Retriever. Now I love Delilah, but Cassidy has been one of the best dogs I could ever ask for-especially with a baby! Besides the shedding-I don't have a complaint about her.
And I will say she was an adorable puppy!

She quickly outgrew Delilah and now is not so much of a puppy anyone. However, she still thinks she only weighs 5 pounds and is meant to be a lap dog. She sleeps on the end of our bed every night with no regards to her being so big that it is actually like adding a whole other person to our bed.

And just because I thought it was only fair that each dog get at least one picture of just them I had to add a picture of Cassidy doing what she loves-playing in the water.
I thought I would take this chance while I am talking about our dogs to talk about a cause very close to our hearts, The Memphis Area Golden Retriever Rescue. Before we had Emma we very much enjoyed fostering Golden Retrievers in our home. These were dogs that had been abandoned and where waiting to find a forever home. We had 10 dogs go through our house in a year and being a foster totally opened my eyes to the land of rescue dogs. All of these dogs were just looking for someone to love them and that they could love back. I can without a doubt say that our next dog will come from a rescue group! If you are considering adding an animal to your family please considering adopting from a rescue. If you want more info please look in your local area for rescue groups or email me and I can tell you more about rescue.

Below is Cassidy chilling with one of our fosters. For us, one of the best parts about being a foster was that Cassidy always had someone to play with. We will return to the foster program sometime, we just took a break when we had the baby.

So yes, the baby! The dogs did great when we brought her home. They were kinda curious but honestly, I think they were just happy to have us back in the house when being gone at the hospital.
I do think the first few weeks and lack of sleep took their toll on Cassidy as well!

and just because there was a new baby Delilah was not giving up her spot in the chair.
Now that Emma is a toddler she is really enjoying the dogs. I have witnesses many games of chase between Emma and Cassidy. Delilah does not enjoy playing with Emma like Cassidy does but she tolerates the "pets" from her.

Oh and until further notice Emma has changed their names-"Lilah" and "Cassie" are now shouted quite frequently at our house!

Little Ponytail

We have had a break through! I finally got a pony tail in Emma's hair. I bought tiny little girl rubber bands at Target yesterday and tried them in her hair. Let me tell you those little rubber bands are like the size of the ones you used to put on your braces-they are tiny! But tiny is good for us-we are seriously pushing it to have our little pony.

So here is what happens when you have a tiny little rubberband wrapped around a little piece of hair all day.

It might be time to try some little pigtails soon!

18 months

Emma turned 18 months on Sunday. I didn't actually take any pictures of her. Bradley and I went with my parents to check on the cabin this weekend and Emma went with Honey and Granddaddy to the lake. I heard she had lots of fun on the swingset and riding in her wagon.

Oh, and look what Bradley does when he doesn't have to chase a toddler around a construction site. Bradley was testing out the view from the loft.


Everyone was so tired by the time we got home yesterday I didn't even think about getting my camera out. I tried to take extra pictures on Monday to make up for it.
Someone had lots of fun with her pancake plate after breakfast. There was syrup all in her hair-hey, it makes it look like she has lots of hair!

We went for our 18 month checkup yesterday. Emma was cracking herself up in the mirror.

She weighed in at 26 pounds (75% percentile) and height is 32 inches (60% percentile). We don't have to go back to the doctor now until 2 years old and no more shots until 5 years old!

I will be back later with more pictures-Emma actually has a little ponytail in her hair today! I just wanted to write this post to remember her stats.

Hide and Seek

We have a new hiding place in the office. Emma is not the best hider because she likes to call your name once she is hiding. Totally gives away her spot. And if you don't find her in her short attention span then she will just come out. We are going to have to work on the basics of hide and seek.

Sometimes I think I must have the word Sucker written across my forehead. The other day Emma convinced me that she wanted to have her rest time under my desk. I got the great idea in my head how peaceful it would be if she fell asleep under there and I could watch her. There is just something about watching a sleeping baby! Well you can imagine how long this idea lasted. As you can see, she was playing with anything you can find under the desk. No sleeping was going to take place. We soon moved back to our pack and play in her office.

Sneak Peek

I got one picture as a little sneak peek from our Christmas Card session on Saturday. I thought it was definitely worth sharing!

Have fun decoding this one!

She was talking to dada on the phone.

Christmas Cards

I absolutely LOVE getting Christmas cards. Hint, hint...if you know me-send me one! Just kidding!
I have already been on the search for cute cards for this year. We are getting our pictures taken this weekend-lets hope we get some good ones. We are going to do some family ones and ones with just Emma. I will probably make my final decision about my cards after I get proofs to see how many pictures I am going to use on the card and to see if I happen to win any of these giveaways!
1. Magnolias, Marriage and Manhattan has TWO giveaways going on from The Paper Cafe. Super cute note cards and address labels.
2. The Diaper Diaries is giving away a $100 gift certificate to Avondale Paperie. There are some super cute cards on this site that I am eyeing.

Anyone else have any good ideas of places to look for cute cards? I have done Kodak Gallery in the past, but I am thinking of making a change!

Officer Hoshall

I know that I mentioned last Thursday that we were going to our friend, Peyton's, graduation from the Police Academy. I thought it was very interesting to go and see how our policemen were sworn in, hear about their time in the Academy and celebrate their accomplishments. They said that 90 recruits had started with their class and 21 weeks later only 51 graduated! Zed ran up and snapped a picture before the recruits walked into to the ceremony. Sorry if some of my pictures are not very good. I guess my camera did not like the church lighting and some of the pictures were dark-like the ones below! They are of Peyton receiving his badge and getting sworn in by the Director.

Their whole recruit class-actually by this time they are officers!

Little more close up of the group. Peyton is on the front row, fourth from the right or left-doesn't matter which side you start at.

Bradley, Zed, Lindsay, Jeree and myself were really happy to be able to go to graduation and help celebrate with our friend.

Unfortunately, Bradley was taking the pictures so we didn't get one with him.
Congrats to Officer Hoshall

Halloween

Our little bumble bee had a pretty fun time trick or treating this year. Last year, she was only about 5 months old at Halloween so we didn't really get into it! If we had taken her to anyone's house it would have been pretty obvious that Bradley and I were just coming for the candy.

This year we starting practicing saying "trick or treat". She never really got it but would say "treat" and then would say bye when leaving every house.

We started out our evening by going over to CeCe's house. What a great house to stop at first. She let Emma pick out as much candy as she wanted!

Next we ventured over to my parent's neighborhood to trick or treat. I have come to the conclusion that they have a great neighborhood for Halloween. Zero lot line houses allow you to cover more houses in a shorter amount of time! This was a huge plus when you have someone that doesn't walk that fast to begin with!

At every house that had windows Emma would peak in to see if anyone was coming. She didn't really like the houses that had dogs that barked when we knocked. The picture below looks like she is saying "where are they"

Of course, she got her pick of candy and MiMi and Daddy Mac's house also! They were pretty brave letting her pick out all of that candy considering she was spending the night at their house.

After all of that hard work (and some sugar filled candy) our little bee still had the energy to run home!
Emma stayed at MiMi and Daddy Mac's so Bradley and I could go to a party with Courtney and Gaines on Saturday night. The theme of the party was dead celebrities and there were some good costumes! I stole this picture from Gaines' facebook because I didn't take any pictures. Bradley and I were the fired refs from the SEC. You can't really see but I have a sticker that says "I Love FL Gators" and I made us SEC patches for our shirts. Courtney and Gaines put a little more thought into their costumes and went as Wendy and Colonel Sanders. They had cups from their respective restaurants and everything!