Fun Pictures

There's no real theme to this post - just a bunch of fun pictures that I wanted to share! Emily has been up to all kinds of stunts lately, from pillaging my ribbon box to squirrel watching with T.C. and her Daddy. At any rate, I thought you might enjoy seeing what goes on around the White House when no one is looking! Have a great week!

Building castles at Mimi and Papa's house

Playing Glamazon in Mommy's robe

Out to lunch with Aunt Liz

Photographing the damage after a round of makeuping

It wasn't me!
Explaining to Daddy how the ribbons got all over the floor

Squirrel watching

Infiltrating card night - She conned Lane into drawing with her!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to take a moment to share some pictures from our New Year's celebration. We had a pretty quiet New Year's - we spent the evening at the Farr House for dinner and Scattergories and then came home to put Emily to bed. After she settled down, Donald and I watched the Peach drop and played Scrabble (in between prayers that the neighbors' fireworks wouldn't wake the baby!) Everyone came to our house for the traditional meal of greens and blackeyed peas on New Year's Day. As undomestic as I am, I did manage to make two pans of cornbread (one of about five recipes that I've mastered) and Donald did the rest. Thanks to Nanny for the turnip greens! It seems strange that just a few years ago, we were drinking ginger ale at our first house and toasting the new baby that was on the way. Now she's a wild-haired toddler with definite opinions on just about everything! Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. We're looking forward to a great 2008!

Two sweet girls posing for a picture with Victoria, Abby's baby.

Clowning around with Mommy. You will notice that Dora is on the TV in the background. Will she ever move through this phase?

Looking fabulous in a party hat

How does this thing work, anyway?

Trying to convince Nanny to build blocks with her. She's very persuasive!

Fun with New Toys

I know what you all are thinking - so many posts in such a short time! I'm feeling blogtastic. It must be a side effect of being out of work and out of class for the holiday break. Or it might be a byproduct of having taken so many cute pictures of Emi lately. At any rate, enjoy the fruits of my blogging. See you soon!

Emily loves tea sets. She's enjoying a new ladybug tea set from Angie and Ryan.

Cici and Granddaddy gave Emi this cool easel for Christmas. Check out our future Picasso!

Abby and Emi had a great time dancing to Dora's Dance Adventure!

Emi loves her Dora Aquadoodle from Mimi and Papa. Apparently, TC likes it, too!

Well, she wasn't playing with it anymore...

Check out this video of Emi dancing with Dora. She had a great time shaking her maracas!

Merry Christmas Part Two

I actually posted this a few days ago but the computer crashed and I lost my work! Serves me right for not saving a draft. At any rate, here we go again - Two nights before the night before Christmas, Donald and I had some family and friends over. We love having company over and really enjoyed seeing the children chase each other around and tear into their presents. They spent most of their time in the new Dora tent (courtesy of Aunt Liz) and chowing down on Ritz crackers (as evidence by the trail of crumbs all over the house - and in my bed!). We are blessed to have family so close all around us and to finally have the space for celebrating together in our home. I've also included a video clip of Christmas morning. A little dark, as videos with our camera tend to be, but still pretty fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures and are having a wonderful holiday season!

A Christmas morning video - Emily was still pretty sleepy, but she went straight for the big wheel. She's been asking about it all day while we've been visiting family and was really excited to come back home and find it still here in the living room!

Emily seems to think that she should build something on top of the present instead of open it.

Why is it that the box is always so much fun?

Abby and her new twin doll from Aunt Liz.

Santa Don treated us to a reading of The Night Before Christmas but Abby was the only one disciplined enough to sit still and listen. The others were hiding in the new tent.

Crashed out with her new pal - lifesize (well, almost) Dora.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the White House was lots of fun this year! We've been looking forward to the big day and it has been fun to talk with Emily about what Santa might bring her. It's also been fun creating some new Christmas traditions together. Emily slept late on Christmas morning. We were lucky - Abby was up at 4:30! When we did get up, she was pretty sleepy but still very excited about her big present - a Dora bicycle! She's been talking about one for months now. However, the best gifts of the day seem to be a package of plastic combs from Amy (she recently lost her favorite purple comb and was very upset about it) and a bottle of Dora bubbles from the Dollar Store! Too much excitement pooped her out and she was exhausted by the time we made it to Donald's parents' house. She kept begging to go home. So here we are, all in our pajamas in front of the fire with Emily alternately building with her blocks (new favorite past time) and riding her big wheel around the living room.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve - Don't you love those pajamas? She looks like an elfin convict!

At long last - the Dora bicycle! It's really noisy - lots of fun for everyone.

She really loved the stocking - and the jazzy Dora bedroom slippers. Are you starting to see a theme develop here?

Opening presents with Abby at the Farr House

A new comb! And by the looks of that fuzzy head, she needs one!

Emmy's American Idol Audition

Donald recently went away for a few days to attend a conference in Alabama for science educators. While he was gone, Emily and I tried to send him a few pictures and a video clip each night - just to rub it in that we're having so much fun while he's learning new ways to integrate the Van de Graaf generator into his curriculum. This one was so cute that I had to share it with the rest of you! The clip is a little dark but too sweet not to show off.

Hope your holidays are merry!

Two Sweet Girls

In a rate moment, I captured my two sweet girls on camera playing house together and felt that I should share this with the world. It doesn't happen often - although they love each other to pieces, they are generally engaged in tearing each other to pieces. I love it that they're playing with Weeble people that belonged to me and Amy when we were little. They also play with my Barbies when they're at our house. Abby asked me one time why my Barbies were dressed so weird. I told her than in 1982, they were very trendy. Remember Barbie and the Rockers? Have a great weekend!

Making Yardwork Fun

Emily has recently decided that it is loads of fun to pick up leaves in the yard. Last weekend, we loaded up for a picnic of sorts and sat out in the yard for a while collecting and sorting various leaves and pinecones. She had a blast! Hope you enjoy these pictures of her cleaning up the yard. We can only hope that this devotion to yard work will continue as neither of us really enjoys cleaning up the leaves! Happy Fall! And by the way, aren't you impressed by my video posting? I feel so tech-savvy!

Getting started on an adventure - I love the serious look on her face! She's all business.
Emily likes to look through all of the leaves and talk about their colors. She's also very picky - she throws out any leaves that have crumbled edges. Only the perfect ones get to go in the basket!
Sorting through her treasures with Mommy
Taking a rest break
She also loves to roll in the grass but insists that everyone else join her. We'll probably all have chiggers tomorrow.

This is my first attempt to post a video. Hope it doesn't take forever to load! Listen closely and at the end, you can hear her count the pinecones. So smart! Next weekend, we're splitting the atom.

Fun Fall Pictures

Just wanted to add in a few fun random pictures that we took this weekend. I have been dragging my feet about taking Emily to get her 2 year old pictures taken, but I console myself by thinking that we take lots of pictures of her every day. I promise to take her before she turns three, anyway. Hope you enjoy these!

A sweet picture of Daddy's girl on her way to have pictures made with Santa (aka-Granddaddy). All she can talk about is a "Dora bicycle." I'll probably have to get up a four in the morning on the day after Thanksgiving to find one! Then again, we have a direct link to the big guy - check out www.santainatlanta.com for details!

A friend snapped this picture of us at the Northgate game this Friday. Emily loved the cheerleaders and loved climbing the bleachers even more. However, she loved her mittens the most and almost had to sleep with them that night. I outwitted her by offering her cookies in bed. Sugar for mittens - a good trade!

We caught Emily feeding TC treats on Saturday morning. I don't know how long this had been going on before I caught them, but it's safe to assume it was for an extended period. If I had taken a picture five seconds later, it would show TC throwing up an entire can of cat treats. The joys of toddlers and cats...

For whatever reason, Emily decided on Sunday morning that she needed to take a nap with all of her animals...underneath the living room rug. We really do have blankets for her bed. She just prefers the soft feel of wool next to her skin at naptime.

Have a great week!

A White House Halloween

Halloween at the White House was lots of fun this year because Emily was able to go trick or treating for the first time. Our families met for supper at our house before loading Emily, Jackson, and Abby into a wagon and heading out to hit the streets. Emily had a great time and even remembered to say "Tick or Teek!" at each house. Abby got to spend some some quality time with Uncle Donald at the pirate house down the street (an unbelievable decorating extravaganza!) while Brad and I hauled the wagon back to our house. We're thinking of investing in a trailer or a golf cart like our neighbors for next year - Brad and I were worn out after hauling two heavy toddlers around the neighborhood! Hope you enjoy these pictures!

What a sweet witch! I love this dress and would seriously let her wear it as a regular dress and not just as a "cosh-toom", as she called it.

The fabulous Abby Williams is wearing a custom-made Dorothy outfit courtesy of Mimi. I'm glad that we have primary hand-me-down status!

We got the trick or treaters to sit still for about two seconds to take a photo. No small feat!

Yuck! That Laffy Taffy is sticky! Notice the suspicious greasy smears around her mouth - someone's been stealing from the candy bowl!

Caught in the act! Charlie the Cat was an unwitting accomplice as Emily pilfered from the candy bowl and filled up her own bag.

Holidays are lots of fun with little ones around. We had a great time trick or treating this year and are looking forward to a fun Christmas. Look for more pictures soon!

Happenings at The White House

I generally leave the blogging to Donald; however, for the moment at least, I have a few moments of quiet time and thought I'd post a few pictures of our latest activities. Sorry it has been such a long time since we've last posted but life is generally hectic around here. Emily is becoming such a character and is such a joy to have around each day. She has really started talking around the clock and Donald and I have lots of fun trying to translate her toddler-speak. We've recently graduated to a big-girl bed - more on that below! We've also posted some pictures of our trip to The Place to Play (an inflatable playground) in Newnan and the Hopewell Methodist Church's pumpkin patch. We can't believe how much she's growing and learning every day. Hope you enjoy these pictures!Emily loves the babies she got for her birthday and enjoys putting them to bed in Mommy's bed.
After an unfortunate "climbing out of the crib at 3:00 am" incident, we booked it to Babies R Us and invested in a toddler bed. She's adjusted pretty well and is channeling Abby Williams by insisting on fifteen stuffed animals in the bed before she can sleep!
Donald and Emily in the ball pit at The Place to Play. She didn't want to leave the ball pit to explore any of the other play possibilities.
Taking a run down the slide with Mommy. We discovered pretty quickly that it's not the other kids that she needed protection from - it's the parents of the other children!
Emily chose this pumpkin at the pumpkin patch to bring home with her. I fear that it will go rotten before we can get it away from her!

Emily's 2nd Birthday

Here are a few pictures of Emily's 2nd birthday party. Everyone had a great time and Emily got so many cool new toys! It's hard to believe that she's already two! Thanks to everyone who came and those of you who were thinking about us!

Emily's Cake and Invite
Emily surrounded by her friends
Emily and Mimi checking out the donuts!
Emily and Mom snuggling after the party. She was worn out. Emily, too!

Emily's favorite gift. She calls them "bubb-lees"

Emily and her shades. She is so cool!