Just Waking Up

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Emily just waking up this morning.  She has become really attached to this new polar bear she got as a late b-day present on Sunday.  

A Few Cute Pictures

I couldn't resist sharing these cute pictures I took today.  Emily is so funny, she makes this scrunched up face sometimes when she smiles.  She has a ton of funny expressions, she gets that from her daddy.

4-H Fair

This morning we went to the 4-H Fair, which was FREE!  We met up with our friends Julie and Blake, here is a picture of Emily and Blake by the Llama's.  They loved all of the animals, I think the cows may  have been their favorite.  We are always looking for fun FREE things to do.

First Corn on the Cob

Here is a look at Emily's first corn on the cob experience.  She wasn't so sure about it at first.

Play date

Today Emily and I got together with some of my friends from my old job.  There are seven of us that used to work together 10 years ago and we have remained friends and try to get together once a month or so.  It typically ends up being quarterly because we don't live very close to each other and all have children.   In 2007 we had a baby boom and there were 4 new babies in our group, here is Emily with Julia in the top picture and Luke in the bottom picture.  Between the 7 of us there are 13 children.  One of our friends recently moved to Iowa so there was only 6 of us today and 10 children, but it was still pretty busy!
 

Last night with my cousins

Last night was our last night with my sister and her family from New Orleans.  We had a great time, our friends stopped over with their puppy Henry - Emily loved him of course.  Jim read some books to the kids, we had dinner, and we had a chance to play some softball too!  I think that part was my favorite, the girls are very good and can hit the ball already.  

I think Lucy was voted the best fielder (our yellow lab), must be all of the practice I give her during Emily's nap time.  I hit her softballs almost every day to help her get her exercise when Emily is napping, then I cool her off with the garden hose.  

My friend Harrison

We got together with our friends from WI yesterday and their son Harrison who is almost 6 months old is almost as tall as Emily.  Here is a picture of Nora and Harrison with Emily and I.  It was so good to see them, as Nora said, "I wish we lived on the same street."  We had a really good time; we had a great brunch and then told fun new parent stories.  :)

The Common Grill

Yesterday we went to downtown for the Chelsea Summerfest and then to one of our favorite restaurants, The Common Grill.  If you haven't been there and are in Chelsea, you should try it, the food is wonderful, and the rolls melt in your mouth.

Grandma got the girls matching outfits, they were so cute!

My Boyfriend Blake & My Favorite Swing

On Thursday we got together with our friends Julie and Blake from church.  Here is a picture of Blake giving Emily snuggles.  He was giving us so many hugs and kisses on Thursday, I think he missed us.   They were out of town and we haven't had a chance to spend much time with them this month.  It was good to see, we missed when they were gone.

Here is a picture of Emily on her favorite swing that afternoon.  

We finished the day out with Sights &  Sounds, it was a great day.  I like busy days.

A Good German Breakfast

Today we went to our friend Wilma's house for a good German breakfast.  We had fresh baked soft pretzel buns with different meats & cheeses to make a sandwich, hard boiled eggs, blueberry muffins, and fresh fruit (from her garden).  It was a wonderful treat.

Wilma has an amazing garden, we took a quick tour this morning.  Some of the flowers we have at our house are from Wilma's garden, and surprisingly I haven't killed any of them, that is a miracle.

The first picture is Emily with her cousins Susanna-Jane and Katherine under the grapes, and the second one is inside with Great Grandma.

Milking the Cows

Today we went to a friends farm (Horning Farm) to see them milk the cows.  They milk 330 cows which produce about 3000 gallons of milk daily.  It was very neat, as you can see in the first picture, they have automatic milkers which they were just about to hook up after my brother Dave tested the cows utter to make sure it was ripe.  

We also went and saw all of the baby calves and checked out the steer, lambs, pigs, and sheep.  My immediate family was there and all of my nieces and nephews.  You will see a picture of all of the cousins sitting together on the small tractor.  Our friends Julie and Blake joined us (pictured petting a calf).   Emily pet the animals too, I carried her in a backpack most of the time.  

I am not sure if the kids enjoyed the ice cream, riding the big tractor or seeing the cows the most.    Sorry there are so many pictures, I was trying to pick a couple of fun ones, but there was over a 100 to chose from.  

First Cousins, Second Cousins, Lots of Cousins!

Yesterday we got together some of our cousins at my parents pond and went swimming.  It was a lot of fun, here are a few of the pictures from our get together.  

I couldn't resist sharing the first one of Emily blowing a kiss.  The second picture is of Emily with her 2nd cousin Claire.  The last picture is Amy, Patty, Linda and Grandma enjoying a snack at the pond.  We need to do this more often, what fun!  :)

Cousins day 2

 Yesterday was another fun filled day with my sister and her family.  We started by going to the Manchester Bakery (top picture), did I tell you my cousin Melanie Weidmayer owns the bakery?  It's a great bakery in downtown Manchester, my favorite are her colorful sugar cookies or her cakes.  If you are in the area you should swing by and try a cookie or donut.

The next two pictures are from last night, we had dinner at Travis Pointe.  It was teal shirt night, no actually it was steak night, but we happened to all wear teal.  Here is a picture of my sister Sarah and I, and then a pretty good family picture of Jim, Emily and I.

Cousins from New Orleans

My older sister Sarah and her family are here from New Orleans.  Here are a couple of pictures from our day together.  Susanna-Jane is 6 and Katherine is 4, they really enjoyed playing with Emily.  We had lunch, went to Timbertown, played on our swing set, visited the horses next door and went for a walk, took a bath, played dress up, etc.  They haven't seen her since Christmas, and she sure has changed in the last 6 months.

Our new God Daughter Jada

Here is a picture of our new God Daughter Jada.  This is from her baptism on Sunday, what a special day and honor for us.  Her parents are Kelly and Tim, friends of our, and I used to work with Kelly.  Jada is 3.5 months old, and such an angel.  Kelly and Tim have a little boy Luke who is not in the picture, he will be 3 next month.

Water baby

We went swimming in my parents pond last night.  Emily is enjoying the water a lot these days.  As you can see we had fun too.  

It's hard to get all of our work done, all we want to do is fun things with Emily.  It's so fun to watch her expressions as she tries new things.  

We also went to the Manchester fair on Friday night.  Emily liked the tractor pull, animals, auction and of course the cloggers.  She got to pet some baby bunnies, lambs, and a donkey that was only 6 weeks old.  

At the Pool

Today we went to the pool.  It was Emily's first time in a pool since March, and she LOVED it!  We took it slow at first because she did not like Dave's lake last weekend.  We met my mom and good friend from HS Colleen and her son Owen at Travis Pointe.  I didn't get a great picture with both kids in it, but they did really enjoy themselves until it got to nap time and they were ready to go.  Owen is about a month older then Emily and is such a cutie.  I was hoping he would teach Emily to walk, but we ran out of time.  Emily taught Owen the baby sign for hat, he's a quick learner.  Maybe next play date it will be dance steps.  :)

Sights & Sounds

Chelsea is such a great small town, we absolutely love it here.  Last night we went to one of their weekly events called Sights & Sounds.  They have musicians in the street, some vendors, and Emily's favorite the jugglers!  Here is a picture of Emily & her dad with some of our friends - Aaron (white shirt)  - their two boys Christian (on the left) and Jackson (on the right) watching the juggling act.  It goes from 6:30 - 8:30 pm and we just go for about an hour and walk around.  It is the perfect family event, and it's nice because we always see some of our friends there - from the library, MOPS, etc.  Did I tell you the Chelsea Library was awarded "The Best Small Library in the US" award?  It was a very big deal, we do have an AWESOME library here.  Well enough about Chelsea.

This is what I found ...

I was using the bathroom at our house, and I always shut the door because it's not really baby proof - yet!  Emily always fusses and bangs on the door.  Today the noises sounded different, like she was going to open the door and come in.  I thought someone was in our house, there is no way a 13 month old can reach the door handle - wrong!  This is what I found when I came out of the bathroom.  I always use the bathroom that has 2 entrances  - because you never know what Emily is doing on the other side.  Sometimes she sticks her hands under the door like a kitty cat would do, she can be pretty silly.  She is tall for her age, but I had no idea I would find this today.  And guess what her favorite thing to do is?  It's to try and open all of our doors.  UGH!  How do you baby proof door handles?  I only see things for door knobs.  A new challenge, keep her away from the door handles.  We add that to eating random things she finds on the carpet, she can find the smallest thing that I miss with the vacuum.  

Manchester Parade

This morning when Emily was eating her breakfast she kept doing the baby sign for hat.  Finally I realized that her hat from last nights Manchester parade was on the kitchen table.  She is in love with this new hat of hers.  I had to take it away because I thought she was going to snap the elastic band and she had a fit, laying on the floor crying and kicking her legs.  Does this happen at one?  I thought it happened at two?  She is a little stubborn - uh oh. 

Here are a few pictures from the parade, her favorite was the horses/dogs, then maybe the tractors came in second.  The other people in the pictures are my parents and my dad's mom.

On Uncle Dave's Boat

Last week we went to my brother Dave's to celebrate the 4th of July.  Although it rained for the first couple of days, we had a great time with my family.   We did some boating, kayaking, and lots of Euchre after the kids went to bed.  Here are a few pictures from the boating, we actually got a family picture which seems to be rare these days.  Hope you had a good 4th!  :)

Timbertown

Chelsea has this great play area called Timbertown.   We went to check it out last night, there are a lot of neat things - more for older children, but Emily still had a good time.  

She liked going down the slide with her daddy.