Before Church

I had to share this cute picture I snapped of Emily with my phone today before church.  She is standing in front of her favorite horse Mocha.  One of the neighbors horses looks like Emily's toy horse and so she named it Mocha after the neighbors horse.  Emily loves to ride her horse.  She also pretends to feed it apples and listen to his heart with her doctor kit.  So cute!

Chelsea Parade

Part of the 175th activities included a parade in downtown Chelsea yesterday at noon.  Here is Emily waiting for the parade with two of her friends Jackson & Christian Warriner.  The parade was short and sweet, but long enough for Emily to get quite a bit of candy.  Most it she can't eat seeing we don't do peanut butter yet, and the taffy and tootsie rolls are still a little iffy.  So Jim has been enjoying the candy.  

Strawberry Picking

We were up bright and early yesterday and went strawberry picking at a friend's house.  While my mom and I picked strawberries Emily and Jim looked at the animals and walked around the beautiful garden at our friend Wilma's house.  

After Jim saw how big the strawberry patch was and how long it was taking us, he ended up helping and Emily sat and watched us.  She was very patient while we picked strawberries.

I confirmed that I am allergic to strawberries, my arms had a horrible rash on them when I got done picking.  It's a new allergy since I was pregnant with Emily I thought I may be allergic to them, but yesterday I decided when my arms were on fire that I really am allergic to them.

Chelsea's 175th Celebration

Chelsea is celebrating 175 years this weekend with lots of fun activities.  We went down there today at noon and only stayed for about an hour or so.  It was enough time for us to participate in a cake walk and WIN a cake!  Then we headed over to the baby pools with balls which is where some of our friends were hanging out.  Emily stood in the back and sucked her thumb for a while, then she said "ma ma come" several times trying to get me to go with her to the pool.  She finally got close enough to play with the balls in the pool and a little kid splashed her and she was done.  Emily didn't get very wet but still didn't like that so we moved to the animals which was her favorite part.  I just love the picture of her holding the baby bunny.  In the bottom picture she is saying the pig is sleeping.  

Emily also tasted her first McDonald's orange drink, which she did well drinking out of a cup with no straw or lid.  Of course she liked it and wanted more.  While getting drinks a dressed up McDonald's character (not Ronald) came up to Emily, and Emily came running to me and wanted nothing to do with him.  It looks like a new stage we'll be going through with her scared of dressed up characters?

There is so much fun stuff going on downtown, I didn't want to leave, but Emily was ready for her nap, which she did go down about an hour late today.

Emily's 1st Bike Ride

When I got home from my church meeting I found Jim and Emily were gone on a bike ride.  Seeing this was her first time going for a ride on Jim's bike, I took the car and snapped a few pictures of them riding.  

Emily was so adorable, her hair was blowing in the wind and she was sucking her thumb.  That's her coping mechanism, especially when something is new, her thumb is her security blanket.  Last night when she was telling me about the bike ride she said that daddy went fast and they saw horses (true) and cows (not true, but a good idea).  Emily loved it, so I am sure it will be come a regular thing.  

Treehouse on a Hot Day

This morning I couldn't decide if we should go to the Treehouse or the park.  It was so hot and humid that we decided on the Treehouse.  When we got there we were excited that Emily's friend Sydney and her dad Mike were there hanging out as well.  The good news is the AC was working and it was nice and cool in there.  Emily and I enjoyed climbing the jungle gym and going down the slides together.  A few times she climbed up there by herself, but she still likes it if I go with her.  It was nice that Sydney was there because sometimes Emily would play Sydney and didn't always need me.  

When we got outside of the Treehouse I knew we made the right choice.  It was so hot Emily walked right over to the water fountain.  Here she is dipping her feet in the refreshing cool water.  

Domino

On our walk last night we saw our neighbor out with their new 9 week old puppy Domino.  Here are a few pictures I snapped with my phone when Emily was playing with the puppy.  He was so cute, the only bummer is he is teething and was biting a little bit.  Emily kept saying "no puppy, no!"  When we got home she told Jim that the puppy tried to eat her shirt!  He was biting her shirt and shoes, I thought that was funny how she described it to Jim.

Click on the second photo to make it large, you have to see the puppy's blue eyes.

Library Time

Yesterday it was hot again, so we decided it was a good idea to go to story time at the library.  Several others had the same plan and the library was packed.  We went to the library to keep cool, unfortunately the AC was broken!  It was so toasty in the small children's room (which is normally hot), I am not sure if it was hotter outside in the sun or inside at the library.  I wondered why they had fans going when we got to the library?  

We still had a great time, above is Emily doing the craft at the end of story time.  Of course her favorite part is when they stamp her arm at the end of the class.

Swimming Pool

It was so hot on Tuesday when I was gardening that after pulling out our lettuce and spinach (6 rows) Emily and I went and bought this baby pool at Pamida.  After her nap we both took a dip in the pool.  I wasn't going to go in, but it was so hot and Emily insisted that I go swimming with her.

The top picture I took with my new iPhone, it's not a bad picture but you sure can tell the quality is not as good as my camera (second photo).

Great Grandma Weidmayer Visit

Here is our height update at Great Grandma's house.  Hee he!  I say that because Great Grandma is usually sitting in the same chair and I always ask Emily to stand by grandma to have her picture taken.  We can look back on many pictures to see how much Emily has grown from a little baby where grandma is holding her to now where Emily is about 3 feet tall.  

We had a nice visit with my grandma yesterday, I have gotten to know her better because we get some time to talk one on one.  It used to be that I mostly saw my grandma at holidays and events, and you don't get to chat as much compared to my visits with just Emily and I.  Grandma read to Emily and gave Emily a few M & M's which are Emily's favorite!

Father's Day at Grandma's House

On Sunday we spent the day at Jim's mom's house in Midland.  It was a nice relaxing day, and the weather was beautiful.  We enjoyed looking at their beautiful garden, Jane is a master gardener, and it shows.  Around their garden they have an electric fence to keep the wild turkeys out, but when we were there, the turkey walked right threw the fence twice without a care in the world (picture of the turkey above).   

Jim got to see how large Alan's hops are growing, and I think he got home and measured his in our garden.  Alan gave Jim some tips on brewing beer and growing hops and we came home with some special potion Alan made that Jim is going to put on his hops.    

Emily enjoyed squirting Grandma and daddy with the garden house, eventually we had to end the game and she was a little sad that the fun was over.   But she had gotten both grandma and daddy wet.  I kept my distance in the back snapping pictures.  :)

The other thing Emily loved to do was play with their cat Holly.  Holly was very good about letting Emily chase her and play with her, sometimes she would go hide but most of the time she let Emily pet her, squeeze her, hold her and more.  Emily got a real kick out of her walking between her legs and wanted her to keep doing that.

I was so proud of Emily at grandma's house, she had no accidents and peeped and pooped on the potty the entire day.  Plus she took a nap in the guest bedroom in the queen size bed with a large rubber ducky they had.  It only took her a few minutes to fall asleep on her own in a strange place.  I was amazed, and I am sure we will have many times that we won't be as lucky as we were on Sunday.

It was a great father's day!

Walk at the Farm

We often go to my parents house in the evening and go for a walk out to the pond so we can feed the fish.  These pictures are from last weeks adventure.  I think it's so cute how Emily and Jim have the same expression on their faces in the top picture.  As you can see we were having a great time!

Library Craft

At story time yesterday Emily made a shirt and tie for daddy - out of paper.  She was so proud of herself that she could use the glue stick and do the project by herself (for the most part).  Doesn't she look so proud in the top picture?  It was so cute.

Take Time to Smell the Flowers

These pictures are from a few days ago, I forgot about them.  Isn't Emily cute smelling the flowers?   I am not sure why it looks like she is going to kiss them, she was actually smelling them.  :)

Dexter Park

Here are a few pictures from our play group meeting at a park yesterday.  Emily was sporting her first pony tail, it was so darn cute.  Unfortunately she doesn't like to have her hair up and prefers a hat, which is fine too.  You can't tell in this picture, but Emily loved climbing through this blue tunnel with Claire, she had so much fun with her friends, she didn't want to go home.  Blake is in the picture with Emily on the steps, he was having fun playing with his shoes.  :)

Soccer Game

Jim and I signed up for an outdoor soccer league with our neighbors.  It seemed like an ideal plan, Jim and I would both play and our neighbors daughter would watch Emily at the park next to the field.  Unfortunately Jim got hurt the first week and then couldn't play the rest of the season.  I don't know a lot about soccer so I learned a new sport, but for the summer I signed up for volleyball a sport I know how to play seeing it's only me playing.  Here are a few pictures from our last game, picture 1 is soccer in action, picture 2 is my biggest fan, and the third picture is of the Cabble's who came to watch  me play.  

Toddler Heaven

We had a great night last night, I will call it Toddler Heaven.  We went over to the Cabble's for a night of fun, we started with a very yummy dinner.  For dinner we had shrimp, steak, chicken, grilled veggies, rice, watermelon, and strawberries.  Emily's favorite was the rice, she had 3 helpings, and her second favorite was either the strawberries or watermelon.  

After dinner we walked to get ice cream, and Emily enjoyed her first ice cream cone at Stucchi's in Dexter.  I was surprised that she didn't get too messy, and she ate almost the whole thing, but she is like her dad, he doesn't like to get messy either.  

On the way back to the Cabble's we stopped at the park where the kids had fun on the swings, going down the slide, climbing and something new this bouncing thing.  

All this fun with some of our favorite people, it doesn't get much better. 

Garden Hose

Emily likes to spray the dog with the garden hose, I spray Lucy and she loves it, but when Emily gets the hose everyone seems to take two steps back including Lucy.  Once and a while Lucy will get close as you can see in one of the pictures, but most of the time she runs the other way.  Emily will yell "Doggie come" but Lucy ignores her.

It seems rare to get a picture of Emily and I seeing I am usually the one taking the pictures, but my parents were over last night and my mom snapped this picture of us.

Chelsea Library Summer Kick Off

This morning we were busy, I went running, did 3 loads of laundry and made Chicken & Rice soup for dinner all before 10am.  I checked my e-mail and found some friends were going to Timbertown so we headed there around 10:30 and then we ended the morning at the Chelsea Library.  

The Chelsea Library had their summer reading program kick off.  We were one of the first 100 kids, so we got a free container of sidewalk chalk, and then we went to all their different stations.  Emily made a few crafts, but her favorite was this game were you tried to pick up marbles standing in the baby pool with your toes.  After trying it for a little bit she got the idea that if you pick them up with your hands and put them into the bucket, it's much easier.    There was a line for the game, but Emily kept running over to it and wanted to get back in.  I can't tell you how many times she took her shoes off for the game. 

Emily also enjoyed kicking the soccer ball around, unfortunately it was for a game and so the organizer had to kept getting it back from Emily so they could play the game.  There is also a picture of Emily  trying to do the hola hoop, so cute.  She tries everything, and she really puts forth a lot of effort too.  Emily is so much fun!

Claire Dancing

Yesterday I woke Emily up from her nap a little early and whisked her into the car.  We went to go see our cousin Claire's dress rehearsal.  Claire was absolutely adorable, I was bummed that the pictures came out a little dark.  Claire is the one on the far right in the top picture and in the back on the bottom picture.  

Emily loved watching the dancing, she sat so still on my lap sucking her thumb watching with big eyes.