Birthdays!

First off, Happy 16th birthday to my handsome son. It's hard to believe that it's been 16 years! I remember your entry into the world with vivid detail and what a life changing event it was. Doesn't he look adorable this morning:)

"Go away Mom!"

Why yes Brady, I will fix everything that you request for your birthday dinner. No problem at all.

Potty training. What more do I need to say. It's not going as well as I would like, but we are getting there SLOWLY. She loves to wear her panties on her head. Who knew?

Oh, and she loves for mom to wear her jeans on my head. Anything to entertain while we sit on the potty for what seems like an eternity. I realize this picture is sad, so sad! What can I say.

Did I mention the dishes that needed to be done?
Emma also had a good birthday, although we celebrated it a little late due to ballgames on Saturday. By the way, my boy got to play and scored 5 points. They ended up winning the game at the buzzer and came in third in the tournament.

She loves her new Birthday Cake puzzle from Melissa and Doug. I loves those puzzles.

It took her a while to catch on to blowing out the candles, but once she did she really loved it.

Isn't that the sweetest little expression on her face?

I promise that I will play catch up the next go around. I am just really behind on blogging, mainly because I'm still doing the dishes!

Friday

Okay, so I'm pretty sure that this girl is going to be a photographer when she grows up.

Our last day with Miss Jennifer. She has been such a great help for Emma and we are going to miss her so much. Emma ages out of the TEIS program tomorrow when she turns THREE.

Emma is getting in on the photography action.

Ashton hurt his ankle at a ballgame (actually in warm ups) Wednesday night. He ended up playing and scoring 4 points. The one time we are NOT at the game he gets to play. We didn't go because he sent me a text saying he wasn't playing because he had hurt his ankle. I could have killed the child!

Okay, so he's milking this "injury" for everything it's worth. He forgets that his mom has been an ER nurse for many years and I don't believe in being a baby! He actually thought he was going to miss school the next day. Lest you thing I'm heartless, his ankle didn't look bad at all and he was able to walk on it. He just thought he might get away with staying home.

No big plans for the weekend. Emma will not be having a big party because Ashton has another game tomorrow afternoon. She has no clue it's her birthday so it's not a problem.

I have been thinking about her birth parents so much today, especially her mother. I hope that somehow she knows her little girl is so loved. It's a bittersweet celebration for me.

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes!

If you are in need of some cute little girls clothes, check ours out. Please leave me a comment if you have questions or are interested. Go to photobucket and the password is clothes. Thanks.

Emma's Many Faces

Applesauce. It's whats for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack. You get the picture.

Just another one of her many hats.

Birdwatching in the kitchen.

She is also wearing Ashton's old basketball jersey from elementary school.

Can you guess that this girl has discovered she really likes chocolate.

My very mean mommy is making me, a gunslinger, sit at the table to eat cereal for breakfast. Doesn't she know that I have to be out on the range and don't have time for this nonsense.

This girl has a lot of moods!

Chinese New Year and Look What A Mess

Okay, so it's been a few days since I last blogged. It's just hard to find enough time to get it done some days:)


We had a nice weekend and celebrated CNY with other families in our area. Emma had fun after she warmed up. She is not used to being around kids and it took her a while to join in the fun. I had an opportunity to talk with a fellow AP and she was so sweet. She has a friend who has just accepted a referral for a child with limb differences and I was so excited to get a chance to talk with her. I remember all of those fears and was so glad to be able to share with her.

Emi and Emma.

Oh yes, she is SO styling in her Chinese dress and sunglasses.

So while we were getting ready to go Saturday afternoon Emma was in the bathroom with me waiting to get in the shower. She loves the shower and says it so cute:) I noticed that she was quiet and that's very unusual for her. I took a peek out of the shower and look what I found. Sorry these pics are out of order:) Look at how completely innocent she looks.

Just hamming it up at home in a princess dress.

So I really don't have a lot of fun blogging things to discuss. We are still attempting to potty train and that train is going NOWHERE.

Emma will be 3 on Saturday and I can't believe it. She is getting some major attitude and looked at me over the weekend and crossed her arms in complete defiance. Oh the terrible 3's.

We are waiting to see a pediatric Endocrinologist about the diabetes insipidus. She has not been officially diagnosed with it but they are really leaning toward that.

Brady is counting down the days until his birthday this month. He will be 16 and I can't even go there. I just refuse to talk about it yet!

Gotta get a tired little girl down for her nap and get some work done. I will try to do better with my blogging habits.....

A Snow Day

Just a pretty shot in the snow.

Emma loved the sled.

Cute little butt had been in the snow.

Our dogs look like they are killing each other in the background. They were just having some fun in the snow.

Gypsy is taking it all in.

The spawn of Satan has grown up some.

Those are some big and stinky shoes to fill!

For the first time in 18 years I had to call in to work last night because of the weather. Bo tried to get me to work and ended up turning around and telling me he just didn't think he could get me there. I am a slacker and my coworkers will remind me of it. It felt so weird to be home on a Friday night. I actually had a really hard time sleeping since I'm used to being up.

We have about 5 inches of snow here and it's beautiful. It's the most snow that we have gotten in a really long time and Emma was quite happy playing in it today. It's not a very wet snow so we couldn't build a snowman but she did have fun sledding. I was really surprised since she had such a texture issue with the sand while we were at the beach.

After playing in the snow this morning I spent the rest of the day cooking and baking. I made some banana bread and then baked the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake and may I say that it is WICKED GOOD. I wish that I had not discovered it and so do my hips. What is it about being snow bound that makes you want to cook?

So that has pretty much been my day. I know that if you are reading this post and you are from the north you are thinking that we southerners are a bunch of sissies, but we just can't drive in this stuff! It's best to stay home and eat cake.