Better late than never...

So I know I'm a week late on posting this but last Saturday one of my best friends, Ashley, and her sister, Shannon, came to visit!  After they got to Lexington, we headed downtown to tailgate with some other fun people.

Tara was one of Ashley's roommates in college and I got to know her pretty well.  She is sweet as can be!  After becoming a pharmacist, Tara moved to Nashville, TN to start her adult life.  As she waited in the airport for her flight to return to Nashville after visiting family in SC she met a guy named Joe and they hit it off.  Coincidently, he was also heading to Nashville.  They have now been dating for six months and I finally got to meet him at the tailgate on Saturday.  I loved him!  He was great with Emmalyn, treats Tara well, and is very friendly and charismatic.  Now, we are just waiting on the bling (hint, hint Joe).

Once we got to their tailgate the sky opened up and it poured!  So we all piled underneath the tents and waited it out.  Emmy thought we were all crazy but went with the flow (pun intended) anyway.  

As we waited on the rain to stop we snuck in a few pics!

After playing in the rain Emmy decided she needed a snack.  A chocolate chip cookie would do.

After eating her cookie she noticed something.  A guy with tatoos covering his left calf.  Not knowing what it was she walked right up to him and attempted to wipe the drawings off.  Funniest. thing. ever.  I'm glad the guy took it well.  Mostly because his calf was as big as she is!  Once she realized it wasn't coming off she needed a break...

Then I put my camera to rest and let Joe take the shutter responsibility.  I felt and look pretty frumpy next to these tall, thin beauties, but I love them!

And... Touchdown!  Enough said.

I was so happy to be there while Emmalyn experienced at least part of Gamecock football.  I'm hoping next year Daddy will be with us as we experience Emmalyn's first Williams Brice game!

Oh Baby!

Yesterday I attended a baby shower for a fellow NICU nurse, Kim.  I took her maternity pictures and posted them on my photography blog a few weeks ago.  You can view them here.

The shower was so fun and big success.  Seeing my old coworkers was great (and made me sad that I'm not with them anymore).

When I wasn't chasing Emmy around I was shutter happy and here are the results...

Cutest pregnant lady laugh!

The NICU ladies know how to spoil a momma!  They built the diaper cake around a bottle of Arbor Mist.  Amazing!  Kim, just don't drink too much at first because 9 months of no alcohol can make you a light weight!  

Are these not some BEAUTIFUL ladies!  It's almost sad that only preemie/sick babies get nurses like these!

Babies added

Kim, Khloe, Emmy, and the hostesses.

One loved little girl!

15 month stats

Emmalyn's 15 month Stats (better late than never)

Weight - 18lb 6oz (5th percentile)

Height - 30in (5th percentile)

Head - 17.5in (10th percentile)

Size of clothes - 6-9 month to 12 months

Eye color - very brown

Sleep - 8-10 hours a night

Food - getting a little more picky.  One day she will like something (ie. chicken salad) and the next day she won't.  If I try giving her the same thing a week later she'll eat it.  I usually have 2 or 3 options in my head for meal times in case she decides she doesn't want my first choice.  I guess she is just a girl changing her mind on a whim. 

Some foods she does love:

peanut butter

sweet tea

pretzels

pancakes

hummus

cheese

bananas

bread

  

Milestones -  she now runs instead of walking.  She's still a little slow on the verbal skills, but communicates well with sign language.  She knows her body parts and can point to them (she thinks it is so fun).  She is able to follow more complex commands like "go get another book and bring it to mommy so we can read it" and "put it in the trash can."  She also now walks to the car when we get ready to go somewhere instead of me carrying her (I'm kind of sad about this one!).

Current words:

hot

daddy

momma

Bop (what we call Caleb's dad)

stop

uh oh

thank you

dog

She makes owl, cat, dog, cow and bird noises

Favorite activities - Running around telling the dogs to "stop," walking outside (she loves the outdoors!), "helping" me cook, playing with make up, rearranging the clean clothes that I just folded, trying to fit in the smallest place that she can, putting tops back on things like bottles and cans.  She will hand you a bottled drink for you to open a give her some.  She loves to climb on and off the couches and plays a new game that I've (very intelligently named) "up down" wear she sits in your lap and stands up and waits for you to say "up" then she sits back down and waits for you to say "down" and repeats this about twenty times.

And here are some recent pictures.

Last week our neighbors got a puppy named Sonny.  Emmy is not too sure about him because he likes to gnaw on her pants, hands, shoes, you name it.  

She got really good at telling him to stop though.

Like I said before, she loves to play outside!  I think this is why she is so attached to Bop because he takes her outside a lot and lets her roam around on their spacious property.

Her new outfit came from a thrift store that Ama (Caleb's mom) found!

One of my new favorite photos of her.

This is Emmy blowing like the wind.

What kid doesn't like bubbles?

reading along with Daddy as he reads a book he sent from Kuwait.

Daddy's on tv!!

A Rude Awakening and Surprise Party!

This past Saturday I threw a surprise anniversary party for my parents.  Well, the surprise was mostly for my mom because my parents planned a trip to Disney World to celebrate and I wanted to make sure I three the party when they would still be in town.  

Then Friday came.  As I was cleaning the house a belt on my vacuum broke (thank goodness I live with another woman who has a vacuum too!).  After trying to fix it for an hour then giving up and using the other vacuum to finish cleaning and having a sick toddler running around me and four dogs to tend to I was pretty tired.  I waited up for Caleb to call, talk to him for a few minutes and headed to bed.  About thirty minutes later every smoke alarm in the house started alarming.  Talk about a rude awakening!  I spend another hour trying to get them to cut off.  Called my dad, Crissy, and the police department for some guidance, but didn't get much from my half asleep father, no answer from Crissy (who was in G-Ville with her family), and a "maybe its the batteries" from the officer.  Thanks.  Finally I made the decision to pack a bag and head to my parents' for the remainder of the night.  However, waking Emmalyn up after 7 hours of sleep made her think it was morning and she didn't sleep AT ALL for the rest of the night.  So, as the party started, I was functioning off of 1 hour of sleep!!!  Good thing my child is cute!  HA!

Oh, the adventures of an army wife during deployment.  I should totally write a book!

So, now that you have the back story we'll start with the pictures.

Here is table set up.  Emmy got hungry before the party started so she taste tested everything first!

I had a family friend make the cake.  The same girl that taught me how to ride a bike without training wheels.  She is a special lady and a great baker!

The framed invitation

The spread

My parents finally arrived and my mom was really surprised.  

Eat.  Drink.  And Be Merry...

And watch Carolina Football!

During half time mom and dad cut the cake.  I love how Emmy didn't want Grandmama to put her down so she ended up with a front row seat to the cake cutting.

Being the only grandchild at the moment, Emmy got to taste the cake too.  

Group shot (thanks Crissy)

One of my dad's oldest friends and his wife looking at my parents' wedding album

My bro finally made it from work so we had to get a family picture (minus Caleb and Emmy)

And the lady that helped me pull it all off!!!  She was so helpful!  We throw a mean party together!