Realizations

I have realized a few things lately and wanted to share.

I need more than one outfits pinterest board.  I'm thinking, a winter, summer, maternity (it'll hopefully happen again at some point) and an accessories board.  We'll see how long it takes me to actually do it.

I'm loving colored pants.  Yes, Ashley, I said it!  I have two pair, but haven't been bold enough to wear them out yet.

I wish I lived somewhere that had colder winters.  In SC so far this fall the weather has barely reached sweater temps and I definitely haven't been anywhere close to wearing a wool peacoat yet.  And, in the summers, it is almost too hot and humid to even attempt to look cute.  Between May and September, I might as well go makeup-less (because it is going to melt off by noon) and put my hair in a "messy" bun every morning due to the fact that my hair will look like a 1976 Afro anyway.

"Jeff" from the sitcom Rules of Engagement is just like my husband!  It is so fun to watch and see conversations that we have already had or potential situations play out.

I'm becoming more and more corny as the mom of a toddler.

I am an old lady when it comes to late nights.  I definitely cannot hang as late as I used to!

I loathe taking Christmas decorations down.

2013 is days away!

There are more reasons than one lately to start moving Emmy toward a bed instead of a crib (yes, she's still in a crib - we haven't taken the plunge yet), but the biggest reason is the fact that Emmy woke me up this morning by standing beside the bed saying, "mommy, I woke up."

In AWE

Babies are great.  They are small, helpless, cute, and sleep a lot.  I mean, who doesn't love a baby?  As they grow older they get better.  Personalities start to shine through and the love for them grows with them.  I know I'm a relatively new mom (at just 2.5 years of experience), but as I think about Christmas this year and trying to wrap my head around the true meaning of Jesus' short earthly life I can't help but think about Mary, Joseph, and God. 

Being a parent myself puts the fact that Jesus was a baby into perspective.  I mean, before I became a mom it was just nice to think of Jesus as one of us - starting life out as helpless as the next babe, and learning just as we all have.  But now, thinking of God, and how he meticulously planned for His son to be born as the small, helpless, cute, human that everyone loves to dote on, just to know that even before life outside the womb, he would die a brutal death without any fault of his own, I'm amazed at his strength.  It also kind of puts into perspective how selfless and loving and emotionally strong our maker truly is.

I cannot fathom thinking of raising Emmy and loving her for her so long, only to know that she would be hurt or killed in any way.  I can't think of anything more heartbreaking than losing a child, much less having to watch it. 

However, this does excite me.  Because, if God was willing to put to death Jesus, for the sake of his earthly children, then the place He is preparing for us in Heaven is going to be so awesome.  I'm excited to give Emmy her Christmas presents and I've only been planning those for about 2 months and God has been planning/preparing Heaven for His children for centuries.  And He's GOD.  I'm in tears from being so overcome with aweness and gratitude for what my God has done and is doing for me. 

WOW.




One more thing, I'd really like to know what it was like to raise a sinless child.  So, she had to give birth in stable on spiky hay, with no help from modern medicine, but I bet the toddler years with Jesus were a breeze!

A little before and after

Sorry for being a bit MIA lately, but my "free time" has been consumed with turning photos like this...

 

Into looking like this.

Christmas decor

Riding around in my car with the windows down on the way to get more Christmas presents, doesn't really make one feel like it is only 20 days until Christmas.  But, the stockings are up, the tree is decorated, and the Christmas cards have been mailed, so I guess it is Christmastime. 

Here are the Christmas sights around our house.

The tree.  Every year we purchase an ornament symbolic of something memorable from the past year.  I love that we started this tradition during our first year of marriage.  I haven't found what I want to get for this year yet, but I'm diligently looking everywhere!

 

I have been looking for an advent calendar for Emmy to participate with.  I found this train at Hobby Lobby for half off!  I love it and Emmy does too!

 

This year we have a mantel.  Who knows if we'll have one next year, but I love having a mantel, especially at Christmas.  This year, I made the NOEL to put on above the stockings.

This Santa was given to me by my Mother-in-law.  I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and was so happy when she gave it to me.  Emmy has enjoyed pointing out every detail on him.

 

While decorating our tree, Caleb wrapped Emmy up in lights.  Even though I had to snap fast to get a photo of it and it didn't come out crisp, I still like the lighting.

 

Our Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving break was so fun.  All eight of the Wilkes grandkids piled into Ama and Bopa's house for the festivities.  The whole time was filled with racing riding toys, swinging, chasing the lamas (yes, there are lamas), eating lots of cookies, watching movies, playing house, coloring, and learning how to share (mostly Emmy did that).

 

Emmy thought the girls racing down the hill was so exciting.  She actually convinced me to ride with her, which we did and lived to tell about it. 

 

At one point, my sister in law and I decided to attempt a photo of all the grandkids.  We had no idea what we were asking for.  Emmy was no happy about having to sit down and have a camera in her face and Abby (the youngest Wilkes) was just not going to sit.

 

Ama stepped in to try and help, but eventually we were all just laughing at the hilarity that was the situation.

 

 

 

After the craziness, we all went inside to get ready for dinner and I walked into the living room to see Emmy and Laurel cuddling.  Be still my heart.

 

So the next day we tried again without much more luck.  At least the older kids were having fun.

 

By the end of the night the kids just wanted to stay up and play with each other.  I love that all eight of them love each other so much.  Emmy is still asking when we see them again.

Recent Phone Pics

We took Emmy bowling on Veteran's Day.  All was going well and she loved it until she tripped and knocked her tooth (the same one as she did a little over a year ago) back up into her gum.  I honestly don't know how she feels about bowling now.

 

The day after falling and hitting her tooth, she was playing with Caleb outside and came inside crying with a huge goose egg on her forehead.  I'm afraid she inherited her mother's talent for clumsiness.  Here she is showing it off.

 

Emmy has really loved playing with her baby dolls lately.  She feeds them, and takes them to the "store" and to "ama's" and even has to bathe with them!

 

Emmy has befriended a mama duck at the duck pond near our house who has been sitting on five eggs for the past two weeks.  We went to check on her before playing on the playground.

 

Then, of course, Emmy played her little heart out.

 

I love this girl so much!

Halloween 2012

Since it has been a week since Halloween night occurred, I figured I should write a post to document this year. 

Emmy was a mouse this year.  Mostly because it was an easy, cheap costume to put together and she liked the idea. 

I guess I talked it up too much because Emmy did not nap at all.  She just laid in her bed singing to her animals.  After about an hour of this, Caleb and I decided it was a lost cause, so we got her up and dressed and went on our way!

Our first stop was my dad's office.  His entire office buys candy and cupcakes, for the kids to trick or treat around.  They even have a raffle and a group photo.

 

I will say that the nerds at my dad's office (they are a bunch of computer nerds : ) know how to make a kid happy on Halloween.  They had the best candy selection!  Not the cheap stuff!

After racking up some good stuff at my dad's office we headed to Five Points to my mom's salon to get ready for the next trick or treat adventure.  All the stores open their doors and have tons of candy to give to kids all over.  Emmy loved it last year, and there were more kids out this year. 

After about four hours of trick or treating and no nap, Emmy was pooped so we went home to close out our evening with dinner and of course candy eating.  Now, at least once a day she asks to dip into her candy stash, so it is dwindling rather quickly (not to mention the times that Uncle Bubby, Daddy, and Mommy have dipped into it as well : )

Don't forget about the GIVEAWAY ending Sunday!!!

My FIRST Giveaway

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Dermagist Skin Care to try a product of theirs for a month and review it.  After browsing their products online, I was actually torn between what to get because all of them seem amazing and it took me an entire day to make up my mind.  I eventually chose to try the Eye Precision System.  This duo could not have come at a better time since I've been looking rather tired and even noticed my "crows feet" becoming more and more pronounced as I have entered my late twenties.

So here is my impression of the Eye Precision System.

I was quite surprised that both creams felt very silky and a little goes a long way.  After using the products in the mornings I noticed that my makeup went on much smoother around my eyes and I didn't have to use as much concealer for the blackish/blue bags I have under my eyes (especially when I'm up at 5:30am getting ready for work).

So, this is where one of you guys get to try to win the Eye Precision System for yourself.

In order to enter the giveaway you need to do two things:
1. Like Dermagist Skin Care Products on facebook
2. Write a comment stating why you would benefit from a Dermagist product


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Emmy Update

I haven't posted about Emmy in a while, so I thought I'd sen dyou guys a little update on what our little one is up to.

First and foremost, she is very opinionated and let's you know when she does or doesn't like something in a big way.  And if she doesn't like it, this is mostly likely what you are going to get.

 

But, most of the time she is a happy, lively girly girl who LOVES the Gamecocks...

 

Her daddy - they chase each other all over the house.  At one point she'll be a monster and chasing him, then they will change roles and she'll be Little Red Riding Hood and Daddy will be the Big Bad Wolf.  It brings a smile to my face all the time.

Animals of any kind - she asked to watch animal videos at least once a day

The song Amazing Grace - this has been her request for us to sing before bedtime for the past two weeks and we also have it on a CD that she asks to listen to over and over again if we are riding in the car.

Fairy Tales - For Emmy's second birthday I found a fairy tales book at TJ Maxx for $4.  She became very fond of the stories, but after reading all 14 stories over and over at bedtime, Daddy got a little bored (especially since all the stories in this particular book are princess related).  So, we set out to find another fairy tales book with new stories.  And we found it at Barnes & Noble.  It was a different book, but written by the same author and included stories like, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk etc.  Perfect!  Except this one was not $4.  It was $20.  But we got it anyway and I'm pretty sure we have already gotten our moneys worth.  She loves both of them.

 

Due to all the fairy tale reading, Emmy has had such an active imagination lately.  It is so fun to play her little games and try to figure out what she is thinking.

Her appetite has gotten much better lately as well.  

She LOVES babies!  Talking about babies, playing with her babies, singing to babies, acting like a baby, asking questions about babies.  It spawned from Aunt Crissy's pregnancy and lately I've had a lot of newborn photos shoots to do so the babies come to our house for their photo shoots.  She is surrounded by babies.  She has asked many times when Aunt Crissy's baby will come out and if mommy has a baby in her belly.  It makes my heart so happy to know that she will be excited for mommy to have a baby in her belly if it does end up happening again.

Like I said before, her imagination is amazing.  When she talks about animals or plays with her baby dolls or Noah's Ark, or her horses, they all have a role (ie mommy, daddy, baby, granddaddy etc).  It is so cute.  We were watching the fish jumping at Ama and Bopa's house the other day and she kept saying how the mommy and daddy fish were getting food for their baby fishies.  SO CUTE!!! 

She is at such a fun age and I love every minute I get to spend with her.  Seeing her learn new things all the time and put sentences together blow me away sometimes.  I can hardly wait for her wake up in the mornings when I'm off work so we can spend as much time together as possible.  

 

 

Apple Picking

Last week we ventured up north to go apple picking, hang out with the Price family, and see Caleb's grandmother who unfortunately found herself in CICU for a couple of nights.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  It felt so much like fall and I loved it.

Emmy was so excited the who day and kept telling everyone she was going "apple pickin."  It was so cute.  We started off by eating dinner at Crissy's parents' house with her entire family!  It was jam packed and glorious.  I love a full house!  I think Emmy played herself into a delirium because she immediately fell asleep as we started driving to Hendersonville.  By the time we made it to Sky Top Orchard, Emmy was in a deep sleep and it took a bit to get her awake and excited again.

Once she figured out how to the apple picking was going to work she was running everywhere.  We had to keep her from picking up every apple off of the ground and either eating it or putting it in our basket.  Finally, Uncle Brandon came to the rescue since my back was hurting and Caleb was pulling the wagon, and showed her how to get the apples from the tops of the trees.

 

Then Brandon showed her that eating the apples was so much fun so that's pretty much all she did the rest of the time.

 

...and eat them

 

...and eat them.

 

...And eat some more!

 

In between picking, I admired the scenery and found a great place to snap a few photos.  So, as requested by Crissy's sister in law, I shot a vertical photo of Brandon, Crissy, and their baking bun.

 We got a family photo too...With Emmy eating an apple of course!

 

So this photo is a little out of focus, but I'm absolutely in love with it!

 

After picking some apples Emmy started to get cold and needed some snuggles from daddy.

 

Finally we found some more sun and Emmy was off picking more apples.  Caleb taught her which ones were best to pick because she started saying "nope, that's too little" when Crissy would point to some for her to pick.  

 

I'm so glad we went this year.  I'm so in love with the area and had so much fun with friends and my little girl (who grows up in many ways daily!)

The South Carolina State Fair

Every year I look forward to the fair.  It is kind of my own official sign that it is fall.  I remember getting out from school in middle school and piling in one of my friend's mom's cars and carpooling all the way to the fair for the rest of the afternoon.  I remember Caleb taking me when we were dating and him pressuring me into riding a particular ride that I DID NOT want to ride, eventually giving in, rushing to a near by trash can to throw up once it was over, and now all these years later still blaming Caleb for that embarrassing episode.  However, I still love going to the fair and this was the first year that Emmy could really enjoy it, plus, Caleb is home now and can experience all the fall activities with us this year.

We decided to start off with the animal exhibits.  Emmy loved the petting zoo.

 

Just like last year there was an elephant to ride.  Emmy and Caleb got to ride it together and Emmy still loves to talk about riding the elephant.

 

And she asked to ride a pony after the elephant.  Girl was all smiles!

 

After riding animals Emmy was ready for the flashy rides.  I will admit that I was a bit nervous letting her ride all on her own, but she did great and wanted to ride more!

 

We wanted to ride on the chair lift, but they wouldn't let all three of us on at one time so momma said NO WAY to that.  We rode the ferris wheel instead.

 

Afterwards, the smells of fatty fair food got to us so we stopped for some mushrooms and an elephant ear.

 

I'm so happy all three of us got to go together this year and make autumn memories as a family!