Just Plain Cute

Purty!

Emmy had her 3 month portraits taken recently. We think they turned out wonderfully....have a look at some of the shots we ordered!

Happy Father's Day!

It was a joy to celebrate Keith's first Father's Day! Here's a pic of Keith and Emmy...Keith is wearing his present...tick prevention for when he does yard work!!

Happy Dad's Day to our pops!

Walk with Purpose

Last Saturday, Keith and I took part in the local Race for the Cure...the annual Susan G. Komen Foundation's 5k walk to raise money to fight breast cancer. There were over 30,000 people at this Raleigh event, and the weather was hot! We happened to arrive at the same time as 2 nurses I work with in Henderson, so we walked with them. We had a great time, and took part in a great cause. We'll take Emmy next year, and she can ride in her jogging stroller.

New Tricks

This past week, my Mom was down from Indiana for a visit. She watched Emmy for us while we worked, and Mom had a ball with her granddaughter. Emmy tried all kinds of new things, and surprised us all by some new tricks. She is sitting in a highchair now, and likes to have a mirror and a wooden spoon to play with. We set it up so she can survey the backyard and the kitchen, and she has a high ole' time...pun intended. She's really figuring out how to grab toys and studies them closely. She found her feet/toes for the first time this week, and was super fascinated by them (even tried a little toe tasting). She's sitting in her Bumbo seat really well now, and jumps around like mad in her exersaucer....pushing all the noise-making buttons, and giggling. She is mimicking noises really well, and has long baby monologues for us now. She's impressed by her voice, and screeches regularly. In short, we are really enjoying this stage of babyhood!

Thanks, Mom, for helping out so much this week! It was so nice to have you here...come back soon!

Emmy Stats, Updated

Em had her 4 month well child visit this week, and her growth stats were pretty impressive! She weighed 14 lb, 2 oz (50th percentile), and was 25 1/2 inches long....hold onto your hats, an impressive 90th percentile!!! She's got some long Stouder legs, evidently! Developmentally, the doctor said she was right on track. He encouraged us to start trying cereal since she's routinely taking about 34 oz of milk a day. She wasn't impressed with our first attempt, and wrinkled up her nose at the rice cereal. Actually, she looked rather disgusted by it. We'll keep trying, and maybe she'll discover a taste for it. Here's a picture of her first attempt....

It's a Jungle out There!

We live in a pretty wooded area, and as such, see a fair amount of wildlife on a regular basis. Our daily drive in and out of the neighborhood includes seeing loads of deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds, frogs, snakes (ugh!), turtles, and other interesting creatures. We have seen turtles several times in our yard, slowly walking through on their way to some unknown destination. In fact, this week, Keith saw the largest turtle yet, and snapped a few pictures! He had the idea to document some of the wildlife we see and post to our blog. We also have a bird in one of our hanging flowerpots who hatched a little baby birdie (or two...hard to tell). Got a pic of that to share as well. One of the local stray cats decided to have 2 kittens on one of our larger empty flower pots, back beside the shed. Once she realized we had discovered them (and were coming out to look at them regularly), she moved them. I had no idea what happened to the little things until about 1-2 weeks later when I saw one of them peeking out from beneath our neighbor's back porch. We see the momma cat in their yard regularly, so she's keeping a close eye on them. It's fun to see all this in our backyard, and we look forward to sharing some "animal adventures" with Emmy!

Showtime

So, I was thinking the other day, on my long commute to work...how many countless hours have I used up of my life watching movies. Good movies, bad movies, stupid mediocre movies. How many movies can I quote, recite a dialogue, or conjure up a scene? Too darn many. When I think about it, I probably have seen thousands of movies. Average movie = 2 hours....that's a lot of my life! Keith and I enjoy going to see movies, and like to try to stump each other by quoting odd lines from various films. (Sort of like how Keith likes to stump me with random 80's music that was clearly before my time!) It's amazing to walk through Blockbuster, searching for a movie to rent, and in my mind say "Seen it, seen it, seen it". That friends, can be a real wake up call!

So, in honor of this realization, I thought I would post some of my favorite movies (in no particular order).

1) When Harry Met Sally...way too many good quotes originate from this flick!
2) Lord of the Rings trilogy...didn't think I'd like the first one when Keith dragged me to it, but I was surprisingly hooked.
3) Harry Potter films...lots of good material there.
4) Shawshank Redemption...sort of a classic.
5) Murphy's Romance...gotta love Sally Field.
6) Terms of Endearment...too many similarities with my mother and I!
7) Home for the Holidays...Robert Downey Jr just cracks me up in this movie.
8) Silence of the Lambs...freaky deaky, but very quotable!
9) okay, pretty much any cute Meg Ryan film....You've Got Mail, IQ, French Kiss, Sleepless in Seattle
10) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...very cool effects.
11) The Pianist...Adrian Brody did a remarkable job.
12) Little Miss Sunshine...sort of an indie flick that made it big...laughed my butt off.