Happy Fall, Ya'll

We had a nice weekend...great fall weather with highs in the upper 60's/low 70's and lots of sunshine. This is really my favorite time of year! We had my Dad, his friend, and my brother visiting from Indiana this weekend. They drove down and brought a ton of frozen veggies from Dad's garden. We bought a small freezer chest to store all the goodies (unfortunately, the only place we have to put it is our bedroom...you might be a redneck...) We all went out for dinner Friday night to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Everyone enjoyed their menu choices, and Emmy was totally happy as long as you kept feeding her. She is turning into a little oinker! She must be hitting a growth spurt, as she just can't seem to fill up! She ate mashed potatoes for the first time, and I'll attach a photo from that adventure. Good thing it was bath night. On Saturday, we visited a local farm to find a pumpkin. Emmy was less than thrilled with the whole thing, but I still managed to get a couple good pics. She was totally experiencing some stranger anxiety, and would screech everytime her Grandpa tried to hold her. Of course, the deep gravely voice and bushy goatee might have had something to do with that too. By the end of the weekend, she was trying to yank on his hair and smiling. We are entering into the separation anxiety stage as well...mama simply must NOT leave her line of sight, and Daddy is simply NOT an acceptable substitute! Dropping her off at daycare has become an ordeal, but it's not quite as bad if the other kids are already there as a distraction. She does love to play! I really think she'll be crawling within 2 weeks or so. She keeps getting up on all four's and rocking back & forth. She doesn't quite have the knees pulled up enough yet. She was doing the "soldier scoot" across the floor tonight...not quite the soldier crawl, but not rolling across the floor either. I was surprised to find her at my feet when she had just been 5-7 feet away!

Check It Out!

Thanks to my good friend, Chadman, I think I've finally found a photo gallery that will work well for everyone. Flickr seems to be a great tool, and it's easy to use. I've uploaded some new October photos of Em, so click on the Photo Gallery Link at the right and check them out. You should be able to save or print any of these photos (and even choose the size...after clicking the photo, look under additional info to choose photo size).

She Finally Said It!

We heard Emmy say "da-da" for the first time today! Keith was so excited....he said, "that's me!". Such a good baby girl!

Unbelievable Cupcakes!

I was checking out my favorite blogs tonight, and happened upon a link to this. This gal is seriously talented!

I have been pondering signing up for a cake decorating class at either AC Moore or Michael's. I've wanted to do the Wilton class for years, as I want to be a cool Mom who can make some memorable birthday cakes for our kidlets. I checked out the class schedules for October, and neither store has a class time that works for me. I'll check back in November I guess, and hope there's a time that will work.

We discovered a neat little chocolate shop tonight called Stam's. It's a new store, in a little shopping plaza near our house. We chatted with the high school girl working behind the counter, and found out the chocolates come from Amsterdam & Iowa....say, wah? She said it's a family-owned company from Holland, and one of the grandsons moved to Iowa and started an off-shoot of the company there. How did Chapel Hill get a store? The owner is from Holland, and lives here. He ate the chocolates growing up, and when he found out there were stores in Iowa, he convinced the company to allow him to open the first non-family-owned franchise...right here in Chapel Hill! Here is a link to the story, as reported in our local paper. By the way, the coconut truffle and butter truffle are delish! (I am planning to take my buddy, Jen, here when she visits in November!)

6 month Portraits

Here are some of the 6 month portraits we had done recently (okay, so in August!). Emmy was at the tail end of a cold, and we made it through with only one snotball in any of the photos. Funny, the things you're thankful for once you have a kiddo! Anyway, we had a male photographer this time around, and he wasn't nearly as interested in the quality of the shots as our photographer at our first session. I didn't realize until the photos came back that almost all the backdrops were black! (Not a great choice for a dark-haired child) In the future, I will be requesting the initial photographer specifically, as she did a fantastic job. Ignore the funky photo angles, as I had to take a picture of a picture, and was trying to avoid a glare from the flash.

Yup, I'm a Slacker

Sheesh, it's been forever since I posted on the blog! Sorry faithful readers (all 5 or so of you!). I've been a busy little beaver these past couple weeks.

I signed up for the gym again a month or two ago, and didn't get my rear in there to workout until last week. Went to a strength-training class, abs class and a cardio aerobics class. Felt good, but I knew I needed to kick it up a notch, so I booked a free session with a trainer. This was mostly to orient myself to the new weight machines they have, and try to figure out some sort of strength routine. I enjoyed it so much, I signed up to meet with the trainer twice a week. I figure the only way I'll actually GO to the gym is if I have an appointment to workout with someone. I have to say, the first session (upper body weights and abs) totally kicked my butt, and I have barely been able move my arms for the past 2 days. Good God, what have I done?! I go back tomorrow afternoon, and hopefully we'll focus on the legs, because my arms are still quivering from Tuesday.

I was up until midnight last night, preparing for a stamp class that I do monthly in Henderson. I have about 5 gals who are faithful stampers and love to come to a regular class. When I got to work today, I talked with one of the girls, and she had no idea there was a class tonight...upon further checking around, it appears I only remembered to tell 2 of the gals when the class was! Mommy-brain is REALLY bad people...bad, bad, bad. So, I rescheduled the class to next Thursday so everyone can come. It's bad enough that I can't remember ANYTHING, but then to never remember that you forgot something makes it so much worse! It's like if I don't write it down, it's gone forever, never to return to my consciousness again. Unbelievable...and to think I was at one time so on top of it. Hhmrph!

I am doing Dream Dinners again on Saturday. We have now designated that Thursdays are Keith's night to cook. Lucky for me, it's not PB&J's every week because the ready-to-cook meals from DD are so simple to cook, even my kitchen-challenged hubby can do it! Yahoo! My cousin Sherrie was lucky enough to marry a chef...I was not so lucky in this regard!

I promised to post pics of Emmy's new 6 month portraits. Will load them onto the computer this weekend so you can see. She is going to do Kindermusik at daycare in Oct & Nov. The Kindermusik lady comes to the daycare once a week, and the families get little songbooks and an instrument to take home. We have the option to come join the class, but I an in Henderson on those days.....bummer! Emmy is learning about clapping and waving now, and she sits on the floor and rocks back and forth when we sing. Such a hoot. I was mimicking her rocking last night, and it produced these HUGE belly laughs from her...double hoot.

Who Knew Graham Crackers Were So Messy To Eat?!

Emmy has been a fountain of new adventures these past two weeks! She ate crackers for the first time (picked it up off her tray and immediately started munching, as if she'd been waiting for a graham cracker for ages!) and made her first attempts at a sippy cup this week as well. She's figured out she can get a drink, but gets mighty frustrated when the water doesn't come out. The art of tipping-thy-head-back hasn't been mastered yet. When Keith takes the cup to try to help her, she let's out a shriek of independence! He got a kick out of that. She is rolling all over the place now...nothing is out of reach. There have been a few times that we've gone to get her out of bed, and she's facing an entirely different direction than where we originally put her. She's such a wiggleworm...constantly squirming, rolling, and winding around to get where she thinks she needs to be. Em's becoming quite the chatterbox, and I'm trying so hard to get her to start using some hard consonant sounds...especially, "ma-ma-ma". I could have sworn I heard it on Friday morning, but she didn't repeat it (and was looking at the cat when she said it). Oh well...