Cinderella and her little mouse gus...and her best friend tinker-bell

carter's update

carter's feet after peddling backwards in the car...opps forgot his shoes


emerson pushed carter around the block and he loved riding in the car


who would have thought he would have figured out how to move the car?


very messy eater!


"what are you doing buddy?"... "playing with the dollhouse mommmy"


what are you doing emerson? I want to ride too!




carter buddy is everywhere and into everything! he has been crawling since the end of august and is now pulling himself up on things and has taken a few steps while holding on to things. He got his two bottom front teeth at the beginning of the month and we are hopping to take a break from new teeth for awhile. he loves exploring and following emerson around. he would much rather play with her toys than his, can you blame him? I have been doing the same music class with carter that I did with emerson and he loves it. He smiles the whole time and loves crawling to all the little girls and touching their face. He is such a sweet boy and thankful will still cuddle with us a little. We've started letting him explore at the park and he loves crawling through the tunnels and going down the slides on his belly. It's a lot of work watching them at the park, but sooo much fun!

emerson's update

emerson is doing great and growing up too fast! She loves preschool, which is such a great feeling for nick and i. since we don't have family here she has never been dropped off some where without us so nick and i were a little nervous on how she would do. she was a little nervous the first day but no tears! she is excited to go and is so happy when i pick her up. i have been the helper twice so far and it is such a great school. they have big muscle time (outside or in a gym), free play, snack time, craft time, circle time (read a book or talk about special topic), and then some more free play. She is just starting to play with the other kids...our little observer. The first month i would ask her, "did you play with anyone today?" and she would say, "mommy, i just played by myself." The teachers love her, another great feeling as a parent. I picked her up last week and the teacher said, "i love her, i love her, i love her! she is such a sweet girl."
gymnastics has been a big hit this year. emerson can do a somersault, hang onto the rigs while doing straddle-pike, walk on the beam by herself, and when she jumps she gets both feet off the ground. In our singing class emerson sings right along with the teacher...so cute/funny to watch. She is the only kid in the class singing out loud so all the other moms and kids look at her with smiles. I think that preschool has really been good for emerson's inner strength. she is more confident and willing to voice her opinion.
emerson is definitely a two-year old! One minute she is super happy and with the blink of an eye she is having a melt-down. The melt-downs are hard because she either is so upset about something that she can't communicate or she wants something she can't have. we were at target the other day and she wanted some princess thing and I told her we weren't buying anything today and she started crying/whining saying, "i just want it mom, please!" I finally had to leave because it kept getting worse and then as soon as we got in the car, she snapped out of it and was fine...very frustrating, but nothing i can do about it.
emerson is very into doing puzzles right now and can do the united states puzzle...50 pieces and she knows all the names. she has also learned how to spell mississippi! She also loves all the princess right now. we read about all of them and just started to do a movie night with her. we have watched Cinderella and little mermaid. she was more scared of Cinderella because the sisters are so mean. she is going to be Cinderella for Halloween and is very excited! she wanted carter to be gus (the mouse from the movie) so that is what he will be. emerson still loves being around carter and now calls him "narder" or "gus-gus". she gets a little frustrated with him a times because he follows her around and tries to take everything she has.

Fall Fun!

I think fall may be my favorite time of year! The colors in ohio are so beautiful and there are so many fun activities to do! We went to a barn with our playgroup to see the cows and horses. Emerson was facinated to see them so close, but she was a little hesitant to get to close to the fence. We went to the farm again a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Emerson wanted nothing to do with the goats this year so nick ended up feeding them...yuck! She was able to go down the slide this year by herself and was so proud when she made it down. Carter enjoyed watching everything going on around him, but really wanted to get out and crawl around, but it was too muddy.
We went to pick pumpkins and emerson was so excited. She ran around trying to find the perfect one. She enjoyed helping carter pick his, but wanted nothing to do with taking pictures. It is so hard to get a good picture of the two of them! We have been spending as much time as we can outside before the weather turns.

some pictures...will write soon!

carter's 6 month update

our little buddy is six months old today! He is weighing in at 18 lbs. 4 ounces, I now know why my back is hurting so bad! he had to get four shots today and emerson was so sweet. she said, "mommy i want to sit by carter and hold his hand." he is crawling all over the place...very slowly but definitely makes his way around the room. He is still a sweet little cuddle bug, which just melts my heart. We can see his bottom teeth and hopefully they won't take too long to pop through because he is very fussy. He eats anything any everything...babyfood that is. we are going to start cheerios and other soft foods, which will be fun and messy! He takes two great naps during the day and sleeps 12 hours at night (some nights he wakes up and needs his pacifier). carter loves being in the middle of it all...he doesn't want to miss anything.

Preschool open house today!

sitting on the front steps of preschool


playing with the animals

it's official...emerson is starting preschool! I just can't believe it!!! She is growing up so fast. We went today to meet her teachers, see her classrooms, and meet some of the kids in her class. When we got her up this morning she was so excited and wanted to get dressed right away and said, "i'm ready to go!" When we came downstairs she went right over to put her shoes on, but we had to remind her that she needed to eat breakfast first! She was a little shy at first and stood very close to me and after about ten minutes she was ready to play and talk to the other kids. She loves her teachers and told one of them, "when i come back next week i'm going to wear my green dress...okay?" (we took her shopping last week and told her she could pick out a special outfit for the first day and of course she picked a dress) oddly enough there is another little girl in her class named emerson, what are the chances? thankfully she goes by emmy.
the other night nick and i were watching her play and just couldn't believe how big/old she is. she seems so tall and speaks so well. my little girl is growing up right before my eyes and i am enjoying every minute of it. emerson starts preschool next week by herself. the first couple of times may be hard for her because it takes her awhile to feel comfortable, but we are so excited for her and think that she will love it!
we are going to be very busy this year with preschool twice a week, singing class, and gymnastics. it's going to be so fun to watch her grow and learn this year, just can't believe how fast it all goes!