Mom Story, and Lesson Learned!

I have learned several lessons in the last year about being a mom, but today I added a new one. Let me just preface the whole situation for you first though. Emma Kate has been pretty sick the last couple of days. She had her one year check up and shots last Wednesday (5 to be exact...NOT fun!), and we also found out that she has an ear infection, so the dr. put her on an antibiotic. Anyway, she seemed to be fine Wednesday evening and Thursday at school, but that night she woke up in the middle of the night with a 103.2 fever. Poor baby! We were completely freaked out, but the nurse assured us that she would be fine and that it was probably just from the shots. She continued to run fever Friday and Friday night, and finally started feeling better Saturday. I'm not sure if it's the antibiotics or the fever, but something has really messed with her poor little tummy and she's had several accidents (if you know what I mean) the last several days. 

Fast forward to this morning at church. We got her all dressed in her adorable Christmas dress and headed out for church. We had already decided that since she had been kind of sickly that we wouldn't send her to the nursery and expose all the other children, but instead I would just walk around with her if she got fussy. So, when she had had about all she could stand we headed out and were enjoying a nice game of "how many Nilla Wafers can I fit in my mouth at one time" when I saw THE face. No big deal, right? I'll just quickly take her to the bathroom and change her diaper. I grab the diaper bag and it hits me - I forgot to pack diapers when I was quickly packing the bag that morning! Still not too panicked because I realize that luckily the car keys are in the diaper bag, we will just go sit in the car and wait for church to end. So we run out to the car and then I remember that I've learned this lesson before and remembered to put a few extra diapers in the console of the car. Perfect! I decided that it would be much easier to change her diaper inside in the bathroom, where surely there's a changing table, than in the freezing cold car, so we grab the diaper and a blanket (her coat was still in church with Brice) bundle her up, and run back in. That's when I realize something wet on the front of my sweater and all down my sleeve, I thought surely not, maybe it's just warm and not actually wet! We finally make it to the bathroom only to find NO changing table! Are you serious?! So I find a nice little bench away from everything and unwrap her, and you guessed it....yellow ALL over the blanket!! That's when I realize that the "warm" I felt on the way in wasn't just warm, it actually was wet(luckily my sweater was red, so you couldn't actually see it, but I still knew it was there!)! I was totally grossed out, but I composed myself, got Emma Kate changed and cleaned up. Luckily church didn't last much longer and I made a conscious effort not to touch anyone on the way out! Brice was a little confused why I wouldn't let him hold her on the way to the car, but he was very grateful that his nice sports coat was spared once I told him the story! 

Lesson learned - always double check the diaper bag!! I think next time Emma Kate is sick we will just send Brice to church without us. :)

And of course here's a picture of her this morning BEFORE church in her cute little dress....that's going to the cleaners tomorrow! :)

Party Pics!

We had such a great time at Emma Kate's party a couple of weeks ago. Thank you to everyone who made it such a special day! I think EK definitely enjoyed being the center of attention!!

Fun Times!

Yesterday was such a fun, yet completely emotional day! I caught myself tearing up several times throughout the day at the thought of Emma Kate being a whole year old. This past year has gone by so quickly that I can only imagine how fast it will go from here on out. 

I definitely think Emma Kate enjoyed being the center of attention! She woke up and got to open a few gifts from Brice and I and she thought getting to play with Dad before breakfast was the greatest thing. She just giggled and giggled all morning.

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Another fun thing about Emma Kate turning one is that we finally got to turn her car seat around to face forward! (I was especially excited about this :)) She didn't really know what to think about it at first, but about half way to school she started kicking her legs and talking up a storm. I think she likes being able to see! 

Then yesterday afternoon at school Brice brought some cupcake cookies and we had a little party at school. The cookies had a ton of icing on them so I wasn't really sure how she would do, but devoured it!! It was so funny, she scooped up that icing and just started cramming it in her mouth. :) We finally had to take the cookie away, she would have eaten the whole thing if we would have let her! 

Her big party is tomorrow afternoon...here's a sneak peak, can you guess what the theme is going to be??

On a completely different side note, today also marks one year since my Gan Gan passed away. Emma Kate's birthday will always be a bittersweet reminder of her passing. I really can't believe she's been gone from this earth for a whole year. We have missed her terribly over the past year, but we rejoice knowing that she worshipping in the presence of God as we speak!  

Happy Birthday Emma Kate!!

I can't believe that this day is already here....my baby girl is no longer a baby, she's now a toddler! She will always be my baby though. :) The past year has been the best year of my life and I honestly can't imagine our lives without Emma Kate. She has brought so much joy to our family. I pray that God uses her life in a bold way and I can't wait to see what He has in store for her! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BABY GIRL, MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU!!

More to come later, but for now we have to head off to school! 

We have a walker!

Emma Kate started walking last week right before Thanksgiving and I finally got it on video! Isn't she the cutest thing? She also just started waving, here she is waving at Sydney and Lana...man, this girl makes me smile. :)

Thankfulness

Here are just a few things that I'm especially thankful for this Thanksgiving Day:

My Salvation - God's grace is so amazing and we are so undeserving of it. I'm thankful for the righteousness that was imputed upon us through the cross and Christ's willingness to satisfy God's wrath on our behalf. 

Brice - I'm so thankful for a Godly husband who would do anything for his family. Brice is such a wonderful father to Emma Kate, husband to me, and leader of our family. 

Emma Kate - Being Emma Kate's mom has been the best "job" I've ever had. Although there are hard days, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Emma Kate is such a fun, sweet baby....almost big girl. This year I'm so thankful that I get to hold the title Mommy!

My Family - I know everyone thinks there own family is the best, and I'm no different. Last night I was like a small child on Christmas Eve. I couldn't sleep at all because I was so giddy with excitement about spending today with all my family! Both of my sisters are in town and all three sets of grandparents will be there with us. Also, I have the greatest in-laws...they would do anything for us! I am so thankful for the family that God blessed me with.

Our Church - I'm so thankful for the passion that the leaders of our church have for following Christ. The gospel is preached each and every week. One of our church's family traits is simplicity - it's not about big fancy buildings or flashy ministries, it's about sharing the gospel with the lost...I love that! 

There are so many other things that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving Day, but these are just a few that have been on my heart that I thought I would put down in writing. Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Pictures...hopefully

Well, my second attempt to fix my pictures failed also! :( I had SO many pictures to post that I thought I would take a short cut and just copy and paste from Flickr...but as you can see it didn't work. So I have decided for any of you still interested I will just post the link to our Flicker account HERE. Enjoy! :)

Boston Part 3

Ugh, I really hate blogger right now....for some reason it doesn't like me! :) My pictures were working just fine on Sunday when I posted them and then for some reason on Monday they didn't work anymore, I kept hoping they would start working again, but I finally decided I was going to have to take the time and sit down and fix it! So hopefully it's working now!!

Whew, I didn't know if I was ever going to get around to posting part three of our trip to Boston, but without further ado here it is! :) (I hope I can still remember everything we did!)

Sunday morning Brice headed off for more of the FPA convention and Emma Kate decided to do a little shopping. Considering the really cold weather we decided we needed to find some Boston gear for the big game that night. I had the bright idea for Emma Kate and I to walk all the way to Fenway Park by ourselves to check out the shops around there, unfortunately I made a wrong turn somewhere and we got a little lost, after that excursion I decided that maybe we should just stick to the malls! :) We ended up finding some Boston gear and when Brice got back from the conference we were ready to make our way back to Fenway park for the game!

                                        

Luckily no wrong turns were made this time and we found it no problem. The stadium was nothing like what I was expecting. It’s really vintage and nothing like The Ballpark in Arlington. But it was so neat!! It was almost like going back in time to watch a baseball game. And let me tell you, I’ve never seen such crazy fans! There were definitely tons of  tried and true Red Sox fans. We decided to just go along with what everyone else was doing so we didn’t stick out like a sore thumb! Haha, although I’m pretty sure people thought we were the crazy ones for taking a baby to the game. Bless her heart it was SO cold out that night!! We definitely weren’t prepared for that. But we had lots of fun looking around, taking pictures, enjoying the game (even though they lost..boo!), and of course EATING! :) After about 5 innings Emma Kate decided she had all she could take so we decided to head back to the hotel. And we got smart on the way home, we decided to take a bicycle taxi back and it was so much fun! I wish I would have gotten my camera out, but I was too busy trying to stay warm! 

Monday morning Brice headed back for the last day of the conference and Emma Kate and I did what we do best...more shopping. :) I bet we walked a good 5 miles everyday we were there!  That evening we headed back out on the town for dinner. I have always heard rave reviews about the Melting Pot, so we decided to try it out. And I’m sad to say, we were so disappointed! I didn’t like the food at all, for some reason it just tasted bland, and Emma Kate was not very well behaved at the restaurant so I’m sure that didn’t help either. We decided that if we ever go back we will just go back for the dessert, which was SO yummy! 

Tuesday was our last full day before heading home so we cram packed our agenda for the day. We started off at the amazing 3 story Apple store, where we picked out our fabulous new computer!! (I’m still getting adjusted to it, but it is SO much fun!) And then we headed back to the Boston Commons to go on the Freedom Trail. It’s basically a walking tour throughout the city, you just follow a painted red line on the ground and you can go at your own pace and stop and read about all the different places. However, Emma Kate had other plans. The first day of sight seeing Emma Kate did great in the stroller and even napped on our way to the museum, so we naively thought she would do the same this day. Well, you can probably see where I’m going with this...I guess she had spent a little too much time in the stroller and she decided she was NOT happy about it. I’m sure people were thinking we had just stolen a baby or something because she was screaming bloody murder. We tried everything to calm her down, Brice eventually just carried her and I pushed the empty stroller. About a mile into our walk back to the hotel she finally stopped screaming and fell asleep, praise God! :) So we all went back to the hotel and took a nice long nap. 

Luckily when she woke up she was in a much better mood, but we didn’t think we should try our luck with the stroller again. We decided we had seen enough of the city and should try out the subway. Man, what a lifesaver it was. :) We took the subway to the Aquarium and it only took about 10 minutes to get there! Considering our rough morning I was just hoping we would last half an hour there, but she LOVED it!! She did so great, she really loved looking at the penguins and all the fish. I was so glad we decided to venture out again, we had contemplated just staying in the hotel and packing up but I’m so glad we didn’t miss out on the aquarium.  

That evening we had one last place we wanted to see before leaving...Cheers! We took the subway to Fannieul Hall and shopped around a little bit before going to Cheers for dinner. It wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be, it was so much small than I pictured! But the food was good and we had a great last evening in the big city! (and wouldn’t you know, my camera died right before we got to Cheers!!)

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early, gathered our stuff and headed for the airport. Luckily Emma Kate did much better on the plane rides home...I guess she was just pooped from the busy week! And we were all so happy to back to the dry, windy, treeless, dirty city we call home! :)

11 Months

Wow, I really can't believe my little baby is already only a month away from not being a baby anymore! This year has definitely been the fastest and most amazing year of my life. Although Emma Kate has managed to work up quite the attitude and has definitely developed a mind of her own, each day of watching her grow is pure joy! 

I haven't done an update on what she's into, I mean, what she's up to :) lately so here goes:

-She loves to stand at the back door and say "Da, Da, Da, Da". In fact everything right now is "D, D, D, D, D". There for a while it she was figuring out a new sound each week, but I think she's stuck on "D" right now! 

-She is SO close to walking...I'm pretty sure our lives are about to be turned upside down too because she loves to explore! She will walk all over the house on her little walker, she cruises along the couch and chair, and will even stand on her own for a few seconds at a time - once she realizes she's doing it on her own she usually sits right down though. 

-She is starting to eat more and more table foods. She usually does really good the first time she tries it, but then after the second or third time she's ready to try something else. She's loves sliced turkey, potatoes and cheerios, and somedays she will eat cheese, ritz crackers, and teddy grahams. And she will basically eat anything off of our plates!

-She is fascinated with doors and drawers of any kind. She will sit there and open and close a door for hours! And she's particularly fond of cabinet doors because they are just her size. And yes, we have had many smashed fingers in our house lately, but that doesn't seem to stop her!

-She still loves being outside, and since the weather has been so nice recently we have been taking advantage of it. Anytime she gets fussy we just head out to her swing on the back porch or load up in her new BOB stoller (which by the way, is AMAZING!!!) and head out for a walk/jog. 

-She recently decided she's a big girl, and that big girls only need one nap a day. For the longest time the girl loved to sleep and would usually take at least 2 good naps a day. Not now. For the last week we have wrestled with her every morning to take a nap...she won, we don't even attempt it now. :)

-She has graduated to 4's diapers, and that's the cutest saggy bottom I've ever seen walking around!

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I promise the completion of our trip to Boston is coming!! I have been sick since last Thursday, and now EK seems to have come down with it. Hopefully once I'm not napping when she does I will have more time to  blog! :)

Happy Halloween!

From our adorable little peacock!