Hi, Sam!

Emma misses Sammy SOOOO much! She loves to look at the pictures of him around the house. There is one of her and Sam on the end table in the living room and Emma will just look at it and wave and talk to him. It is very sweet.



Here is a glimpse of our afternoon on Saturday. Emma enjoyed playing in her pool for about 45 minutes while Mike and I sat there with her. It was a great afternoon. She loved playing in the water and discovered that she could crawl around in there and "chase" her toys.

Long Overdo

Emma has been eating bananas. She enjoys them and makes quite the mess.

She is so sweet as she puts the food in her mouth. Sometimes it takes the entire hand.

And then it gets all over her!

Grammy and Poppa came for a quick visit last weekend. I was so tired I didn't take any pictures but I did get this one. Emma was cuddling with Poppa reading books. It was very precious.

She loves her duckie and her thumb. As soon as that duck is in her hand her thumb goes in her mouth. The duck is showing its love and is looking pretty rough.

Emma has started scrunching her nose and grinning really big. It is very cute and so funny!

Emma has begun sleeping on her tummy with her little bottom sticking up in the air. We went in to say good night to her a few nights in a row and she had her arm around the bumper pad.

What a sweet smile!

Aunt Erin and Uncle Ben came to Cincinnati this weekend. Aunt Erin let Emma try on her sunglasses. With all of the toys in the room, Emma Kate was most interested in Aunt Erin's purse. Such a girl!

Another attempt at capturing the nose scrunch.

Here is a video of Emma nodding her head. She is doing a lot of mimicking now both verbally and physically.

One of Emma's favorite toys is the laundry basket. She will sit for a long time and just pull the clothes out, put them back in and do it all over again.


Emma is now playing peek a boo with us. She will cover her head and then uncover herself. Listen for her giggle when she waits a long time to uncover her face.

New Pictures

Life has been a little crazy around here since I am working full time for the month of June. Because of that, I have not been able to post new pictures and am not at home to take them, but here are a few to enjoy. I am so looking forward to the end of June to be back home with my sweet little girl!

We got a pool for the back yard. It lasted about 5 minutes before Emma spent the remaining time trying to stand up. We need Sam to come and keep Emma calm and playing nicely in the pool.

This is a suit from Mariela. So cute!

I love this picture...yes I know, my child is half naked most of the time now. She is just so sweet.

Emma has started sleeping on her tummy with her knees tucked under her and her little bottom sticking up in the air.

Just standing in the middle of her toys.

Shake Shake

Emma gets so excited that she just shakes. She shakes until she runs out of breath and then shakes some more. It is funny because other people often think she is mad, but it is just Emma's over excitement about life. This week we had the carpets cleaned and she shook for ten minutes. Every time we get the vacuum out, she shakes and shakes until it goes away. When she see people or hears their voices, she shakes. And, especially when she sees kids or dogs, she shakes. Here are a few videos of it. It is hard to completely capture it on video since it is unpredictable. We have been trying for weeks to get a video of her excitement over the vacuum. This is the best we could do although it is a misrepresentation of her true excitement level.

She continues to be very excitable and very high energy. She is almost walking and is into everything. She is very high strung (go figure) and determined. We are just enjoying her so very much!

First Swim at the Pool

Aunt Amy, Matt, Will, Sam and Bel took us with them to the pool this afternoon. After the thunderstorm rolled through we had a wonderful time! Emma LOVED the pool. At first she was just so excited to watch all of the kids, but once she was in the water she was splashing and kicking. I dunked her twice and she loved it. She enjoyed being splashed by the kids and had no fear. It was just so much fun to take her and watch her experience something new that she enjoyed so much. I just never imagined that I would so much enjoy watching my daughter have fun and experience new things. The video doesn't capture how excited she was and how much she enjoyed it, but it is a sneak peak into our experience today.

Aunt Sue Comes to Town!

This past weekend we had the awesome treat of having Aunt Sue come to visit. She made the long drive from Hershey, PA to spend time with us. Emma just loved all of her time with Aunt Sue and we are so thankful for the time together! Unfortunately I did not take many pictures. We went on several walks but mostly just spent time at the house going about Emma's daily activities so Aunt Sue could experience Emma's life. While she was here, Emma picked up her walker and started walking up and down the room. Since then that is all she will do for entertainment all day long. There is a video below of her new trick although it is amazing how much faster she is even now. Thank you for coming, Aunt Sue!!!

Emma is pulling up on EVERYTHING she can get her hands on and has finally found the gate that we installed at the top of the stairs. She was very excited about it!

While Emma was reading with Aunt Sue she leaned forward to kiss her reflection in the mirror in the book...it was PRECIOUS!!!

Aunt Sue and Emma had lots of play time together!

Grammy and Poppa's with Sam

We spent the week surrounding Memorial Day in St. Louis with Uncle Andrew, Aunt Abby, Sam, Grammy, Poppa, Tante Janet and Uncle Randy, Uncle Rich and Uncle Ben. It was a great trip. We were able to take advantage of free babysitters to go out to lunch and enjoy time together with family. Aunt Abby and I even got to have Starbucks several times without thinking about the kids!!! What a treat! More than anything I am so thankful for such a wonderful family that is so close and loves my daughter so much. It is overwhelming to realize how much she is loved. We already miss everyone very much and can't wait to see them again soon. Most of all we hope to see Aunt Erin very soon since she couldn't be with us.

It was so fun to have more time with Tante Janet!

Sammy is a snuggler and nothing makes Aunt Becky happier than when Sammy wants to snuggle!!! Did I mention that I love this little guy SO much?!!!

Emma just loves Uncle Rich. We are so thankful to have seen him twice in the past two months.

Tante Janet, Uncle Randy and Emma Kate

Grammy's little girl!

Grammy's little boy!

Uncle Rich was so thrilled to see Sam after such a long time!

It was wonderful to have so many people that wanted to help take care of Emma and so special to see how much they love her.

Emma enjoyed lots of quality time with Tante Janet. We wish she could spend that time with Emma every week!

For his birthday Poppa's staff gave him two swings for the yard. The little ones loved swinging and having lots of people cheer for them and make silly faces at them.

Grammy and Poppa took the kids on walks around the neighborhood in a double stroller. Boy did this make me glad I don't have twins.

All clean! Emma has a Duck towel at Grammy's.

Uncle Randy came all the way from Denver at the end of the trip to meet Emma! Thanks for making the effort at such a busy time, Uncle Randy!

These two little ones definitely did not lack attention.

Emma loves her Uncle Ben!!! We sure did miss Aunt Erin and hope to see her soon.

Emma learned how to give kisses while we were gone. She was obsessed with giving Aunt Abby kisses on her nose. One of the greatest moments of my life was when Emma turned to me and gave me a kiss all by herself. It was wonderful!

I just love him so much...he is the most precious little boy! He LOVES to play with blocks and trucks. Emma plays with dolls and people. Emma did not touch a single one of his trucks the whole time.

I looked over at Emma and she was waving to everyone in the room...she is practicing her princess wave. She enjoyed all of her time with Poppa and even cuddled with him several times.

We tried to get a picture of Great Grandma with both kids...you can see how that turned out!

Getting ready for the pool...Emma has her cover-up on and Sam was showing her how to roll the ball back to Uncle Andrew.

Sam is Aunt Becky's "Little Sack of Sweet". I could just eat him up and could not get enough of him last week. I miss him so much.

Pool time was a great success and so much fun for the kids. They played for 45 minutes with the ducks and measuring cups.

We were able to put the pool on the screened in porch...no bees or sun...what a great place!

He is just the sweetest thing. I could just scoop him up and kiss him to pieces!

The air conditioning was broken for the first three very hot and humid days we were in St. Louis. The kids played in diapers all day. Emma loved to play with the xylophone. You can see the hammer in her hand. They played very well together.

Uncle Andrew is a circus!

Emma took lessons from Sam on how to play alone. He plays alone for an hour and as long as he was playing next to her, Emma was happy to play with toys. As soon as Sam went away, Emma wanted to have someone pay attention to her. I told Aunt Abby that we may have to rent Sam out on an hourly basis.

The roses were beautiful.

Emma is again playing with a blade of grass. Sam wasn't too sure about the grass...it was hot and the grass was rough.

Here is a video clip of the kids in the pool...so fun!