Another Week with Emma

This afternoon I had the most fun with Emma! I was making corn bread for dinner and she pulled at the chair and said please. I put her on a chair at the counter and she helped make bread for Daddy!!! She dumped in the ingredients, with a little help of course, and helped to stir. She was so excited and I was able to capture this precious smile at the end. It could not have been more fun for me to spend that time baking with my little girl!!!

Is she really big enough and old enough for this!?!

Look, Dad, just for you!

Stirring

First Cincinnati Chili experience...She LOVED it!

Emma has been obsessed with putting diapers on George and her Doll. She lays out a blanket very carefully and tries to put the diaper on all by herself.

She is so gentle and sweet with her babies!

Just reading the newspaper.

All done with the paper and time for some football...does Sunday afternoon get any better than this?

Emma's Week

I gave Emma her crayons to color in her highchair by herself for the first time. Look at her sweet face! She was SO excited by this that she just squealed and giggled for a few minutes.

She really enjoyed coloring all by herself!

Uncle Rich gave Emma this precious jumpsuit when he visited last week. It is so cute and Emma loves to feel the fabric. She just walked around feeling her tummy all day!

Thanks, Uncle Rich!

Thursday night Emma had her first sleepover! Mariela stayed with us and she and Emma had so much fun. This picture is of them watching tv and snuggling togther. They were so cute. Emma looks much bigger than Mariela, but in reality Mariela is much taller...Emma is just sitting up. She doesn't relax and just "hang out" very often.

It was a great week and we are looking forward to a good weekend with lots of down time with Daddy!

Happy Halloween!

Our Little Duck!!!

Emma had a very fun and exciting Halloween as a Duck. She has been so excited about her costume as she saw it in her closet for the past month. She would point to it every time the closet opened and say "Duck". Her excitement when we actually took it out of the closet for Halloween was so fun. She was so very excited and loved wearing the costume. She was also very excited about her "pumpkin purse" and all of the pumpkins we got to see. I think the best part though was showing her the pictures this morning and hearing her squeals and excited babbling. We had so much fun enjoying Halloween through her eyes and joining in her fun. Here are the highlights of the day!

Trick-or-Treat Skyping with Grammy and Poppa.

She adores Will and he is so very sweet to her.

She Quacked all night and was as cute as could be!

Love this face!

Sweet friends!

This is a lot of fun!

Amy and I spent a lot of Halloween years together and it is fun to see our kids continue that tradition.

All the kids!

Where did Emma go? All I see is a duck!

In the middle of all the chaos of pictures with the Saxby's, Emma found the soccer ball and went off to play.

Trick-or-Treat, Aunt Amy!

Emma putting her candy in her "purse".

Emma had fun Trick-or-Treating at Aunt Amy and Uncle Dan's house.

Our last stop was for a party at the Reitano's. Josh is the pastor of New City and Emma just adores him.

The first thing Emma wanted to do this morning is put her costume back on. The fun continues!

Here is the excitement of getting dressed to Trick-or-Treat.

I'm a Big Girl Now

We went to Emma's friend Sam's birthday party this weekend and Emma was just one of the kids. She enjoyed her time playing with her friends and watching Sam open presents.

Emma's first dinner of PIZZA. Of course, she was a big fan!

Sitting at the "kid" table with all of her friends! She looked so old!

Emma and her best friend Bel. If you look closely at Emma's hair, you can see the curls by her ear.

Talking with her friends during dinner.

The Cabin

This past weekend we were blessed with the opportunity to visit Uncle Ben and Aunt Sue at their cabin in Weikert, PA, in the center of the state. It is a very remote little town and sits along Penn's Creek. We had a great time being spoiled with amazing food and down time to just rest and spend time together. It rained all of Friday and half of Saturday which kept us from enjoying the outdoors, but it forced us to nap and enjoy the fire. On Saturday afternoon the rain stopped and the rest of the trip was beautiful. The leaves were just spectacular as well as everything else. The only un-spectacular part of the weekend was that the pack n play Aunt Sue borrowed had such a strong mildew smell that Emma smelled like a bowling shoe all weekend. I guess if that is the only thing that wasn't perfect than life is pretty good. I cannot explain how much fun we had and how great it was just to be able to relax and enjoy God's creation and our family. Here are some highlights from the trip.

There were leaves everywhere for Emma to play with and give as gifts. :)

Emma was very excited to see the pumpkins.

So happy to play in the leaves!

We tried quite hard to get Emma to stay still for some pictures.

Sue-Sue and Emma watched the squirrels out the window all weekend. Emma just loves squirrels and was so excited to watch them. Uncle Ben even went out in the pouring rain and put out some bird seed to attract them.

Sue-Sue and Ben-Ben read lots of books with Emma. Thank you for the new books, Sue-Sue.

The rain broke on Saturday afternoon and we were able to go for a hike with Sue-Sue and use the new baby jogger. Emma very much enjoyed the scenery (and her snack). It was amazing how high the creek was from all of the rain and we had some very soggy parts in our hike.

At the cabin there is this bear skin rug hanging from the loft. Emma was just not sure about Mr. Bear or the mounted bear and elk heads. She would wave to them with a very unsure look on her face and look at all of us to assure her. After being fearful of them all day Friday, Mike finally took her up to pet the bear and that did it. From that point on she just would wave to them and smile and say hi.

Emma had such fun with Ben-Ben and Sue-Sue. She had plenty of cuddle time and play time with each of them. This picture was taken on a swing down on Penn's Creek. It was so pretty that morning.

On Sunday morning we went for a hike. It was BEAUTIFUL. The weather was just awesome and it was so peaceful and gorgeous along the creek and through the town. Emma enjoyed seeing the squirrels and farm animals and ate her lunch along the way.

On our hike we saw horses and cows. Some of the horses even came up to the fence to see Emma. She just loved it.

Emma made smores with Sue-Sue in the fireplace.

Here is the first taste!

She liked it!

We stopped at Aunt Abby, Uncle Andrew, and Sam's both on the way to the cabin and on the way home. Emma and Sam had some play time and the adults had the chance to catch up and spend some time together. Thanks for letting us crash at your house!!!