Sleepover

Playdough

Night - Night

Watching Boz the next morning

Emma had her first official sleepover when Mariela spent the night with us last week. It was so fun for Emma to have a playmate for two full days and of course it was fun to have someone to sleep with. The girls were wonderful and had the best time together. They went to sleep quickly and woke up ready to play at 5:30. Although they were up early, they both took nice long naps that afternoon. It was such a treat to have that time with Mariela and we look forward to the next time!

Here is a clip of their "band" practice and concert. So funny...and a lot of noise! I love that Jonah joins in with the noise about halfway through.

Firsts

Emma still loves her brother to pieces. She tries to help with him - bless her heart - but Jonah doesn't always appreciate it. Just tonight I walked into the room and she was sitting behind him with her arms around him trying to help him play with a toy. I walked out of the room and came back to her laying him across her lap to check and see if he had pooped. Then, she tried to sit on him. Oh, it was interesting.

Thankfully Emma's babies enjoy her "care" more than her brother. She plays with her babies all day long. She bathes them, dresses them, disciplines them, feeds them, plays with them, takes them shopping and to the zoo, and so much more. Today I heard her singing "Better is One Day in Your Courts" while bouncing her baby and shushing her to sleep. It really melts my heart and is so much fun to watch her nurturing spirit.

Emma's new obsession is climbing into bed with Jonah and "snuggling" while watching the mobile or talking his ear off. Jonah, of course, loves it too.

Emma worked for a month to earn stickers on a chart if she slept through the night without crying. When she filled up the chart, she got a big girl bed. She was SO excited about it and really got into the sticker chart. The last three days she got to see parts of the bed. The first day was her sheets which have tea pots and tea cups on them. The next day was the quilt. The final day was the actual bed. Emma is so full of joyful excitement and it makes it so much fun to do things for her. She was so excited about each part of the bed. When she saw her quilt she asked Mike to put it out on the floor. When she was done running around the room and rolling all over it, she got the sham and laid it down, crawled under the quilt, put her head down, and pretended to be asleep. So much fun!

Her Big Girl Bed all put together

The first morning she got up and made the bed all by herself. I LOVE IT!!!

Using her paints and paintbrush to create a masterpiece.

Emma decided to also paint herself. She had paint up to her armpits and on her face. It was a huge mess but also very cute. She had a great time.

Special Date

While in St. Louis, we had the chance to spend a few days with Tante Janet. It was a wonderful time playing together and having tea. Emma had the opportunity to go out to breakfast with Tante Janet all by herself - that is a tradition I have had with Tante Janet since I was a little girl! Emma ran around and around with excitement and had such a great time!

Playing in the Snow

We spent the past week in St. Louis. The night we arrived it snowed around 8 inches. Emma was so excited to go play in the snow and go sledding in the turkey pan. When she finally drug Poppa and Daddy outside, she squealed with excitement. Daddy had to get out a shovel to make a path for her to walk on and then a path for the turkey pan on the hill since there was too much snow. She had so much fun!

Playing ball and getting ready to go sledding! I asked her to turn around for the picture and she said, "Mama, I can't. I can't move. I can't walk." The snow was up to her knees!

Emma got to play on Poppa's sled from when he was a little boy!

Of course there was animal crackers and hot chocolate for Emma when she came inside.

Tea

Emma was given some money to get a special treat for tea, so I took her to the Bonbonneri to select a special cookie. She was so excited to look at all of the special treats in the display cases and she picked out a cookie for herself and made sure to get one for Mommy and Daddy as well. When we got home we had a "make-shift" tea party with Daddy. (Emma has been ruined by Grammy and Tante Janet for little girl tea parties - she knows how it should be for a real tea party.) We got out her special china tea cup and she chose cups for each of us. This was Daddy's first tea party, but I am pretty sure it will not be his last!

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas! It took 122 pictures to get one good one.

I made Emma a quilt and burp cloths for her babies for Christmas. She was very excited.

Jonah just took in all of the Christmas morning festivities.

Pretty cute picture.

Christmas morning, after spending time together at home, we went to Nana and Papaw's. We spent the day with Nana, Papaw, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Keith, and Sarhea. The girls had fun playing together and Jonah had a rough day due to an ear infection, but it was a good time together.

Spending time with cousin Sarhea.

Playing with her new baby.

Daddy and Jonah

Nana and Papaw with the cousins.

Nana loving on Jonah.

Jonah snuggles

On the day after Christmas, we packed up and left for a week in St. Louis. We spent the time with Grammy, Poppa, Aunt Erin, Uncle Ben, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Abby, Sam, and Grandma. It was a full house, but we had a great time. The trip started out rough when Jonah was fighting an awful cold and ear infection and did not sleep for the first three nights. Once he felt better things turned around. Emma and Sam had a great time playing together and there are so many fun memories that it would be difficult to record them all. I did not do a good job of taking pictures and therefore do not have any of Grammy, Uncle Ben, Poppa, or Grandma. The kids enjoyed being loved on by so many people and just enjoyed the attention.

Mama and Emma at Grammy and Poppa's

Mama and Jonah Stuart

Jonah got a stuffed lion and LOVES it!

Uncle Rich made Emma and Sam a very special book of pictures he has taken of animals while in Africa. It is really amazing.

Uncle Andrew, Uncle Ben, and Daddy took Sam and Emma sledding in the backyard. There was no sled, so they used a roasting pan. It was hilarious, but worked really well and the kids loved every second of it.

Wearing Aunt Abby's point shoes.

Aunt Abby taught Emma about ballet and let Emma wear her point shoes. Emma has continued talking about it everyday.

Are those not the most kissable cheeks???

Aunt Erin spent a lot of time with sweet Jonah. Lots of it was when he was fussy. She is kinda like the baby whisperer.

Emma and Jonah were so much fun together. They played so well and really enjoyed each other.

The Cousins

Tea Time

Don't they look like they could be twins? Thank goodness they are not...whew...that would be EXHAUSTING!

Uncle Rich time!

Festival of Lights

Emma has been excited to go to the Festival of Lights for the past two months. We looked for "clues" while we were at the zoo in the month of November and have tried to go several times this month only to be stopped by weather or sickness. This week we finally had the chance to go and she loved it just as much as we thought she would. She was in awe of all the lights and of course excited to see some of her favorite animal friends, although most of them were "sleeping". At one point we came to a display of three snowmen with lights flashing to Jingle Bells and Emma stopped to sing and dance and drew an audience. It was so much fun to see her enjoy the lights and to see her joyful spirit on display!