South Carolina Snow

So we got our first snow of 2009 yesterday, and it was MAYBE 1/2 and inch! It was all melted by the afternoon, too, so Ben didn't even get to see Emma in it! She was quite intrigued even at the dusting and was asking to build a snowman all morning. My mom was gracious enough to scrape enough off leaves to make her the little 2 inch snowman in the slide show! : ) It was disappointing bc they were predicting 4-6 inches for us. Apparently, the other side of town got about 3 inches, though. Oddly, it was enough for school and my doctor's office to be closed! Oh, South Carolina! Anyway, since my mom was home and Ben went on in to work, we went to hang out with her. Emma begged some hot chocolate off Mom, and they played in the yard while I made some phone calls for Ben. Then, I went out to join them for a walk down the road to the woods we have always visited during snowfall. Emma thought it was great even though she could hardly move in all her layers and her hands were freezing because she wouldn't wear gloves or keep her hands out of the snow! Every bit of snow she touched had to go straight to the mouth, too. : ) Too bad we didn't get enough for snow creme! It was pretty as it fell, and hopefully she'll see a little more before the winter's out! Ben and I are headed to Gatlinburg, TN. tomorrow through Sunday (our Christmas present), so maybe we'll see some leftover snow! It's supposed to be around 50 while we're there, so I doubt we'll get any fresh snow. Maybe I won't take forever to write about our trip. I'm very excited and know it will be relaxing, but I am soooo sad to be leaving my sweet little girl! I think she's going to be happy though, she's been begging to go to MeMo's every day lately and even ran whining when Daddy was at the door instead of MeMo the other day. I don't know why the obsession, maybe it's just the Lord trying to put my mind more at ease about going away. Will and "MaeMae" are coming Friday night, too, so I know she'll be excited about that too...she's always wanting "Will come my house, today", or "I go see Will, k?".

Boots

What is it with boots?? : ) Emma got Hello Kitty rainboots from my mom for her birthday, and she puts them on OFTEN! The bottom picture of her is the morning after her party...we heard her come clomping down the hall in her pjs and boots! Oh, she keeps us smiling! : ) Thankfully, we haven't had to do anything tacky like wear them to church on Sunday morning, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes up. ; ) We talked about getting her some boots this winter because she loves my boots and likes to pull her socks up high and say she has on boots. She does not need another pair of shoes though, especially since they all come off so quickly! Plus, as cute as they are, I don't want to have to hassle with tucking the pants in every time she would put them on. Anyway, it is cute and fun to hear or see her clomping around saying, "I have boots on!".

Emma is 2!

January 6, our precious little Emma turned 2! Why does it have to happen so fast? It's amazing to me how quickly life seems hard to imagine without one of your loved ones; it just seems as though she's been with us forever! What did we do without her? Besides more sleep and self indulgence, of course! : ) This birthday was so much fun! All day on her birthday, I was singing Happy Birthday to her, and she would tell me she was 2 now...she beamed every time a voice on the phone said "Happy Birthday, Emma!" and enjoyed telling them she was 2. Mom and Kent brought some helium balloons to her that afternoon, and she thought those were the best!! Then Ben, Emma and I had dinner together with a little singing, birthday cake and candles before sharing our gift with her. We gave her a set of planes and a helicopter and a jungle animal puzzle and a few more animal figurines (I needed them to decorate for her party anyway!). She was on cloud nine about her birthday, and we could have for sure stopped there...but, we had a wonderful party Saturday with friends and family. We did a jungle theme since she's been so into those animals for over a year, and she is quite the social creature, so she was excited to have "everyone come my house, k?"! Her face absolutely lit up when the house full seranaded her with the birthday song...yes, she enjoys attention! : ) The games, crafts and food were great, then came the presents. Oh boy! The first present she opened was a box with 2 babies and a new double stroller, and she had an absolute meltdown because I wouldn't let her tear into the box. The first several gifts were like that, and then she got a little better at opening. What a hard concept for a two year old; here, open, put it away, open, put it to the side, over and over. She is extremely blessed with some great friends and family, and we are so grateful for having them in our lives! She is thoroughly enjoying all of her gifts. We were going to try to squirrel some away to bring out gradually, but she managed to beg to have them all opened before they got put out of sight. Oh well! At least she's got quite the variety of entertainment so we can try out all different avenues and play and imagination throughout the days and weeks! As far as 2 is concerned, she definitely has her toddler moments of tantrum and independence seeking. The hard part is attempting to stay firm and consistent as parents. We're trying!! Thankfully, we still haven't hit a bad eating phase. I am having to feed her "on the run" a little more often, but she still eats pretty healthy. We are trying to keep her away from sweets for the most part hoping she will develop a sense of feeling that sweets are more for special occassions, or at least on occassion. She definitely loves her treats though! As of now, she only thinks chocolate milk is at chick-fil-a. : ) DJ brought her some for her birthday, and she didn't put it down until she had sucked up the last bit. It was so cute, and it is more fun to give since it's such a commodity to her. You know, some kids get everything wonderful all the time and don't get to fully appreciate the simple pleasures in life. ; ) Our main goal is to raise a healthy child and eater, but the appreciation factor is quite the benefit! We are working on the potty training. I've actually been dragging my feet a bit wondering if it can really be mastered long enough before Bryson's arrival that we won't have to start all over...she jumped on it a couple of weeks ago, though, so I'm trying to work harder at it with her. She does seem to be gaining more and more muscle control for the tee-tee part, and she is back to pooping on the pot more consistently and can even hold off until we get home sometimes. I worry about bladder infections and constipation with teaching her to hold it, but I guess that's not a big concern since all kids go through the training process. We don't have our 2 year check-up until February 3. I waited a while to make the appt. bc we were all so sick for a while, so I'll have to post about her check-up sometime in Feb.

More Christmas

We loaded up the van and headed to Georgia New Year's week-end to visit Heather and her family and Ben's grandmother. We haven't made it down there since last May, I think, so it was a much needed trip! I was so thankful we could work it out then so we could go before I was too pregnant for a 5 hour road trip. We stayed at Heather's, and Emma had a great time with Matthew and Mikayla. Mikayla got a kitten for Christmas, and though scared at first, Emma became engrossed with the poor kitten! She would whine or fuss when the kitten would run away from her! : ) We let her enjoy it while she could because we are not at all cat people around here! It was nice to be able to spend some time with Heather and Michael too since we don't see them very often. We were finally finished exchanging Christmas gifts as we headed back home...just in time for the birthday festivities to begin...

Christmas

Another slideshow of our Christmas celebrations...the first few pictures are of Emma and Will the Sunday before. Mom thought they needed their picture made together because of their outfits, and they were actually in the mood for the camera, so we had a good time getting some cute pictures...the photo shoot ended when they started jumping and acting silly, hence the blurry photo. : )
The two nights before Christmas Eve, we had dinner with family movie night. Ben and I watch The Grinch and The Polar Express every year, so those were our two movie nights. I did try some of the old classics with her the previous weeks, but she wasn't quite interested yet. She was glued to the screen for The Grinch and loved the music. I think the whole dinner in front of the tv thing was just as intriguing for her. She enjoyed The Polar Express too but lost attention some. After The Polar Express, we bathed her and got her ready for bed before loading up and driving around town to look at all the Christmas lights. Boy, did she LOVE the lights!!! Her favorites were the ones out her window. ; )
Christmas Eve was spent at the service at church and then to Mom's for dinner with the extended family. The service was interesting for us this year. Ben had deacon duties, so he didn't get to sit with us; Emma had a cold so I didn't want to put her in the nursery to share the germs for others' Christmases...she did pretty well until she drew a snake during the sermon and wanted to tell me all about it. No, we don't know how to whisper yet. ; ) We actually spent that part of the service with Daddy in the vestibule. She wanted back in so badly, as did I, but I waited until the sermon was over so it would just be music and the candle lighting. They served communion, though, and I didn't realize they would bring it to those in the vestibule, so that was not so quiet as Emma wanted Mommy's juice. I shared it with her, but she was whining for more, so I had to actually leave the building a few minutes then. What a service!! I don't think people value the nursery as much as we should!!! Anyway, we had birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus after Christmas Eve dinner, and Emma and Will got to blow out the candles. They were so excited...we look forward to sharing Jesus more and more through Christmas with Emma (and any other children) as she grows and understands more. She absolutely LOVED all the nativities throughout the season and enjoyed making sure Baby Jesus had his mommy. My dad got her the Fisher Price nativity that she really enjoyed playing with a good bit; in fact I haven't put it away yet. Santa called and talked to Will and Emma before we came home too. That was cute; Will was so excited and talked a good bit, Emma paced around the room twirling the phone cord not saying a whole lot. She's not quite old enough to really get it, and we didn't really talk much about it before then. We are "Santa" folks and really enjoyed that part but definitely want to be sure the focus stays on Jesus while explaining the symbolism of Santa's giving. When we got home, Emma got to open her Christmas pj's from Mommy and Daddy and then we put out cookies (that Emma helped make) and chocolate milk for Santa (apparently her love for chocolate milk is a similarity).
Christmas morning was so much fun! I brought Emma into our bed around 5 just to be sure she didn't wake up and check out what Santa brought on the way to our room. When she started waking, I asked her if she thought Santa had come and left her some presents; she looked slightly confused...then I asked if she thought Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk she left him; her eyes got huge, she slid out of bed real quickly still wide eyed exclaiming, "I go see!" How precious! I had to stop her so we could get the camera ready and Daddy could finish the fire, but she was so excited and eager!!
She was super excited to see a new kitchen, but quickly checked on the table to see if Santa's dishes were empty before getting to work in her kitchen. She was immediately in love with her kitchen and her new little picnic table, as well as all the other gifts the day brought! She was quite eager to eat the chocolate Santa left in her stocking, and I had to hide it quickly after a couple of pieces.
After our gift exchange, we headed to my parents to share Christmas with my family. Mom and Dad gave Emma this huge 6 foot stuffed dog that she LOVED! They asked several times before buying it and even offered to take it back after showing it to us. Since we have the bonus room, we thought it would be fun for her, and she does love playing with it. We spent the day there and headed home in time for Em's nap. A couple of days later, we headed out to Fort Mill for dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their spouses. It was nice to see them again and continue our Christmas celebrations.

Richburg Christmas

Christmas was wonderful, as always, this year! We started out celebrating with Ben's parents, grandfather, and brother the Saturday before because his parents went to GA to be with Heather and her family this year. As you can see in the slideshow, Emma got some great new toys! She knew just what to do with presents and was eager to tear into them! It was such a relaxing afternoon and fun to get started a little early. Emma, of course, made it to the piano several times! She LOVES music and hits up every piano we see. Ben's mom had a house full of beautiful trees again this year, and Emma did pretty well not dismantling them.

Boyd Hill Party

This is a slide show from the annual Christmas party our youth put on for a local projects community. This year, I had the pleasure of working with a couple of our girls to apply for and receive a grant from the city! It was hard to not just do it myself this year, but it was great getting to know those 2 girls better as well as have an extra $500 for the party. Our wonderful stomach bug hit in the midst of that process though, so it was hard fitting everything in...the Lord's sovereignty and perfect timing continuously amaze me. We had the party planned for the 7th, but I asked our youth pastor to move it to the 14th because I just didn't think we could get it all done that soon (speaking from about 8 years of past experience). Amazingly enough, the 7th was the Sunday morning I awoke to the virus that knocked me off my feet the whole week, and we didn't clear it completely out of our house until the week-end of the 14th! I had also changed our Christmas party to the 19th instead of the 13th because of all the activity going on...the Lord is so gracious!! Because of him, we were well enough and able to carry out both parties! : ) Unfortunately, I had to miss the Panthers v. Broncos football game with Ben on the 14th. We had been planning on it for a couple of months but needed to move the party to that day, and then the game got changed from 1 pm to 4 pm. I was pretty bummed about missing it, but Ben did go ahead and ended up taking a contractor with him. Unfortunately for him, it was cold and rainy, and our Broncos got a beat down. : ( Hopefully we'll be able to make a trip out to Colorado and cheer them on one day!

Random

Just a few random pics from "normal" life in December...Emma helping Mommy make chex mix, Emma playing in her house turned "hunting blind" by Daddy, and Emma trying to feed her chicken and carrot sticks to her babies. She keeps a smile on our faces and makes ordinary life, well, not so ordinary! : )