Lovey Day

I love Valentine's Day. I really LOVE it! It's my favorite holiday behind Christmas. You know, that whole birth of our Savior Jesus kind of trumps everything else. But after Christmas, Valentine's is my favorite. Luckily I have my head on straight this week and remembered if I was going to order Valentine's cards with Emily's picture on them, then I was going to have to get cracking. So Monday we had a mini photo shoot at the house. I put on her pretty pink dress and got to work. How I love my job! Here are a few of the pictures that didn't make it on the actual card. I will wait until Valentine's Day to post that one, otherwise, what's the point of the cards?!?!

I LOVE this photo! I kept telling her to look at Mommy so I could get a cute picture, but it was cold and it was not so easy. So I told her to, "look at mommy's eyes." and she kept pointing to her own eyes! It was so funny!

Randomness

I love my life! I try to say that pretty often to Dave, but I don't say it enough here on the blog. I am so glad to be able to stay home with Emily full time, but I am even happier on the weekends when Dave is able to be home with us. Here are a few pics from our weekend. And let me just say, I know all moms think their babies are the cutest. God planned it that way so we would love them even when they wake up every few hours, spit up all over you, and later grow up to make a mess of your once tidy house. But my little girl is so cute it still makes me teary. Really.

This weekend was so pleasant it was hard to believe it was January. So we dusted off the bikes and helmets and took a 45 minute ride. I was so impressed with how long Emily hung in there. And she really seemed to enjoy it.

After a long bike ride, and I emphasize the "ride" on Emily's part, she was ready for lunch and a nap. Poor girl. Post naptime Emily booted Maggie out of the only place in the house that can be called her own. I wonder if it is against child protection laws to lock her in there... just for a few minutes! Geesh! :)

Look at the innocent face. Hardly!

So continues the Emily photo shoot. Please note that this adorable little PJ outfit Emily is modeling cost me a whopping $1.47 at Old Navy. You may have already known this if you are on FB, but I got some CrAzY good deals there this weekend. 36 items for a grand total of $50.

These cool shades were part of the Target dollar section, not my Old Navy steals. But doesn't she make them look good.

I'd like to take a second and draw your mind back to the opening portion of this post where I referenced a "once tidy house." Notice the slide next to my dining room chair, the 16 DVDs strewn about the rug and the bouncing turtle by the front door. Ahhhhh!!!! It's a good thing she's cute.

What fireplace decor scheme is complete without the giant blue car, pink doll stroller and orange and green tricycle to grace the hearth? Love her.

Thanks for indulging me and my child photo obsession. Those of you with children or pets understand. Much love.

Chi-Town

This is it. My last post to get me caught up. This January Dave's company had it's Divisional meeting in Chicago. Good planning guys. Anyway, for my Christmas gift Dave bought me a ticket to go along and booked us an extra night at the hotel. We are blessed to have friends and family who jumped at the chance to keep Emily for us. What a relief. So in the dead of winter we headed north. We got an awesome room on the corner of the hotel so we had a view from two sides of the building. And what a view it was!

While Dave was in his meetings Wednesday I worked out and did a little shopping. My wonderful husband left his Alabama hat in the car at the airport in Nashville so I went to 5 stores and called 2 others in an attempt to hunt down an Alabama hat in Chicago. No luck. But I did find a few things at the 2 story Forever 21 store! :) And a souvenir for Miss Emily from the Disney store on Michigan Ave. Thursday I went to the Museum of Modern Art. For more on that interesting experience check out my previous post here and here. Thursday night was a the big game! Alabama's 13th National Championship! I posted on that earlier here, but Emily celebrated in style too! One of my few instructions for Lindsey was that on Thursday she wear this outfit! God bless Lindsey who also put her dog, Chanel, in houndstooth too! So cute!

Friday morning, whoops... I forgot to mention! Mornings! We stayed at the Embassy Suites and every morning the have a cooked to order breakfast buffet with an omelet bar, pancakes, waffles, bacon, and more sweet deliciousness for FREE!!! My two favorite things, food and FREE! So anyway, Friday morning I went to the meetings with Dave. They were really great and motivational. I think in any business, but especially when you are an independent contractor, it is important for the spouse to be on board and understand exactly what it is that the business is about. Plus, I love those guys! They have become like family to us of the past 4 years. After the meetings the conference was over and guess what...it was time to eat again! So Dave and I headed off to Uno's Pizza just off the Miracle Mile. Do I look like I'm getting fatter by the picture? Wait, don't answer that!

After the best pizza I've ever had we decided to try and walk some of the calories off by walking down to the Navy Pier. In theory, this was a great idea. In 15 degree weather with snow flurries, it was a very cold idea. But we made it.

After Navy Pier and a quick nap, it was time to eat again! Yippee. Friday night we went out with Andy and Mary. Andy works in Dave's office and his wife made the trip too. They are so much fun. We had a great time. And Mary's friend recommended we eat at the Grand Luxe Cafe. Turns out it was the same place I had eaten at 5 years ago on my first trip to Chicago. It was the best food I've ever eaten and SO cheap! I mean, any place on Michigan Ave. I was expecting to be ridiculously expensive because it can be. But this place was awesome and also beautiful.

As much as I enjoyed our trip I was ready to be home with my girl. Jeremy and Lindsey took such good care of her for us. We are truly blessed to have friends like them. Here are a few pics Lindsey took for me while we were gone.

Apparently Emily learned how to read while we were gone.

And Grandma Jamie had her hands full too until we returned Saturday.

And now... I'm all caught up. Future posts will not be 3 weeks old! :)

Christmas in Cali

Ok, so it's a little late. But what is it they say, "Better late than never." Below are some pics from our time in California. I was so nervous to travel with Emily alone because she is very energetic these days and the thought of 4 hours with her in my lap seemed quite daunting. We made it through security ok, even though they made Emily take off her boots and jacket. Are you serious?!?! Do they know how hard those things are to get on and off? When I checked in at our gate we were lucky enough to get an entire row to ourselves on the ride there. This was seriously a gift from God! Except the 3 people, all easily over 250 pounds each in the row in front of us probably didn't think so. In our row, even Elmo got his own seat!

It was so nice to spend time with my family. Chris and Holly came up just 2 days after Emily and I arrived. They were amazing with Emily! Hopefully they will be having kids of their own soon so Emily has some cousins to play with!

Saturday night an old friend was able to get Chris, Holly, and I into a local club for free and got us free drinks for the night. It was a great way to unwind and have some fun with my little brother and his lovely wife.

I love this girl!Holly had a good time!
Sunday night we were able to celebrate my grandmother's 84th birthday with all my family. There is a picture somewhere of Emily and my Grandma, but it eludes me at the moment. Here is a picture of Emily after having some birthday cake!

One night it was even cold enough to roast marshmallows...barely.

Everyone had a great time playing with Emily, especially her Grandma Dee!

Christmas Eve was warm enough for us to take little girl to the park. We had a great time, but Daddy did not have very good luck. His knee came out of the socket playing basketball with my brother! Ouch! Poor guy limped around for the rest of the week.
After church on Christmas Eve we all went to my Grandparents for dinner and gifts.

Grandma Dee and her girl in their Christmas attire. Pretty girls.

Emily giving Daddy Christmas kisses. Too sweet!

After 3 hours of opening presents it was after 10pm and Emily was SO well behaved.

Christmas morning we all woke and played with Emily's toys. She got this pop-up tent from Santa. It kept her busy most of the morning.

And the big kids enjoyed it too!

Uncle Chris was her favorite I think.

The only picture of me and my girl on Christmas.

This picture deserves an explaination. Chris and Holly gave Chris a present and before he opened it Dave said, "This feels like a block of wood." Well, that's exactly what he got. A block of wood with four screws in the corners.

After some tiem with a screwdriver, and then the drill, Dave was able to seperate the pieces of wood to find a Home Depot gift card inside!

The Sunday after Christmas we had lots of family over and Grandpa had to show off his new trick he taught Emily. He has a monkey bar hanging in the back yard and he taught Emily had to hang all by herself.

He may have taught her a cool trick, but he was not always the most attentive babysitter.

While we were there we took a family portrait at JC Penny. Dave and Grandma entertained Emily with some of the props. She may be a little young for the baseball glove just yet.

A quick pic of us hanging outside the portrait studio.

Being there almost 2 weeks gave us lots of time to hang out with some good friends. Steph and Kevin and me and Dave went out to my favorite Mexican restaurant and then they took us to see their new home. It's beautiful! We had so much fun laughing at their wedding video and telling stories.

Monday night before we left we had one more dinner with my extended family. This is one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip. Emily loves her Great-Grandpa.

It was a wonderful trip. I am so blessed to have such a great extended family and have the opportunity to go see them. It is times like that I am extremely grateful to not be working so that I have the flexibility to spend that time. Grandma Dee is already planning her trip to see Emily over their spring break. :) That didn't take long!