She Did It!

Emma has a long distance love for Santa-meaning she loves him until she seems him up close in person. Santa has been at the mall since the beginning of November and we've asked her every time we go if she wants to sit on his lap. Her immediate response is "NO!" and we stop at that. Last year we weren't able to get a picture with her and Santa because she would never get close enough to him and we didn't want to push the issue. Santa came to school and she was so excited that he was there and started jumping up and down and saying "Santa! Santa!". When they went to see him, she froze and wanted no part of it. She did get brave enough to take a coloring book and candy cane from him, though. A week later, there was a pancake dinner with Santa at her school. We didn't have too many high hopes that she would sit with him, but I grabbed the camera just in case! Santa arrived and everyone was excited to see him-Emma wasn't even phased, she didn't want to go near him. We tried getting a picture with her sitting next to him, but she just wanted to get away. After all the kids spent time talking with him, Matt had an idea. He asked Emma if she would get a candy cane from Santa for him. She walked over and asked him for one and they started talking. This was our chance!! Matt said "Emma, why don't you get on Santa's lap and tell him what you want for Christmas." She climbed right up and started telling him what she wanted. Hopefully she won't forget that she likes him next year!

Christmas Spirit

Anyone that knows Matt or I should know how much we love Christmas-sometimes borderline obsession. What's not to love about this time of year?? The trees, the lights, the decorations, Santa, trying to find those perfect gifts, Christmas music and movies, the food(!!), I mean I could go on and on. There's just something about the feelings that surround you this time of year that makes me long for it all year and when it's finally here, wishing it would never go away. This Christmas season has been a little harder for Matt to get into because of the warmer weather, but when those nights are chilly, he feels it a little more! We both knew how much more Emma would love this Christmas and how exciting Christmas morning will be-although I'm pretty sure Matt and I are going to be more excited seeing her reactions than she is. Of course, she hasn't found a toy she hasn't added to her list on a daily basis. We are doing our best to make sure she gets what she REALLY wants, but we somehow managed to go above and beyond our budget for her. No real surprise there though!
Emma is still pretty uneasy with Santa up close. She loves seeing him on TV and every time you talk about him, she gets super excited. It's the whole idea of sitting on his lap that makes her unhappy. She will just love him from afar another Christmas, I guess!  
Christmas Eve, we will continue our tradition of having Roger and Katelyn over for dinner. This year, Mom, Rob, Christine and Elle will be coming as well. There will be lots of food and I'm sure a few pleas to open "Just ONE" present under the tree! Christmas Day will consist of Santa and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then, we will have to pry Emma out the door to head to three different grandparents houses.
Growing up, Christmas morning in our house always meant running and waking Mom and Dad to see what Santa brought us (we opened our other presents the night before after dinner) We always managed to have way to much candy for breakfast and then we headed off to Grandmommy's to load up on more goodies before having lunch and more presents at Grandma's house. Matt would have cinnamon rolls for breakfast and see what Santa brought at his house before he headed to King to spend the day with his family. Since we both have family in town, we want to make the trek to everyone's house so we can spend a little time with them all-even if we head home completely worn out!

Princess for a Day!

This weekend, one of Matt's fraternity brothers got married. They asked Emma to be their flower girl and she (as well as us!) were so excited and honored that they wanted her apart of their special day. We spent a lot of time talking this day up and were a little worried about what actually may happen. We arrived for the rehearsal on Friday and she had just fallen asleep before we arrived. Needless to say, she was not in the best mood. The rehearsal was some what of a disaster. I couldn't leave her side and she kept wanting to go sit with Matt in the pews. We knew we had a lot of work in store! Matt and Katie (bride and groom) were both so sweet to Emma and told us, multiple times, that they were just so happy she was here she didn't have to do anything she didn't want. But we were determined! Some how, some way, we were getting her down that aisle. At the rehearsal dinner, she made friends with the four year old ring bearer and they had fun at dinner. Katie gave Emma a Cinderella Barbie and a LOT of dum-dums to bribe her a little more. She was so excited with the suckers and doll and quickly started liking Katie!
Emma is infatuated with Princesses and all things girlie. So I came up with the idea to start calling Katie a Princess and telling her she had to walk down the aisle so that Katie could walk to her Prince Charming. Emma quickly corrected me with that one, saying "Daddy is Prince Charming!!" Sorry!!
Emma was going to be wearing a beautiful white dress and looked like a mini-bride herself. We knew she would love the dress and looking like Princess Katie even more. Before we got to the church, we stopped at Target and Matt ran in for reinforcements. He found the perfect Tinker Bell Barbie, goldfish, fruit snacks and some M&M's-all her favorites! Emma did get a nap this time, unfortunately she woke up just as we were  arriving and a little ill. It took a long time for her to settle down and I was convinced that I was going to have to run out of the Ladies Parlor with her kicking and screaming behind me. Matt was able to come up with one more idea-he promised her that if she walked down the aisle, she could play on the playground. Bingo!
I did finally manage to sneak out (I learned afterwards that she was completely fine after I left-go figure!!) I found Matt at a front pew armed with the goodies and we were ready. There was nothing to do at this point but pray she followed through. I can't tell you how nervous and anxious Matt and I were, waiting for her to appear. But then, there she was! And we both got a little emotional, but she was great!! She held hands with one of the maids-of-honor and walked with her flower ball (no petals allowed) and saw us and got really excited but continued walking to the front. She was sandwiched between Katie and the MOH. We couldn't always see her, but we saw her dress twirling from time to time. And I did manage to see her ask Abby when she could go to the playground :o)
After it was all over, we ran and found her and clapped and cheered and squeezed her telling her how proud we were. She was so happy to get Tinker Bell and couldn't wait to get to that playground!
For the rest of the night she would ask where the Princess was and wanting to go see Princess Katie. People would constantly come up to us and tell us how great she did and how impressed they were with her. They had NO idea the stress we felt and the relief when it was over!!

Here Come the Holidays!

As always, things have been busy busy around here! Hopefully I can remember all we've done!! The day I've waited 10 long years for finally came on Friday November 11. My 11-11-11 birthday and I was so excited!!! I knew we were having people over, but I didn't know all the details (or my presents!). My friend Amy was able to come down for the weekend from Chicago and we had a great time. That morning we went to Barnes and Nobles for story time, and Emma enjoys reading her own stories instead of listening to someone else reading to her. She loves going to see all the books, just not sitting and hearing someone else's stories! The party that night was so much fun and I am so thankful to all my friends and family that were able to celebrate with me!
Two quick weeks passed and it's turkey time! Elizabeth and Patrick and the kids came in town Tuesday evening. Elle came home with us for a sleepover and we headed over to Grandmommy's house first thing Wednesday morning and stayed alll day-somehow I was able to get Emma down for a little nap and we had pizza for dinner. All 26 of us!
Thursday was a blur of turkey, 'taters, sweets and family. We headed up to King for part one and there was enough food to feed 4 families-it just kept coming and coming! The weather couldn't have been more perfect and Emma had fun running around with Marley outside. Off to Gradmommy's we went, after Matt ripped his jeans playing batchie(??) ball, for round 2 and we got there just as they were about to say the blessing. Perfect timing! I didn't over do it at Nana's, so I was ready for some more turkey-Matt had to take a break for awhile. But you can only stay away from Bojangles turkeys for so long. If you've never had one, you MUST give them a try-they are so yummy!!
Saturday we took Emma to see Aurthur Christmas and she loved having popcorn and standing for most of the movie. After the movie, we picked out our huge tree and headed to dinner for Papa's birthday. Emma and Marley had SO much fun playing together. We've started a new family tradition of having new Christmas jammies for the kids the night we put up our tree. Hopefully we can continue this for many years!
Another tradition we started is our new Elf on the Shelf. She appeared Saturday afternoon and as luck would have it, CBS had an Elf on the Shelf special and we watched it hoping Emma would understand how it works. Before the movie, she wanted to hold the Elf, after the movie she would get close and then say "Don't touch!!" In case you aren't familiar, the Elf comes and lives at your house and reports back to Santa at night to tell how the children were and if you touch the Elf, they lose their magic. You also must come up with a name for your Elf. Emma decided to name hers "Doodle" and she keeps forgetting her name and calls her different things all day.
We had a little almost oops incident when we were looking at Doodle and she fell over when Emma turned her head-thankfully Emma didn't see her fall and I was able to get her readjusted without Emma seeing. Hopefully that won't happen again!!

 Tickle fest with Pop Pop!

 Playing with Anna on Thankgsiving

 I really wanted her to wear the piggie tails and she did NOT like it!!

 Check out our new tree!

 Jammies!

Meet Doodle

"Emma"dotes

Emma is growing up too fast and I wish there was a way to slow it down! But, since there is not, I have to try my best to catch all the cute things she says/does to document for her (and me) to look back on one day and laugh. I know they call them the terrible two's, but what about the trying, tiring three's?? Within the last few weeks my sweet, always listening, even-tempered child has turned into a maniac. Now, I know I shouldn't complain because it's really not THAT bad, but it is testing my patience for sure! She is trying to figure out her boundaries and seeing what she can and can't get away with. And that imagination, it is running wild and it is hilarious to listen to her play. She sings, calls "Grandad Dog", runs and hides, screams (Tylenol please!), and asks the same thing over and over and over. Today we had our first experience with Daddy saying no to something (which I heard) and she runs and asks me instead. There she is with those boundaries! That was just my little tangent-here are the Emma stories we all love!

We were getting ready for the day and Luke was dressed in Emma's room on the floor. I made his bottle, but had to let Bella out to eat first. When I came back, I found Emma in her room feeding Luke his bottle! She said "He was crying, 'cuz he was hungry so I got him his bottle. Mommy, can you hold it so I can get a burp cloth?" I almost cried!

I started decorating for Christmas while Emma was napping and when she got up and saw everything, she inhaled a deep breath and said "It's wonderful!!"

Luke and Emma were laying on our bed and Luke was hungry and fussing. Emma wanted to help him feel better, so she started singing a song. He didn't stop crying and she said" What's wrong? You don't like that song, I'll sing another one!" And she started singing a different song for him

Matt and Emma went to go pick up dinner and Emma told him "Fast Daddy! Christmas music!"

She calls our bed the "big-a-bed"

Every time she sees Santa on tv, she gets SO excited and starts hollering "SANTA!!! IT'S SANTA!!"

Any toy she sees now that she likes, she says she wants it for Christmas. I think we have most of the toys at Target and Toys R Us on her wish list now

More Halloween Fun

I just got emails with pictures from the school carnival and the Fall Fest at Rob's office and thought I would share! I also don't think I said what Emma's costume was-her original costume was supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood. She wore that one to school; it was VERY cold the day of Rob's work fest and I wanted Luke to wear something warmer. I searched around the attic and found Emma's old monkey costume and then came across one of Elle's old costumes. I'm not sure if it's a butterfly or some sort of bug, so we call it a Buggy costume. It is a lot warmer than the LRRH, and she picked that one to wear Trick or Treating-smart girl!

Trick or Treat!!

Halloween is the perfect holiday in this house! Emma has inherited her mother's super sweet tooth and loves all candy! She had a little taste of it at her school carnival and then at a fall fest at Rob's work. Our house has been stocked with candy for a week or so prior to Halloween. We live in a neighborhood with no kids and zero trick or treaters, so we knew we wouldn't be staying home. Although Emma is almost three, this was going to be her first "official" Halloween. She was about 9 months her first Halloween and we were just going to take her around with Elle, but it was rainy and cold so we axed that plan and stayed at Dad's and helped hand out candy. Last year, we were out of town for a long weekend and she literally slept through all of Halloween. This year we knew would be different!  It wasn't supposed to rain and we were always asking what to say to get the candy! Since Mom's house is so close to Dad's, we decided to trick or treat in their neighborhoods. Katelyn met at our house and Papa came by to see the costumes. Then we headed out to meet Christine and Elle at Mom and Rob's. I knew it was going to be cold and Luke was going to be in the wagon, so I loaded it up with tons of blankets and we were ready to roll! Emma was sleepy and took a little bit for her to get going, but once someone gave her a sucker her night turned around! The girls had a great time running from one house to the next and Emma came home with a LOT of candy!!

 Papa "hiding" behind Batman

 Emma after getting woken up from her cat nap.

 Loaded up and ready to go!