Weekend outdoors

We've had beautiful weather the last few days and have tried to take advantage of every minute of it. On Saturday, Emelyn woke up bright and early (why does she do this on weekends, but not weekdays? I'd like to think it's because she knows she has the day with both of us and doesn't want to miss a minute of it. :) Since she was wide awake (you'll see in the pics that Jake and I don't look so wide awake!) we decided to stroll around the Farmer's Market when it opened at 7, followed by a trip to Rick's Bakery to share a "Pig in the Blanket."

On a note with food - in the last 3-4 days Emelyn decided that she would no longer eat baby food - she just quit cold turkey. We're starting to see a very strong willed, independent personality emerge. She literally will spit out any pureed peas that I give her, yet if I put a big serving of steamed peas on her tray, she'll eat every last one of them. Now I'm not sure what all to feed her - so far all I've given her is grapes, bananas, cantaloupe and peaches for fruits, steamed peas and carrots along with grilled potatoes for veggies, and then scrambled eggs and grilled chicken breast for meat. Any ideas on what to give her to round out her food groups? Oh yeah - and she still eats cheerios along with banana bread or any other kind of bread we're eating.

Now on to pics!

Wide awake at 6:40am ready to go!

A tired mom with a bored little girl that's ready to go
Wanting to touch the flowers...

Then gets scared of them...

Still intrigued by the flowers...

Mom and Emmy enjoying the flowers

Such beautiful flowers in season

Trying a bite of the "blanket"

Tasted funny but she wanted more!

Here's one from tonight. It's been cooler at nights so we got out some fleece pj's for Emelyn - how cute is she?

Lovin' Laundry!

Jake got a taste of what it's like having Emelyn "help" with laundry last night. As you can see/hear she LOVES to help out!

New phase??

In the last post, there was a picture of Emelyn eating my sister's turkey wrap after wanting nothing to do with the yummy turkey tetrazinni we had bought her in a cute little jar. :) We really struggled with eating this weekend - she didn't want hardly anything except chunks of bananas, grapes and peaches. I wasn't sure if this was the start of picky eating, if she was sick, if she was just in a new place... who knows. I just let her eat anything she would take so that she would get something in her, hoping that I wasn't starting a trend of her getting what she wants if she refuses to eat what is offered. Either way, the pickiness has ended since we came home, thankfully! In fact, it appears we may have entered a new phase - table food! Monday night we had grilled potatoes and carrots for supper and she picked up and ate some when we placed chunks on her tray. Then last night we had spaghetti and although I had already fed her some pureed carrots, she wanted some spaghetti and actually ate quite a bit! It will be so nice if this continues.

To entertain Emelyn while I change her diaper, I let her play with her new toothbrush - which she loves!

Getting the top and bottom all by herself!
And from another angle... good thing she thinks it's fun to brush...

...since she loves graham crackers and cheerios!

Eating some of mom's spaghetti

Valerie's Wedding

Wow - what a group of fun and busy last few days! I have tons of pics and don't know how to choose which ones to share so *warning* this may be a long post! Here's a few thoughts I want to share first:

• My birthday was wonderful - thanks for all of your well wishes! I turned 25 on Thursday and spent the day cleaning the house and packing, driving 5.5 hours with my 2 favorite people, then dressing up to celebrate Valerie's upcoming wedding with the girls in my family (minus Melissa and Megan) along with the women in Valerie's new family.
• Valerie was BEAUTIFUL, Justin was handsome. They are such a cute couple. The wedding was perfect, the weather couldn't have been better for a breathtaking outdoors reception. It was neat how everything worked out perfectly. I don't think I saw Valerie without a huge smile once this weekend!
• Jake's parents drove up to meet us for the weekend. It was so nice to be able to see them and they were a huge help with Emelyn. Emelyn had a great time too - she has always been shy around our families before - not this weekend!
• Friday we were able to sneak away and eat lunch with some dear friends who are back in the states for a short while before returning to Ecuador where they are missionaries. They taught Jake and I in our first "couples" Bible Study when we were just starting to "serious" date and think about marriage. They were designed by God to teach us - she has a Master's in Family counseling, and he is an avid sports fan and engineer. It was so nice to catch up!!
• The wedding was a country wedding - complete with an antique tractor for the couple to ride off in. Justin spent many hours on Saturday tweaking the tractor to get it working perfectly just for Valerie because she really wanted to ride off in it. The groomsmen were trying to get it started before Valerie and Justin ran out of the church and my grandpa (the one that fixed my freezer and dryer over the phone) offered to help and showed the guys exactly what to do (apparently you have to start the tractor off of one tank then switch it over to the main tank of gas as soon as it's going??) The guys didn't seem to think he knew what he was talking about and the tractor died right before Justin and Valerie came out of the church. I was a little annoyed - mainly because I know Justin spent so much time getting it to work just for my little sister - and also because these guys didn't think my grandpa (who grew up driving these tractors, has worked on them, and recently restored one) knew what he was talking about. Apparently 70+ years of farming experience meant nothing to these guys. Of course it all worked out and there was a back up tractor.
• Emelyn was a flower girl and did a great job. She and Janessa were pulled down the aisle in a wagon by Joe and Kayden. They were all adorable!
• One final thought - as I watched my dad walk Valerie down the aisle (with misty eyes :) and later as I watched them swing around the dance floor to "My Girl" I couldn't help but see a beautiful reminder of just how amazing God is. All 4 of us sisters are now married. We were all raised under the same roof, same parenting style, same school, same food etc... and yet as I looked around at each of us during that dance I saw four very different women each with a completely different husband and each very happy and in love yet the four of us are very close despite our differences. It reminded me that I can do everything in my power to try to be the best parent possible, but ultimately God knows who Emelyn is, what her personality is, what her gifts are and what skills she will or will not have. My job is to let God mold her into the person He has made her to be and to prayerfully assist in any way possible! Such a relief in a world where we're told to read every day to our kids, nurse them for 1+ years, make all food from scratch, give them best education possible and enroll them in every sport and camp possible ... no these things are not bad and I know they have evidence to show that they help kids, HOWEVER, ultimately, these things do not make Emelyn who she is - God does.
• Okay - now on to pictures!!!

Valerie Thursday night at Della Voce with the girls

Valereie and I
Dana, Valerie and I

Two families

Jake and Emelyn at Little Apple Brewery getting ready to meet our friends for lunch. We have finally changed the diaper bag for a back pack and it's so much easier to use!

Emelyn wouldn't eat any of the baby food I bought for her all weekend, but when she sat with Melissa (who was also at the restaurant the same time we were) Ems helped herself to Mel's wrap

Playing with Grandpa Cersovsky

Laughing with Grandma too!

Rehearsal

Getting Emelyn in her dress for the wedding

Family picture after the wedding

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!?!

Getting in the back up tractor

Grandpa showing the guys what to do

At the receotion

Of course, my brother's wanted to make sure no ememies showed up :)

First dance

Dad and Valerie dancing away

Aunt Kathy helped out with Emelyn after Jake's parents left. Emelyn snuggled right in and fell asleep.

Of course I have many more pics but will just put them on facebook. It feels so good to be home again - Emelyn and I have no plans for today so it's been nice to relax and unpack as we feel like it. Have a good week!

Happy Birthday

Emelyn and I would like to wish Alisha a Happy Birthday! You are the best mom and wife anyone could ask for. We love you!

Mommy's little helper

Not much has been going on here, but it's been a week since I posted pictures so here are some recent ones. It is so neat to see Emelyn's little personality emerge. She has a super cheesey grin and is such an outgoing little ham when she wants to be. Last week at the grocery store, she wouldn't stop smiling at EVERYONE. Then I went to my old office to say hello and she smiled at EVERYONE again. That night, Ruth came over for supper, and once again, she wouldn't stop smiling. I sure hope she'll smile this weekend for Grandpas and Grandmas! Today I went to the dentist for my 6 month cleaning and she went with me and gave a big toothy grin to everyone who walked by. My dentist gave her her first toothbrush too. It looks like a crayon and makes fun noises when she shakes it. Hopefully she'll get use to a toothbrush now and think it's fun to brush her teeth!
Emelyn has also been quite the little helper lately. We do pretty much everything together and she's decided to pitch in. Let me tell you, it's a huge help - that is, help in giving me more exercise since I have to bend over to pick everything up that she tosses on the floor. :)

Emelyn telling Ruth a very serious story

Pals
Helping me take clothes out of the dryer

Getting the rolling pin out for mom (even though I really didn't need it, along with every other dish in the cabinet!)

On a side note, this rolling pin was my Grandma Emelyn's - maybe someday it'll be passed on to Emelyn. In the mean time, Emmy thinks it's pretty neat that it rolls.

Texting daddy to say hello and that she misses him as she sits in his chair *hehehe*

Trying to lay her head down - she does this when she's almost done eating to let me know she's ready for her morning nap

She loves her blueberries!

She's also been sucking on her forefinger or thumb a lot latley - tooth #6 still isn't in and it's been bothering her

Helping put dishes in the dishwasher

....and yet another load of laundry... seems this is a never-ending chore around here

Tomorrow we leave for Valerie and Justin's wedding... can't wait!

10 Month Video

I haven't posted a video in a while, so here's a "10-month" video clip showing what Emmy's into these days. As you can see below - EVERYTHING. :)

Also, here are a few extra pictures from the last few weeks:

Emelyn and dad (aka her "jungle gym")

I wish you could see her face here - she was trying to get away from Jake as fast as she could but had no where to go.
Cheesey smiles
Caught drinking out of my cup

Even after she spilled it, she kept drinking

And on a side note - my favorite bargain so far this week from Walgreens: For $2.68 (that's with tax!) I bought 2 - 5 lb. bags of Domino sugar, 2 big bottles of Listerine Smart Rinse, 2 tubes of Neosporin and a big bottle of Jergens lotion. I know, you're probably thinking I'm crazy for buying such random stuff, but when I can actually MAKE money buying Neosporin and Listerine, I do it to offset the cost of sugar and lotion - two things I actually needed. I'm thinking my sister may be able to use the Listerine and Neosporin - have I mentioned on here before that they have 5 kids now - and possibly two more any day now? I'm sure the super cool listerine and neosporin will be needed in her house! :)

10 Months

Jake getting Emelyn ready for her first bike ride

"This looks like fun, mom!"

Ready to test it out

Jake closing the mesh cover - ready to go!

Emelyn is 10 months old today and I'm not sure that anything has changed from one month ago; I still want to write a summary so that we don't forget what she was like at this age:

• Emmy has 5 teeth fully in, with the 6th visible but not through yet
• She couch surfs like a pro and can stand by herself for a few seconds before realizing what is going on.
• She talks in words only she can understand and we feel like she understands more words we say everyday. For instance, I can say "Are you hungry?" and she'll throw everything to the side (yes throw), start whining (sounds like she's going to die any second) and crawls over to us without hesitation.
• She loves cheerios and anything she can feed herself - although we limit this. It seems the fun part of feeding yourself is getting to squish the food between your fingers, not acutally eating it which makes for little food going in and a huge mess everywhere.
• She still doesn't seem to be able to tolerate milk products. At first we thought it was coincidence, but over and over each time she has a bite of yogurt or any kind of cheese on her food it never fails that she seems sick the next day. Not sure what we're going to do about this yet, since it seems almost all foods have some sort of dairy in them!
• 2 naps a day - 9am and 1pm - or around there
• 3 full meals a day and nursing 4 times too.
• Won't take a bottle - only her sippy cup or else likes to drink out of a straw.
• She loves soft textures. Last month I think I wrote about her blanket. The other day we had a soft fleece blanket out on the floor with a similar softness, and she immediately laid her head down on it. She also has a touch and feel book, and she rubs the "dog" and "rabbit" fur on her cheek to feel it. So cute.
• Oh yeah - when she gets done eating, she licks her lips, smacks them, then lets out a satisfied sigh. Funny, funny, funny!
• She is so much fun - we never dreamed a little one could be the joy that she is!