Finally!!

Hey everyone! Is your world as crazy as ours? I'm sure it is. Why is that? I've been so frustrated for the last couple weeks because I've REALLY been wanting to blog. How is it that finding a free hour (or 2 or 3) is so stinkin' difficult. Something's not right....

Anyway, lots going on.... LOTS has changed since our last post. I'll give you a few updates, then I'll get to the Emma pics which is, I know, what most of you check our blog for anyway! :o)


HOUSE UPDATE:
Yeah, so house shopping really is not so fun! Overall, it's pretty discouraging. Out of all the houses (and we saw A LOT!), we never really found what we were looking for. Or actually, a better way to say it is...we never really found what we were looking for that was within our price range.
I think we've decided to buy the house we live in now and just do some remodeling and additions. We're pretty excited. It's going to be a long process, I'm sure! And probably a huge headache to live with all the construction for months and months. We're talking with different contractors and getting bids and stuff right now. Hopefully, the ball will be rolling by the next time I have a chance to blog. :o)

SCHOOL UPDATE:
I only have 11 more days of teaching! I'm actually starting to get a little sad. I really do enjoy it, and it's been a really, really great year! I'm dreading packing up my room! Yuck! Actually, it won't be quite as bad as my move from Connally because I'm not taking all of my teaching stuff, but I do have a lot of personal things that have ended up at school over the years (and I will take certain teaching things that are mine that I will want to keep for our own kids).

As far as my MCC class, I've been done for nearly 2 weeks now with my Biology class. I loved it and hope that my future classes are as enjoyable! I'm taking Anatomy & Physiology 1 and Psychology during the first summer semester. I'm super excited because the way my classes worked out, I have a break for Summer 2. Then in the Fall, I'll take 3 classes: Anatomy & Physiology 2, Microbiology, and Human Growth & Development. I'm really excited about my schedule in the Fall...I got all 3 of my classes on MWF and I'll have T/Th from 9-2 while Emma is at Parent's Day Out to do my studying. (Unless I end up having to get a job to help with finances, then that schedule will be stressful and pretty much stink!) Then I'll apply to nursing school and hopefully start Jan. '08.

GENERAL UPDATE:
Brett and I are doing great! Brett is pretty busy with church stuff lately. With all this crazy rain we've been having, leaks at the church have been out of control. Seems like either him or I have some kind of meeting or commitment several nights a week. We love our weekends together; they give us a chance to recoup, rest, and focus on each other! He's got all kinds of work-related trips coming up. I'm thinking Emma and I will be visiting family and friends during those times! :o)

EMMA JOY UPDATE:
WOW! This sweet baby girl is growing up right before our eyes. We're amazed at what a big girl she is now! She is so much fun! I've probably said this before, but every stage of her life becomes my new favorite age. I remember thinking when she was a newborn, "wow, I love how sweet and dependent she is now....this is my favorite age!" Then, she'd grow and change a little and I'd think, "wow, can she be any cuter?!?! It can't get any better than this....this is my favorite age!" And it continued...3 months, 4 months, 5, 6, 7.....and now she is 14 months!! I REALLY, REALLY think THIS is my favorite age!! I feel like I'm really getting to know her now....her little personality is becoming so evident. She is so much fun!! I look forward to getting off of work each day so that I can go pick her up and play with her and take her outside and watch her learn new things and read books to her and laugh with her. Not to sound too cheesy, but I wish there was some way to "bottle her up" and save all of these sweet memories....video and pictures just aren't the same!! And my memory stinks!! I find myself already forgetting what she was like just months ago (how will I remember years from now?) And I'm sad because I can't remember when exactly she started crawling and when she said her first word, etc. Everything seems to be a blur! I had such good intentions of writing everything down and keeping up with it all (I even have a journal that I'm writing TO Emma telling her all about herself), but it has literally been MONTHS since I've written anything down. And now I'm so far behind that I've gotten discouraged and think "well, what's the point now?" Anyway, enough rambling....I'll start with the pictures of our little cutie! ENJOY! :o)


OUTSIDE PICS:
Emma LOVES to be outside!! We play in the front yard with her wagon, ball, and bubbles. We play in the backyard with her swing and with Jeb. We go to the park and play on all the cool stuff there. We take walks daily on the sidewalk in our neighborhood. We went to the zoo again a couple weekends ago. She loved looking at all the animals and watching all the other kids.

Viking Hills Park
By the way, months ago I promised to post a good "teeth picture" to show you. Way back then, she was our little "snaggle-tooth" (she was so cute when she just had 1 and 2 teeth in the front) Anyway, I never could get a good picture showing her teeth. Now, she had 9 teeth (I think). Honestly, I haven't been brave enough to stick my finger in there to count in the last few weeks...she bites down REALLY HARD! Seems like she is constantly working on more teeth, so biting down on stuff really feels good to her.
ANYWAY, back to the point...the picture on the right of her swinging shows several of her teeth really good. You have to click on the picture to enlarge it, and then click the back arrow to get back to the blog. (P.S. There's several cute pics below that you might want to enlarge too! :o)



This is the neighbor's little car, but Emma likes to "borrow" it whenever they leave it outside. The neighbor boy is 2 weeks older than Emma; they like to play together. His mom and I found out we were pregnant within weeks of each other. It was fun to go thru pregnancy with her and now to watch our kids play together.
Emma is so content to just SIT in the car...you don't have to roll it around for her...she just wants to SIT in it! She honks the little horn and holds the steering wheel. But her favorite part about the car is to play with the door....open, closed, open, closed, open...You wouldn't believe how long she can stand there and do that! She gets such a kick out of it, and you can tell she is SOOO proud of herself. I secretly hope everytime we go outside that the neighbors put the toy car in their garage because no matter how long she plays with it (5 minutes or 30) she always cries when it's time to go inside.


Here's Emma walking her dog on our sidewalk (dog is one of her new words, by the way. She calls all animals "dog" though...cats, birds, etc)
The second picture is one of the neighbor girls. She had fun pulling Emma in her wagon one day.


zoo pics

WHY BUY TOYS???
This is a mesh bag that Brett's mom uses to store all of Emma's toys in at her house. Emma usually just dumps all the toys out and climbs into the bag! It's hilarious!





Our house is officially "BABY-PROOF."
Cabinets are now a pain to get into because they have a lock on them from the inside so that she can't pull everything out anymore. Fun stuff!




A CUTE "SICK" PIC:
Baby Girl had Scarlet Fever recently (which just means she had strep throat and a rash all over her body). She never even had a fever, and she acted fine the whole time. Our only clue that something was wrong was the rash. The doctor looked at the rash and said "it's probably nothing, but let's do a throat swab just to be sure." Well, it came back positive. After a week on antibiotics, the rash was gone. Here she is drinking her medicine. She LOVED it! She'd stick her tongue up into the little hole trying to get every last drop. Then she'd cry when we had to take it away. What a stinker! :o)




MISC. PICS OF OUR LITTLE CUTIE!


Bedtime! (yeah, right!)


Easter candy from Grammie


Look at this big girl in a FRONT-FACING carseat!!
(actually, she is STILL not quite 20 pounds, but we figured she was close enough)


What a ham!


CRAZY WEATHER PICS:
Just thought I'd throw these in...


SNOW!! Can't remember (of course) when this was exactly...I think sometime around Easter. Anyway, it was really late in the year to get snow....especially for TX!!

After the monsoons we've been having in Central TX, our back yard was like a lake. You can't even see things that good in this pic. but the rain is pouring under to back fence so fast. It was like this for days afterwards.

'TIL NEXT TIME!!! :o)