2011....Such a Great Year

We ended 2011 by going over to a friends house. She has had a group of us over for the past several years. We took chocolate chip cookies to add to the mix of food that would be there. We talked and played games. Emma was such a sweet girl. She never even fussed. She loved playing with the game cards. Scott, Emma, and I left around 11:30 to get her to sleep. Then Scott and I were able to watch the ball drop together.

This has been such a great year. We have been blessed in so many ways. The year started with us having a beautiful baby girl who has been such a blessing to us. Scott and I were able to go to Boston for a week with some good friends of ours. Emma stayed with my mom during that time. Then we experienced a week at the beach as a family. In July, I gained a great sister in law. I also started blogging this year. We experienced so many great things with Emma including her first Christmas! We have been so blessed this year. I can't wait to experience life with Emma in 2012!

Sweet girl playing under the bar stool while I was baking cookies.

Her Pink Caddy

Emma got a pink car from her Susi and Papi for Christmas. They came to visit us today. Gma Mary, Peyton, and Makayli came too. We took her outside to let her ride in her new car and Scott ran inside to get the camera. So glad he did! Emma was so relaxed in the car. She loves being outside anyways, so being outside and riding in her car made it that much better.

You can see her two top teeth that are coming through.

Four Christmases

Yes, we are like the movie. We have four different Christmases, but we did not do them all in one day like the movie. Our Christmases started with our annual Christmas Eve breakfast with my mom. We all went to eat at Pearly's and then headed to her house to exchange gifts. We enjoyed our time together. Emma and Uncle Brandon enjoyed playing on the keyboard together.

Then we headed to Moultrie to have Christmas with Scott's parents. Susan was busy cooking in the kitchen when we arrived. We hung out for awhile and then ate dinner. It was so good. I felt like it was Thanksgiving all over again. Mr. Joe always begins by reading Luke 2 and then we exchanged gifts with them. Emma got her a pink car that she loves!!

Joe and Susan did little gag gifts in our stockings with something that represented us.
It was cute. I got sunglasses since I love going to the beach!

We came home and opened our Christmas Eve pajamas and a few gifts to each other and got ready for Santa.

We woke up on Christmas morning ready to have our family Christmas before church. Of all mornings, Emma wanted to sleep in. We ended up having to wake her. It was priceless seeing Emma's face as she crawled into the living room. Her eyes got so big. Thankfully we have it on video. She loved her tent!! We had to take it back after Christmas because it was messed up and we got one we liked better. Then we got ready to go to church. What better place to be on Christmas morning than church. It was such a good message.

Then we came home so I could cook a hash brown casserole to take to my dad's. Our tradition with him is to eat breakfast type foods. We had our casserole, a grits casserole my brother made, ham, sausage, rolls, and then we always have rice. It is a tradition passed down from one of my mom's family members. Emma got this Violet bear that talks to Emma and we programmed it to say and spell her name.

She loved the cheesy puffs my dad put in her stocking!!

Christmas night, Scott's mom, Larry, and Chris came over to our house. We cooked spaghetti. Emma loved getting her dino that she can ride and then walk behind.

It was a very busy two days and it wore Emma out, but we had a good time with each family member. As Emma gets older, maybe next year, we want to start doing a birthday party for Jesus. It is a great reminder of what Christmas is really ALL about!!

Emma See Emma Do

Emma is really watching what Scott and I do and is trying to mimic somethings. She sees us throwing toys to Cali and just recently will get her toys and try to give them to Cali. She is also doing great with giving me things if I hold my hand out to her. She will share her stacking cups with me. The other day Scott was hugging one of her dolls and he gave it back to Emma. She then hugged the doll the same way. I caught it on camera tonight at my mom's where she was hugging the snowman. So cute!!

She sees us talking on the phone too or sees us play talking on her phone and she is trying to use her rattle as a phone. The phone she has folds too easy for her to use it as we use phones right now.

I love watching her learn and grow!!

Wonderful Wednesday

We had a wonderful Wednesday night at my mom's. We had Christmas with Sandra at my mom's before she heads home for Christmas.

Mom cooked dressing, green bean casserole, cream corn, and got a turkey. Then we had apple pie and ice cream. Delicious!!! Mom picked up some real Wisconsin cheese when she went a few weeks back and Scott thought it was the best thing ever!!

We opened presents from Sandra and she opened the ones we got her. We got a snowman plate because she knows how much I love snowmen. She loves purple so we gave her a purple scarf and Brandon and Krista gave her a purple pillow.

 Emma loved opening her first Christmas present. She got the cutest little shirt, a picture frame that says, "Miss January", and a rattle. She loved the cute snowman box more than anything!! She also loved the wrapping paper that got thrown down on the floor. 

We then watched XFactor. It was my first night watching it. We really enjoyed ourselves over at my moms tonight.

Playing in the Kitchen

Emma loves to crawl to this door and pat on the window. She started doing it when we would let Cali outside. She would pat on the window and get so excited that Cali was on the other side. Last night though, Cali was inside, but Emma still enjoyed looking out into the back yard.

I was trying to get her to look at me while she was still sitting in front on the door, but she wanted to get close to the camera. This girl knows what a camera is thanks to her daddy!!

Then we moved into the kitchen part where she played with her toys while we cooked dinner. She loves books!! She also likes the little remote on the floor unless she sees the real remote and then she wants it instead. The snowman turns and sings to music. Emma loves to dance along with him.

This is her sick/sad face. She has had a runny nose and cough for a few days. I took her to the doctor and we have medicine, but it pretty much having to run its course. I hope she is all better by this busy weekend. We hate to see our sweet girl not feeling good.

Our Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas card.

 Scott made the design for something at church and we liked it, so we decided to use it as our Christmas card. It means more to us since he made it! The picture of all three of us is the same swing where we took maternity pictures just a year ago. Sweet memories!!!

Don't Let Him Fool You

This is my last week of teaching until after New Year's! My school always divides into teams the last week and a group of teachers or staff provide lunch for everyone else. My day to bring something is tomorrow. I signed up to bring two sweet treats...one is the Secret Santa cookies which I will make tonight after church and the other are Dipped Pretzels which I also made for our Sunday School Christmas brunch today.

 

 We came home and Emma went to take a nap in her crib so I decided to go ahead and make the dipped pretzels before going to church. I asked Scott to help me....I told him he could be in charge of the sprinkles. He could decorate them however he wanted. Don't let him fool you by saying he didn't enjoy it......he did!!

 

 He helped the process go by much faster. He even got to decorate one pretzel just for him the way he wanted!! They are very easy to make. You need the big pretzel rods, some almond bark, and sprinkles. I always do vanilla almond bark but chocolate would probably be good too! Dip the pretzel into the bark, lay on some wax paper, sprinkle, and leave to dry. We enjoyed our little date in the kitchen while sweet girl napped.

 

Here is the finished project! I hope the teachers tomorrow will love them.

All Things Santa

I had my Sunday School Ladies Night last night. We were to bring something either salty or sweet and a wrapped ornament to swap. I decided to make these cute Santa hats. They turned out so cute....and you can't go wrong with brownies, icing, and strawberries. I will be making these again soon!

I also decided to make these Secret Santa cookies because they are so easy and yummy!!! I hunted all over town for Peanut Butter cookie dough. I finally found some at Publix...where I probably should have started looking in the first place. You place a mini snicker bar in the middle of the dough to get the nice surprise when you bite into it.

Emma and Scott had daddy/daughter time while I was at the party. She loves to crawl up next to the tree and sit. She looks like she was up to something in this picture.

 She also loves to try and touch the lights. 

You can also tell in this picture that she got a hold of one of the presents. I think that is one of Scott's. He is dying to open one, but he is going to have to wait a little longer. 

She is such a sweet and easy going baby.

HO HO NOOOOO!!!

Emma's doctors office brings in reindeer and Mr. and Mrs. Clause every year for the kids to come and see. We took Emma right before I went to my ornament swap tonight. Here is the picture I took of the reindeer with my phone so it is not the best.

Scott took this great picture with his camera. There were two reindeer for the kids to see. Their antlers were huge!!!

We then waited in line for awhile to see Santa Clause. She did not want to sit in his lap at the mall so I gave her my phone to distract her. It worked long enough for Scott to get this picture. You can see in her eyes she is sensing something not right. She probably felt all the beard on her ears and neck.

And then she lost it!!! She threw down my phone and went to screaming. There were about 50 or more people in the room watching. I was determined to get some pictures of her and Santa even if it was one of her screaming. She will look back and laugh one day! But Scott and I said no more Santa pictures this year. We don't want to completely freak her out even more than she looks in this picture.

Then we decided to get one of her looking at the camera, which meant someone had to get in with her. I don't know how to work Scott's camera that great so that left me. She was much better with her mama and those two fingers in her mouth!!