Life has gotten in the way...

...of a decent post!!
I love being the mom of a busy toddler! I love saying that~toddler~not baby. I tell you what, my Emma Grace is one amazing toddler. Tantrums and all! She is walking more and more independently these days. It is so funny to walk into a room and see her standing up all by herself and then walk over to me. I love it! I love how she falls and gets right back up again and keeps going (life lesson #572 learned). I love how she is SO interested in everything around her...more than being interested in her mama (although she still prefers a visual of mama wherever we are). She loves to be outside, to swing, to read, to sing, to play, to talk, to learn.....she loves being a toddler...a sweet toddler, and I love watching her~learning from her. She has discovered her free will...she can protest when she doesn't want to do something or is not allowed to do something she wants to do...I love it because that is a part of being human. This is how God made us....and this is why we need Jesus Christ. I pray for Emma every night...for the day she accepts Jesus as her savior. I pray I will be there for that. All I can do now (besides pray) is tell her all about Jesus and start making that firm foundation...and cultivating that soil in her heart. She is my little sheep. Ultimately it is her decision and it will be by the work of the Holy Spirit in her heart....oh my sweet Emma....I pray for that day!

Train a child in the way she should go, and when she is old she will not turn from it.
Proverbs 22:6

I do plan on posting some pictures in my next post....Life pictures! parks, babyshowers, cousins, etc.! What a great life we live!

I wish my hair did this...

...when it's humid outside!

So she DID get some genes from me!

I was going through some pictures yesterday and found this one of me and Jess (my sister). Emma chokes everything like I am Jess in the picture. I showed Tim the picture to show him how I was choking Jess and he had to do a double take, literally. He said "who is that in the picture?!"...I told him it was me...and look how I am choking Jess, I wonder where Emma gets that from. Tim said "I thought that was Emma!!" I was not even paying attention to how I looked...but once I looked at my face I could not believe how much Emma looks like ME!!!!! Since birth Emma has been her father's child....but now....I don't know....maybe she is her mother's child. What do you think?

Just for clarification, the first picture is Emma and the second is me :)

Emma and Mommy saying 'Hi' to Aunt B

Aunt B is my younger sister who is over in Japan for a year or so. We miss her so much!!! We made this video to say 'Hi' (we also included a few of Emma's "tricks").

Enjoy...
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Our Hope Endures

This song is amazing. It is by Natalie Grant (check her out: http://www.nataliegrant.com/) I praise the Lord my life has been un-eventful and calamity-free for the most part--unlike some people in my life. When calamity does strike I will cling to this song. I just wanted to share this with anyone who stopps by my little corner of the internet...I pray it blesses you!

You would think only So much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once

And you assume that this One has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here

[Chorus:]
Sometimes the sun Stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky Rains night after night
When will it clear

But our hope endures The worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our hope is unchanged

How do we comprehend Peace within pain
Our joy at a good man's wake
Walk a mile with a woman Whose body is torn
With illness But she marches on

[Chorus]

Sometimes the sun Stays hidden for years

Sometimes the sky Rains night after night

When will it clear

But our hope endures The worst of conditions

It's more than our optimism

Let the earth quake

Our hope is unchanged

Emanuel, God is with us
El Shaddai, all sufficient

Emanuel, God is with us

El Shaddai, all sufficient

Emanuel, God is with us

El Shaddai, all sufficient

We never walk alone
This is our hope
Our hope endures The worst of conditions
It's more Than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Let the earth quake
Let the earth quake
Our hope is unchanged

"This very honest lyric was written for a woman who was struggling greatly with her battle of cancer. Life so often doesn't make sense and I can so relate with the Psalmist when he wonders why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. But our hope endures the worst of conditions. We serve an everlasting, all-knowing, all-sufficient God, our El-Shaddai, our Emmanuel, our only Hope in this life." - Natalie Grant

16 Month birthday and she decided it was time to walk!

Yep...she did it! She took her first steps tonight...and I caught them on video (well, the very first three steps were right before the video...but I didn't know she decided it was time to walk)! After we took this video, all she wanted to do was walk! (Can you tell I'm excited, I'm using lots of '!'s')! This was right before bed time, but we got up to about 5-7 steps per walk! I am so proud of my Emma...she is such a big girl! I can't wait for tomorrow for her to practice her new skill--I wonder what this is going to do for our night tonight--every time she learns a new skill it messes with her sleep--but that is okay...I am just so happy she took her first steps :)

Enjoy the video :)


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What Emma does when she wants Mommy off the computer...

...and playing with her!

Ergo baby carrier giveaway

Check it out here:

http://twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.blogspot.com/2009/02/ergobaby-carrier-backpack-and-front.html

And here:

http://delectiblemommies.blogspot.com/2009/03/ergobaby-review-giveaway.html

I want an Ergo so bad....!!

Jack and Emma

As most of you know I love comparison shots. Here is one of Emma and Jack. The first is from July 2008 (Emma 8 months and Jack 15 months) and the second is yesterday, March 2009 (Emma 16 months--close to the same age as Jack in the first picture and Jack 23 months.--almost 2!) They are growing up so fast :)

My Emma

Just a quick update on the #1 girl in my life. I wish she could stay this age forever! She is SO much fun right now. Everything is new and exciting and she LOVES to learn. She is little miss chatter box and loves to make us laugh. She will do just about anything to get a chuckle from Daddy. Her list of words has probably doubled since my last update...we really just have to ask her to say something once and she's got it. She is just amazing.

Our bedtime routine has always been the same. We go upstairs at 7:30 p.m. Brush teeth, read two books (second one always being Good Night Moon), turn on fan, turn on bubble machine and turn off light (which Emma does..and loves doing). Then we rock in the rocking chair. Well, the past few nights she has talked my ear off in the rocking chair. Normally it takes me 20 minutes--30 minutes MAX to get her to sleep...well, with all her talking...we are going on 45 minutes or so. I actually don't mind it because she is SO darn cute! She will point out my parts on my face and tell me what they are, she will say kitty cat and meow over and over...but the cutest thing is she will hold her buddy (blanket made by Gram for all the grand babies--Emma sleeps with it) and say buddy, buddy, buddy over and over and LOVE on it and hug it. I am going to try to record our bed time routine one day and get all this chatter right before bed. Finally she has started asking for her juice right before falling asleep. She will look at me and say juice, juice, juice (sounds JUST like juice--"s" and all) until I get her some (everything in her sippy is juice...be it milk, juice or water). So she will gulp down a whole sippy and then she is ready for sleep. She is so cute I tell ya! Also, since she was three months old, Emma has slept through the night...that lasted until she turned 1 year. Since turning 1, she will wake one to two times a night 4-5 times a week. I did not know why she was doing this...but just went with the flow. She always woke up happy and well-rested. Well, the last three nights she has slept through the night! I never thought I would be so excited about her sleeping through the night after accomplishing it at 3 months of age....but the same thing I keep telling myself...it's a PHASE! Everything is a phase with kids I am finding out. I will take PHASE'S any day...as long as I have my baby in my arms...not many women get to say the same thing. I am blessed!

Well...that's it for an update..short but informative...right?

Here are a few pictures:

Can you see the molar :)

Daddy gave emma a mohawk using the food grease she put in it from dinner and his spit! How nice :)

I guarantee you she was looking at the kitty cat saying "KITTY, KITTY, KITTY....MEOWWWW!"

Emma and Bella lovin'...they have a love/hate relationship :)