Pure Joy

This is our christmas card this year. I LOVE IT.

Solely for Emalyn's expression.

Most of you have gotten it already, so I finally decided I needed to post it for those of you I wasn't able to send one to.

We were having such a fun time picking out our Christmas tree, and the second the camera came out, so did Emalyn's change of expression. She's gonna love this documentation when she's 16, I'm sure!

I suppose this also is an announcement for our next kid!

Yes, we are preg-o....well, I AM. Due 6/26/10. Cam's birthday is the 23rd that month, so we'll see if we end up with 2 birthday's on one day...the first baby stayed in a little long, so knowing my luck, this kid won't be born until July 4th!! What a party they'll have!

Here's another from that day. She's just a sweet little thing...

***

Wishing you safest travels and mounds of peace and joy this week and next! Merry Christmas, all!!

Pretties

So Emalyn loves sparkles. Glitter. Shiny Shoes. Shiny metal spoons.

And of course, jewelry.

Since she's been able to grab at them, I have used the word "pretty," in some way to describe the earring, necklace, whatever it may be in her clutches. Since we all know how kids love to grab and pull at that kind of thing (and HARD, mind you.) I taught her to kiss the pretties. So looking at a long, dangly necklace, she will start with "mmmmmm-"grab the said piece of jewelry, and "muah, muah, muah" until her heart's content.

It truly has kept her from pulling my earring out and shredding my earlobe to pieces. Promise.

Now that she speaks, the word pretty comes out fairly well, and we use it to describe many things, like: Her drawings or coloring. Her dresses. Ribbons. Christmas lights. Anything that lends itself to being "pi-tty." (As she would say).

This morning as we were driving to daycare, she was looking out her window and says...."oooh, pi-tty! Pi-tty." And points towards her window with her mittened little hand.

I thought, the sun's coming up , you can't really see any Christmas lights, what could be pretty right now? I glanced a best I could while driving and saw nothing of significance...until I saw the direction of her eyes.

The child was pointing at the sunrise. I kid you not. We had just passed over some lower ground where there are often patches of fog and above is a clear shot of the sky-no buildings, houses, or trees.

My kid saw the sun and its beauty and called it "pi-tty." In return, I got to stop and thank God for His beauty that I just drove right past. And it was Pi-tty.

My effort will be to stop and take a little more of His beauty in, especially during this Christmas season. I seem to miss so much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Daddy's Favorite Team

Bozo the Clown...?

I love these kinds of images of kids. Pasta face!

Emma Krumbees

The local apple orchard near the Twin Cities is Emma Krumbees. Apparently we are still learning their availability, because we went and all the festivities had ended! lol

We still had fun as you can see....


up the two ladders....

to get to the top of the slide....


this one was a fast one!

My kid loves living in the fast lane. I'm not going to even THINK about what her teen years will behold. *deep breath* :)

I brought home an empty copy paper box from work because we needed something to hold some things that were going to storage. I set it down by the front door and thought nothing of it.

But, oh, did little miss have other ideas.

She LOVED it. And as you can see, daddy got quite a workout pushing her back and forth in it. if I remember right, my mom "taught" her this fun escapade becuase when we were in Australia this summer, she would push her in the laundry basket.

Later that night, she wanted to be just like Mommy and try on leather gloves.

She's a ham this one.

On Our Way Out

To walk the dog. Such a fascinating life we lead! :)

Like I said,

This is how they normally have been turning out. Blasted flash :)!!

FLASH!

Emalyn has been doing this a lot lately....she gets such a kick out of the flash. She usually covers her eyes and that is how our photos turn out-or I should say, how they don't turn out.....Such a funny kid!