Our First Baby

Here is our first born baby. We've had Carter for 4 years in May. He is the sweetest, most well-behaved dog I've really ever seen. He loves to be with myself and Ivan and sometimes he just can't get close enough to us. He knows and understands the words "walk", "park" and "car ride". If one of us wants to see if the other is interested in going for a walk, we have to say "do you want to go on a W". The only downside is that he's allergic to everything and has been a very expensive dog. I call him my $5k dollar dog and I really do think we've spend that amount in 4 short years. We still love him though and wouldn't trade him for anything (although I would trade his allergies and appts with the dog dermatologist anyday).

Unfortunately, since Emery came into our lives, Carter doesn't get the attention or exercise that he deserves. Lucky for us, he still loves us, although I'm not sure if it's the same love that he had pre-Emery.

Since Emery started eating and sharing her food with Carter, we have discovered some interesting eating habits for a dog. He loves bananas, eggs, puffs, string cheese, apples and tonight I found out that he also likes cooked carrots. I really think he just sees Emery eating these things so he wants to get in on the action.

Blowout at Target

Emery and I ran to Target this afternoon for some light grocery shopping and summer clothes for Emery (who could actually walk into Target and not buy baby clothes??). Anyway, we were in the kids area and all of a sudden I hear ... well ... a "wet fart". It was sick. I honestly looked around thinking, "that's going to be sick to clean up". Then I realize that nobody was around us. I decide to touch Emery's bottom to see if I feel anything (all Mom's use the smell the butt or feel the diaper for lumps, right?). Nope, feels clean, but warm. I then look in the back side of her diaper. She has bright green, runny poo coming up the back of her diaper. SICK!

I honestly was a little in shock and not sure what to do. For those of you who don't know, Emery is terrified of the baby changing stations in public restrooms. She refuses to lay down, fights the entire diaper change and it's a complete nightmare. I considered leaving my groceries and going home to change her but then realized that I would have to buckle her into the carseat and that would for sure make a bigger mess that I really didn't want to clean up.

So, we head to the bathroom. I was really stressed and actually breaking a little sweat from the stress of having to change a nasty diaper in a public restroom. We get into the bathroom, Emery STANDS on the changing station and I take her shorts off. I was sure to investigate the situation before removing the diaper. Luckily, it wasn't a lot of poo, but it was for sure bright green and runny and STINKY! So, I remove the diaper, wipe her bum and put a new diaper on her, all while she's standing up. So, we survived the mini-blowout at Target and went on with our shopping. Not one of my funnest Mommy moments.

Easter Weekend Photos

As always, we headed to California for Easter weekend. We flew this time and Emery was wonderful on the plane, even though we had to wake her at 6:30a (3 hours earlier than her normal wake up time). We had a great weekend and got to spend quality family time together.

Here is Ivan playing tea party with Emery ... he's practicing for what is to come with our little Diva! He is the greatest Dad and doesn't mind doing the girly things at all
Makayla with my Cousin Shannon
Emery and her Cousin Brandon playing nicely ... well, Emery acted like she was going to play with him and then really just teased him with everything from a sippy, food, toys, etc

Makayla and Lilly - they have so much fun hanging out together

Quinlan wearing Emery's PINK sunglasses :)
The whole Riley Gang
Emery's 1st Easter Egg Hunt
Then, she put the egg up to her ear and talked to it like she was on the phone
She's wearing her new sandals. She was obsessed with the sandals the entire weekend and wanted to have them on all of the time. (no, we didn't let her wear them out of the hotel room with socks!)
I was laying in bed combing Makayla's hair after shower. Emery just had to be right there involved. Can you tell how exhausted Emery is? She went 4 days with no naps and was a total trooper the entire time. With how much she likes to sleep I was surprised she was as good as she was, but we sure did appreciate it.
Makayla and my Sister Michelle
They got me back onto a horse. Most probably wouldn't believe it, but I did grow up around horses and used to ride them all of the time. It's been at least 20 years since I had been on a horse but I had to take Emery on her first horse ride.
Great-Grandma Ruth, Michelle, Me, Makayla and Emery
Ivan let Emery put her feet in the pool at Grandma Marge's. It was a good idea until it was time to take her away from the water. Emery loved playing in the pool and had no fears at all. We know she would have just jumped right in if Ivan didn't hold onto her.
Emery's 2nd Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma Marge's
Her 1st time hitting a pinata ... she thought she was totally hot stuff!
Us with my Dad and Sister Michelle
The last day ... sitting at Denny's waiting for our breakfast to come. We entertained Emery by having her watch videos of herself on Ivan's phone.

A Fabulous Purchase

So .. we all know, I kind of have an addiction to spending money and buying a ton of baby gear. I don't know what it is, but I freaking love baby gear! Anyway, Emery loves to sit on my lap, I've always joked that she though my lap was her own personal chair.

Then, I saw some great mini-chairs at Pottery Barn for kids that were absolutely adorable. But, they were $85 each and I couldn't bring myself to spend that much for a kids chair. Then, my friends Michelle and Amanda reminded me about the Down East Home Outlet store in Sandy by Macey's. I went there for jeans and also bought this adorable chair for $40 bucks! What a steal! Yes, it's blue but they have the chair covers on sale at Pottery Barn right now so I'm going to buy a pink one for Emery. Emery loves her chair .. here she is this morning sitting with her puffs, reading a book while I made her some eggs.

And here is Emery sitting in my bed watching cartoons and reading a book while I was getting ready. It just freaks me out that she's big enough already to just hang out in bed and watch TV. So sad!

My Cutie Pie ...

The other night, Ivan was in the kitchen and Emery had been quiet for a few minutes. He walked around the corner and found her like this - in the bin, with his cell phone, just hanging out. She was totally at peace and couldn't figure out why we were laughing so hard at her ...
Just a cute picture ... look at her teeth - crazy! She sure isn't my little baby anymore.

Flashback to July 2008

We went to Jackson Hole last July to celebrate Sam's birthday. Enjoy some cute pictures we took while we were there ....

A Perfect Day for a Trip to the Zoo...

We had a wonderful day at the zoo. We got there around 230p and the weather was absolutely perfect. Emery liked the animals but still seemed to be more entertained by people watching (just like me!). She also loved playing at the play ground and with the huge ball/water at the entrance to the zoo. Unfortunately, my camera battery died so I don't have any pictures from the end of the day.

Look at my little diva ... ready for the zoo - sunglasses and all!



This giraffe was so close to us. That is some random guy visiting the zoo feeding the giraffe a leaf..
Trying to get a picture of Emery before she ran away ..

More Random Photos ...

I was folding laundry today and Emery likes to play with my ... umm .. underwear .. well, she walks away and I finish laundry and forget all about the underwear that she was playing with. I go back into the living room to finish vacuuming and she's put my underwear around her neck. Apparently she thinks they are necklaces??
Emery loves to be outside and gets stir-crazy if she's in the house to long. You can always tell when she's hit her limit of being inside - today she put her coat on, grabbed her diaper bag and went and stood by the front door.
I really need to get Emery a purse of her own. I gave her my purse to play with and she threw a fit when I took it back from her. Doesn't this picture look like she's lifting weights? And, the purse was still empty at this point.
Can you tell the child loves her puffs??

A few pictures...

Emery loves to climb up on the couch and play with her wipes container, beanie and jacket. If she is quiet and we can't find her, she is usually on the couch, just like this.

We went to the Discovery Center @ Gateway today. Emery loved playing in the water but started to act like she owned the water area. She still doesn't talk a ton, but she sure does know the word "MINE". Not a good sign. Oh, and she also pulled a little boys hair, twice. I was quite embarrassed but luckily none of the parents were around. We really need to work on learning to share. Any advice for an only child?
After a few hours at the Discovery Center, we went to lunch at Applebee's. It was a much better experience than Red Lobster a couple of weeks back, thank goodness. I'm trying to get Emery to like wearing her sunglasses. At first, she just wanted to wear them upside down, but she got the hang of it with a little help from Ivan.

Kitchen Update

I am proud to finally be able to post before and after pictures of our kitchen.

Before: May 2008

After: March 2009 - we took down some cabinets to open up the kitchen/dining room, painted the cabinets, installed granite counter tops and replaced all of the appliances. I can finally say that I am happy with my kitchen.