When the Weather Outside is Frightful

I'm pretty sure all moms of small children dread the winter months. It's cold, dark, snowy, and can be gloomy. Shorter days, cold weather, and not enough play time outside can add up to some stir crazy kiddos and a CRAZY momma! ha! Thankfully Emma Claire and I have been pretty busy this winter. With bible study, MOPS, church activities, and play dates we keep ourselves pretty active. Just the way we like it. However, I don't want to get too busy that I forget to document exactly WHAT we are doing for fun! So this is a random hodgepodge of fun things we did this last week. 

We started our week by going to Spanish Circle Time at our local library. We had never been but I heard about it, and since I speak some Spanish I thought it would be a great thing for us to start going to.

The class was AWESOME! Emma Claire's friends John and William came along with us. The teacher {in the white top} was just awesome. There was no English spoken at all {except by us!} and the class was full of songs, stories, and activities. We even made our own play dough! Emma Claire had SO much fun. She insisted on being in the center of the group the majority of the time, of course. And in this picture she was shushing everyone, such a ham!

Something fun I have been wanting to do for a while is let EC paint with REAL paint and a paintbrush. I also needed some wall art in her room to fill an empty space AND happened to have a pretty big canvas laying around. So the other night before bath time I got out some pink paint and let her go to town. She LOVED it! I wish I had pictures of her during because she was so into it! Obviously she quickly became covered in pink paint as did I..so the camera did not make an appearance! 

TA DA! I just love it. I texted the hubs telling him we now had our very own authentic "Emma Claire" hanging in our house. She is too cute about it as well. She knows that SHE painted it and is constantly pointing to it and clapping!

And something that is ALWAYS fun is playing dress up with mommy. I mean really, who needs Barbie when you have mommy?!

We obviously love our library, as I'm sure you can tell! Another fun thing our library offers is toddler story time. Actually they have a story time for every age on every day of the week! Our day is Tuesday.

There is a limit to how many children are allowed into story time so when you enter you have to get a token to reserve your spot. Well Emma Claire thinks this is just the neatest thing and LOVES to hold on to her token like a big girl. 

And of course our buddies William and John came with ;-) These three just crack me up together. I love it. 

Handing in the tokens to go into story time. There isn't a picture of Emma Claire doing this because she didn't want to hand it over and ran away from the sweet story time lady. 

Emma Claire was the youngest in the class but did pretty well! She only tried to steal the storyteller's puppet twice. 

 And this picture is part of this post because it just makes me smile.

This one too. She's a mess. And please ignore my horrid mums. Momma needs to do some planting.

She is too cool.

Wednesday night we had friends from church over. I made nachos, taco soup, and "healthy" sopapilla cheesecake. Hint: It's not nearly as good when you make it with reduced fat crescents and fat free cream cheese. Womp womp. 

LOVE me some taco soup. 

We played Apples to Apples and had a BALL. Hindsight says I should have taken a picture of the actual people playing the game and not just the cards...next time ;-) 

So that's a bit of what we've been doing this winter. Thankfully we haven't had too much snow or ice. It was supposed to snow all day yesterday but we didn't get a single flake!

EC Update

It's been a while since I've done a little update on miss Emma Claire and her latest "tricks". She learns more and more each day, it is so neat to watch her explore the world and take it all in. I've started keeping a list on my phone for all of the cute or new things she does. And since I'm not doing monthly updates anymore I feel like I need to keep documenting her little milestones as she hits them. So here's a little EC update, list style. 

 - Right now she can sign eat, drink, more, milk, baby, dog, bird, time, banana, and dad. Signing Dad is her favorite right now.

- She can identify her hair {head}, eyes, nose, mouth {teeth and tongue}, belly button, toes, and ears. 

- She nods her head yes {all of the time}

- She says "Hi!" constantly. I love it. 

- When she wants a drink she will sign eat but smack her lips.

- She likes to put things in her mouth and walk around holding them.

- She loves walking backwards. 

- When we ask for a kiss she leans her face in so we can kiss her. 

- Before bed she usually falls asleep nursing but on occasion she stays awake. If she is awake then right before I lay her down she sweetly will lean her forehead into mine and hold my head between her hands. It is the sweetest thing I have ever witnessed. It melts my heart every time she does it. 

- When we are done with bath time if I ask her, "Emma Claire are you ready to get out?" She will respond by pulling the drain stopper and trying to stand up! ha!

- She can "wink". It's hilarious. 

- She has started to love stuffed animals but I think she might be a blankie girl. She used to fuss EVERY time we got in the car. Then about a few weeks ago I started covering her up with two blankets in the car and she really hasn't fussed all that much! It's not surprising, I was a blankie girl and might still have my baby blanket hanging around somewhere.... ;-) 

- By far my FAVORITE new development is that the first thing Emma Claire does when I get her up in the morning/from a nap is ASK FOR A BOW. Y'all have no idea how happy this makes me. Brainwashing was successful. I kid, I kid. But in all honesty it is great to see her LOVE her bows! Makes my momma heart happy! Also, If you ask her "Where does your bow go?" She will put it on her head.

Each day is such a fun adventure with our little lady. She keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh constantly.

 

Phone Photos

As per usual most of our day to day life is captured on my trusty iPhone. So here's a little update on our lives in phone pictures.

Little missy is up to no good about 99% of the time now a days. And I wouldn't have it any other way. 

All last week Daddy worked during the day and was home in the evenings for dinner and bath time. We loved it and I think he did too. The picture says it all. 

Yes, awww so cute. But seriously this dang dog is on the naughty list at our house. The day I took this picture she honest to goodness PEED ON MY STAIRS. Seriously, dog?! How is that even possible? She was trying to redeem herself here. I can just see her train of thought, "Hmmm mom is really mad. Maybe if I'm extra sweet to the tiny human she will forgive me!" ha!

MOPS wears a sista out. Too tired to even put down the cheerios!

She is such a DRA-MA QUEEN. She was sitting in this box, then fell out. She proceeded to sprawl out over the floor like she fell from the bed. I have no idea who she got her flair for the dramatic from... ;-)

 Beggar. Although I don't blame her. A few nights ago I made deer sausage baked ziti and it was quite delicious if I do say so myself.

Saturday night I baked and baked. I love baking but don't always love having the leftovers around. I am easily tempted! ha! So I've started baking on Saturday's and then I just take all of it to Sunday School the following morning. I get to feed people, we have a few baked goods leftover, the husband is happy. It's a win all around!

The weather was dreary and gross Sunday so I decided to dress EC is something bright and cheery. We are ready for spring weather and a bright and fun wardrobe around here!

Walking into church Sunday morning these two were cracking me up. EC was giggling the entire way and making crazy faces. I tried to snap a picture of her face but ended up getting this priceless picture. I love this man. 

She's like a sour patch kid. Sweet one moment then sassy the next. I literally took these two pictures one after another. One second she was sweet and smiley, then the next second she was sassing me and screaming! Do I have a toddler or a teenager?

These days are just flying by. I know that the next time I blink Emma Claire is going to be turning sixteen. While we do have tough days, for the most part I just LOVE this stage of her little life. She is funny, smart, goofy, sassy, and BRILLIANT. What? She's my kid, it's my blog...I'm totally allowed to say all of that. Plus, it's TRUE! :-)

New Beginnings

Last week I had my very first official newborn session. It was so much fun. Sweet Liana was the perfect "client". I am SUPER excited to share a little sneak peek with yall. 

Isn't she a doll? I just loved getting to work with her. Such a special morning. 

If you want to see more click here to head on over to Mallorie Gayle Photography's Facebook page!

I'm Dreaming of a White {House} Christmas

Several weeks ago we were honored to be able to tour the White House at Christmas time. It truly was a special treat and I have been itching to share our pictures. It was Emma Claire's first time to go inside the White House, as well as mine. We brought along our friends Chris and Hayley and their twin boys. It was a magical evening, and despite several tantrums we all survived and had a great time!

These two are too much. I'm crazy about them. This might be my new favorite picture.

 Emma Claire loved the trees. Although she wanted to touch every. single. ornament. I'm happy to say she didn't break any.

The trees were so elaborate and creative.

EC and I with our favorite first lady. And yes, she has an ornament in her hands. She swiped it off of the floor. Whatever it takes to keep the toddler happy.

Emma Claire's favorite part of the entire night. Playing with the ornaments in the hallway.

Our family pictures were less than perfect but I love them. They make me smile. So representative of the stage of life we are in.

She is a mess.

The rooms were breathtaking. These pictures just don't do it justice.

This was my favorite tree. Most of the ornaments were handmade by children of deployed soldiers. So sweet. 

Now if only I could have these chandeliers and crown molding into MY house! ha!

That is a gingerbread WHITE HOUSE! So neat!

Wouldn't it be fun to have a Christmas party in this room? I mean the chairs are already set up and everything!

So the funniest part of the night. Emma Claire found this ancient and outrageously expensive nice antique table and decided THAT was where she wanted to spend the remainder of the evening. It's almost like JFK knew what she was doing and wanted to watch her :-)

She was a HOOT! Everyone that walked by stopped and laughed. She was the entertainment of the night.

Headed to the exit we saw good ol' George. We love him.

The very last tree of the night.

Our little socialite. I felt like the paparazzi catching her as she left a ball at the White House. So glamorous.

And it wouldn't be a true blog post of mine without showing you how the end of our night ACTUALLY went down. Emma Claire did NOT want to leave and boy did she let us know. She kept trying to run back to the White House and was not a happy camper when we decided to just carry her {screaming} to the car.

Poor babe was exhausted and so so tired. She was asleep before we left the parking lot. 

So there you go! Your very own White House tour. You feel just like you were there, right? ha! I loved looking back on the pictures as I wrote this post. It was such a fun and special night, I can't wait to do this next year and make it a family tradition.