Emerie Seven Months

Emerie now has two bottom teeth! She loves to laugh and give big kisses. Madison still enjoys pushing her over and Emerie still loves to see Madison after her time out sessions:)
Tonight they had lots of fun splashing each other in the bathtub and laughing as they spit out water that got in their face. Since Madison was a lot better at splashing Emerie Jake made sure that Madison got her share of big splashes too. Emerie has learned to clap and has started to say Daa daa daa. Madison loves say, "Stop talking Emmie Boo, stop laughing, stop crying..." I remind Madison over and over that she is not the boss of Emerie. She then tells me she is the boss!? Hmmm, it's a good thing Emerie doesn't know yet what Madison is saying. What funny sisters! We love you Emmie!

Emerie Six Month Pictures

Emerie is growing up so fast! She is such a sweet little girl and is starting to show off more of her personality. She loves to sit up, roll over, eat rice cereal, and laughing at her silly sister. Emerie is a snugly baby and likes to hide her head in your chest when she feels shy. She likes to babble and make funny noises. She is always such a happy girl in the morning and she loves books! It's so fun to watch you grow up!

Long time comin...

Before...






...during...








...after!





Jake here.

The greatest part about having cable TV is of course the ESPN family of networks. If I had only had access to such a plethora of sports on TV as a child I probably would be shooting the three ball in the NBA right now rather than the local community league. BTW, we lit up the score board tonight in a winning effort. Final: 34 - 25.

The second greatest part about having cable TV is HGTV! Since I am happily married to a beautiful woman and have two beautiful daughters I can feel quite comfortable admiting that I like HGTV. Bang for your Buck and Property Virgins are no threat to my manhood! Inspired by the design ideas we saw on HGTV we embarked on a little home improvement project in our home last July. Yeah, it's taken that long to post some photos. The projects have been mostly done for months. Above are some before, during and after pics of our home! We painted every room in the house and replaced old linoleum and carpet with laminate "wood" floors. It looks much better and feels like ours now. The bench you see in one of the pics is a Jenny project. She found it sitting on the side of the road, picked it up and refinished it... sounds like a story for HGTV don't you think?

Halloween!

What cute girls and what a fun Halloween! We wondered if it was ever going to happen. Each and every time I asked Madison what she wanted to be she said "Snow White". Unfortunately, she refused to put on any of the Snow White outfits we got for her. She had a Snow White skirt that was acceptable to her highness, but she would never let me put on the top that went with it.
Plan B: I bought a beautiful, Wal-Mart original, Snow White dress. Would she wear it? Not a chance! She screamed and cried with every invitation to try it on. Begging, pleading, bribes... none of it worked.
So how did we end up with this cute costume? I took one of her blue shirts and found a bunch of Snow White adornments to sew on (thanks mom for the great idea). Jake's parents were in town and his mom sewed them all on for me (thanks Mana for sewing so much). I think it turned out great! She loved it and wore it for two days straight.
Emerie wore her witch shirt in the first picture and ended up being a fish for trick or treating. We had a few different options for costumes and Jake ended up throwing the fish on with his fisherman hat. What a cute catch! Originally I thought it would be fun to have Madison be Snow White, Jake could be the handsome prince, Emmie a dwarf, and I was going to be the witch. We ended up with Snow White, a fish, Caesar (or the Ghost of Christmas Past), and Cleopatra. Jake and I went to a Halloween party without the girls as this cute couple.
Madison loved trick-or-treating and didn't want it to end. She wore her wings with her Snow White costume so we had a fairy Snow White. Out here in Ohio the city chooses a day and a time for trick or treating. Our city chose the Thursday before Halloween from 6-8. Everyone sits out in their drive way and passes out candy. It's great, no door knocking! People set up fire pits, cute displays and have a great time out with their neighbors while they pass out candy. Such a great way of doing things! Madison even climbed up in some of their lawn chairs and made herself at home. We had a great time and it was so fun to have Jake's parents in town to help us with all the Halloween fun.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Last week we went to a nearby pumpkin patch. The only night I would be able to take the girls Jake was on call. Luckily I had some friends there to help out. Madison loved running around at the farm, looking at the animals and exploring their kids size hay maze. Those tunnels looked a little scary but she was brave enough to run through them after seeing her friend Conner run by. She was dressed for the farm in her Sleeping Beauty skirt and Cinderella pink sparkle shoes. Some days I just don't want to deal with a screaming fit over what she wears so I let her out in public in the outfit of her choice. It will be much harder to explain now that Halloween is over:) It was quite the challenge just to get pants on under the skirt. I used to wonder sometimes why moms let their kids out in silly outfit combinations. Now I completely understand. Madison feels "so pretty" in her outfits and that's all that matters (unless it's family picture day).
Anyhow, back to the pumpkin patch. I was so excited to take the girls to the pumpkin patch and have those cute little pictures that every blogs about with the girls sitting with all the pumpkins. However we ended up getting on the hayride that takes you to the field of pumpkins as the sun was going down. The tractor we were waiting in line for to pick us up was extremely slow. We ended up having quite the adventurous hayride with the moon and the stars. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch the driver told us all to hop off. There were a bunch of people waiting to be picked up who had apparently been waiting a long time. I guess they pick you up at the farm, drop you off in the patch, and then let you pick your pumpkins while they drop off and pick up the other load of people. There weren't any lights other than the headlights on the tractor. Since I had both girls and the double stroller loaded up on the hayride I had my friend pick out a pumpkin for Madison and we just stayed on the tractor until it reached the parking lot. It was dark, late, and cold. Madison didn't seem to mind one bit and when the ride was over she said she wanted to go again. I made friends with the new load of people who hopped on the ride and they helped me off the hayride with the stroller and two girls. We had a great time! Next year we'll get those cute pumpkin patch pictures and make time for some pumpkin carving. It's been a busy month!