Snow day.

Today, it snowed.  It was a beautiful, quiet snow fall.  Just Emma and I, while Brett worked, we enjoyed a peaceful day of quiet play. These are just a few pictures I snapped around the house that made me feel grateful and happy during my life reflections today.  Images to tuck away with my other memories.   Life is good.  I like where life is right now.

I love this girl, and what she makes this house and this family.  I hope she forever treasures memories of home.

Precious Moments.

My house is quiet right now.  Well, besides the hum of the dryer and the swish of the dishwasher.  I have had one of those glorious days where you twirl around the house with a cute tiny girl and clean laundry folds itself in mid-air and then nicely lands on closet shelves.  Maybe that didn't really happen, but chores are done and seemed effortless with my sweet girl chirping stories in my ear and helping me take time-outs to break out in song and dance.

Things have been really good.  Nothing stressful or too exciting.  Just precious moments of dance, and make believe, and dressing up with a few chores and workdays thrown in from time to time.  

We really had a great time this weekend.  My dad came in Saturday morning to spoil Emma for a couple of days.  She is still talking about him.  She thinks that every truck outside belongs to Papa.  Saturday night, we went to Tasso's.  Tasso's is a Greek restaurant complete with belly dancing and plate breaking.  I went there a couple months ago with some girlfriends and knew this would be the place for Emma.  Turns out, my girl really likes to party.  She out-did every other kid on the dance floor and even had other patrons up dancing with her!  We might be in trouble in a few years.

We have the house stocked with pot-roast and chili fixins for a winter storm that is due to blow in tomorrow.  Lord, give me strength to not enjoy a Costco-sized box of brownie mix while holed up in the house for the week!

Have a great week friends, and enjoy your precious moments!

Butterfly kisses.

Butterfly kisses have been our thing today.  Emma really likes butterflies, so the name had her intrigued from first mention.  Batting my lashes I lean in to tickle her cheek.  She giggles and blinks a lot while saying "bud-a-fy" and pressing her cheek to mine.  I'm sure she will have it down in no time, but I kind of like her way better.

It's hard to believe that she is going to be two in less than three months.  I definitely like this age.  Everything she does is so sweet.  Like, watching her haul her baby doll, Elmo doll, blankie, and pillow up the stairs for bed.  Or, watching her talk to her babies through the monitor while she is holding them close lying in her crib. 

She really enjoys having her toes painted, baking, and singing and dancing.  While I get ready in the morning, she digs through my make-up drawer and pretends brushing eye shadow across her lids with my extra brushes.  She also enjoys dressing us all up in her "pretties", which are her plastic pink and purple necklaces and tiaras.  I had to stop Brett the other day before he left the house with a forgotten pink beaded bracelet danging from his wrist. Everyday her personality shows up more and more, and we love her even more.

At a party with our friends a couple weeks back

We have had a lovely Valentine's Day so far.  We woke to surprises from daddy, had a nice walk with our friends Brooke and Crosby, and then put on our glitter pink and red for gymnastics class.  I'm pretty sure that her daddy has us both so spoiled, no boy is ever going to be good enough for her! 

She was really excited to get this valentine in the mail from grandma and grandpa!

 

Last week we stopped by to spend the afternoon with great-grandpa Butch.  These two really like each other!  She showed him how much more accessible his tupperware could be if laid out on the floor of his kitchen!

This last weekend, we saw a good portion of my aunts, uncles, and cousins at the hospital and nursing home while visiting my grandmother.  She gave us a little scare, but is doing great now!  We also found out a couple weeks ago that I am going to be an aunt again!  My sweet sister-in-law has been through a lot, and didn't find out she was pregnant until she was 14 weeks along!  We are so excited for another beautiful baby in the family ;).

  

Have a great week everyone!

The sweetest thing.

You wanna know what the sweetest thing is?  Watching a 6'4" 220 lb. man hold hands with his tiny little girl for a go of ring around the rosy.  I don't think a child has ever been more adored than Emma.  She is such a good little talker, too.  She goes around the house pointing and naming every object and every person in every frame.  She also says "I love you", or more, "I ie ooh".   She will be on the other side of the room and call "mommy?".  When I look at her, she flashes her sweet dimples and says "hi, mommy".  Seriously, this girl kills me with her cuteness!

We started gymnastics a few weeks ago.  It has been so good for her.  She is learning to wait her turn, do somersaults, and walk the beam. They also jump into the foam pit, jump on the trampoline, climb bars, dangle, tumble, swing from the bars (toddler sized that is), and use the little people spring board.  Towards the end of each class, they run to the little bench for their hand stamp and a sucker.  She really enjoys going.  The only thing that has me worried, is that she comes home and tries to turn our home into a gymnastics center.

We have had a lot of company lately.  My niece and nephew, Danny and Ana, came for the weekend a couple of weeks ago.  Last week, my nephew James came from Wednesday until Saturday.  Emma loves having other kids over, especially her cousins!  I really love having them here, also.  I had a skate night with the older kids, and with James here, we hit Fun Run.  We had an exhausting, but wonderful time!

We are so completely ready for spring.  Our home is covered in finger paintings and crafts as we try to stay busy, and I think the next couple of months of cold are going to be a little difficult for us to get through.  We kind of like to stay busy, and we have visited every indoor play place in the metro area already.  My husband is rushing me off of the computer now, so I will leave you with a few pictures from our trip to the aquarium from a couple of weeks ago, and a few other favorite January pictures.

Have a great week!