Emma & Bluebonnets

About a month ago, we were able to squeeze in some bluebonnet pictures before they faded away. It's something I remember going and doing as a child, and I've even got pictures of Kevin as a child in the bluebonnets too. So, we wanted to make sure to continue the tradition with Emma.

Now if you're not from Texas, you may not understand our obsession with taking photos in these flowers. You see, we only have pretty wildflowers for maybe a month every year.  Otherwise, all we look at is maybe some green grass if we've had rain, dead grass due to lack of rain and heat, and just clay, dirt, and weeds. It's like a small reminder that other parts of the US have actually four distinct season, whereas in Texas we just have "hot" and "not as hot."

As usual when shooting photos a moving target, you take what you can get as fast as you can get it. So after 150 shots, these were some of our favorites!

 

And of course, some of our favorite outtakes!

 

"The Goofy Smile"

"This bores me."

"Even divas need a juice break" 

A few of the "excited" face photos we have

 

and lastly, "Daddy, I've fallen down in the grass, come get me!"

 

Emma's 1st Year Photos!

Just in time for Mother's Day, we got Emma's pictures in from Sheree' with Monkey Doodle Photography. She did an awesome job capturing our family and our silly little girl. And bless her heart, it wasn't an easy task at all. Emma was just about to start walking full time and really didn't want to have to sit still for anything! I think by the end of the session we were all sweating from trying to finagle her into sitting still for photos. Here are just a few of our photos!

Family shots

Princess Cheerio!

We had been feeding her Cheerios to keep her happy when we accidentally
spilled them everywhere. It still made for some cute shots.

 

Reading books!

We wanted to have a little throwback to last year's photos,
so we decided to bring back the books again.

 

2013 - At eight days old

 

2014 - 10 days before her 1st birthday

The Birthday Girl

 

We wanted to make sure to get some actual nice photos of the birthday girl because I wasn't sure what I'd actually get on the day of party itself. I had Emma's onesie custom-made by Gail with The Sassy Squirrel on Etsy, and then I made the coordinating tutu myself. We got Emma's cute cakes for the shoot and her birthday party from Suzybeez Cakez and Sweetz. They were delicious! Emma wasn't too sure about touching the cake, so we hid some Cheerios on the back side of it so that she'd dig in!

 

 

 

 

 

Click here to view more of the photos!

We made it!

Houston, we have a toddler!

We have successfully made it through year one of Emma's life, and I can safely say we're all still intact - physically, mentally, emotionally - even Lizzy! I cannot even begin to tell you what a crazy fun ride it's been. We've tried to give you guys a little peek into our lives with this blog, but I know it can't even cover a tenth of the shenanigans, giggles, boo-boos, and even tantrums (try telling her you're all done looking at the iPhone) that go on around here on a daily basis.

It seems like life's been going non-stop around here lately, so I've been trying to keep my camera with me so I can snap and remember what's happening. There's just something about the stretch from Spring Break to Memorial Day that seems to keep everyone hopping from one event to another. Plus, Kevin's been traveling to Corpus Christi during the last couple of weeks, so everything that needs to be done gets super compounded into our weekends. The good thing though is that Emma's a trooper - she loves to go new places because it gives her a chance to observe, and now that she's walking full time, explore!

So here's a quick look at what we've been up to!

Off in her own little world

• Playtime aplenty: As Emma's been growing over the past month, she's started to transitioning to just one nap a day, which is fine because her remaining nap is still 2-3 hours long, but that means she's got more time on her hands to play, explore, become bored, and restless (which means whiny). The last two are potential problems. Right now, we've got two separate play areas going on: our living room where she spends most of her time and our dining room that we've started using as a playroom for bigger toys like her climber. It seems like our days are filled with endless games of stacking toys, hiding toys, trying to chase and hug Lizzy, peek-a-boo, and other amusements. She's also pretty good at playing by herself, which means Kevin and I don't have come up with a new song and dance routine every five minutes. And some days, she's just perfectly content to walk around the room carrying her toys to different places. It makes me wonder what goes on in that funny little head of hers. I think that's the one thing Kevin and I are really just waiting for with anticipation - Emma to start talking. Everyone keeps telling me that once she starts there will be times where I will wish she never would have learned how, but personally, I'd like to hear more than just an endless loop of "dada," "nigh nigh," or whatever the sound of the day is. Oh well, patience is a virtue, right?

Emma's windblown
look after a ride
on the Ranger

• Fun on the farm: We've been making some trips up to Giddings lately to help my parents work on my grandparents' farm. Both of grandparents are in their 90s, so my parents are up there most weekends to take care of the cattle, the land, and do chores around the house. Sometimes Kevin just goes to help out my dad, but every once in a while, Emma and I make the trek too. My grandparents LOVE seeing Emma. They get such a laugh out of seeing her roam around the house and checking things out on the farm. Since Emma's started walking, she's become fascinated with being outdoors (plus, now she doesn't have to put her hands in the grass). When we're at my grandparents' house, she gets the chance to look out the screen doors and see what everyone is up to - whether it's my dad mowing the grass or Lizzy running around the yard. The cows will come up to the house every so often too, but we decided that she needed to get a closer look. So, we made the trip down to the barn, got some food, went to the pens, and the cows came a running. While she was definitely interested in what the cows were doing, she was mostly reserved about the whole experience. Kevin did finally get her to reach out and try to pet one, but I think the best part for her was getting to zoom around on the place on the Ranger.

Video: Emma and the cows

Snack time with Cheerios

• Filling up on food: Emma still has only 4 teeth (working on #5 though), but that hasn't deterred her from trying new foods or munching down on some of her favorites. Cheese and cheerios are still the front runners by far when it comes to what she likes, but she also loves anything that crunches because she's learned that she can use her front teeth to bite things and break them apart. This apparently amuses her greatly as she looks at us with this "see what I did" grin on her face. We're giving her mostly table food with a few baby food items thrown in there every so often to make sure she's getting enough fruits and veggies. However, there are some days when honestly she must be feeling just too lazy to feed herself and would rather just slurp everything down we spoon into her mouth. It's okay though - we're happy to oblige. One good thing though that's come out of this transition is that we now make an effort to sit down at the kitchen table and eat dinner together as a family. I'm not going to lie, before Emma, Kevin and I ate dinner on TV trays in front of the screen every night like we were still in college. Whenever we used to sit at the table it just felt like we were playing at being grownup. Now, it just feels right to spend time together sharing food and laughing at Emma's constant silliness.

Playtime at the party!

• Birthday bash: Lastly, we celebrated Emma's first birthday with a pink ladybug party with our families and some friends. It was a pretty laid back affair with fajitas, playtime, presents, and of course, cake! The kids were all over the climber in the playroom as they were make-believing that they were a lion family. There were lots of roars and giggles coming from that room all day long. When it came time for presents, I knew Emma wouldn't be able to/interested enough to open all the presents by herself. So we enlisted our buddies to help. Everyone was really great at taking turns "helping" Emma open her presents. The boys were so funny about it too, especially if the present was clothes. They'd just look at it for a second and drop it on the ground like it had cooties. The best part was probably Emma's reaction to the cake. Now, this was our second go-round with birthday cake. We let her "smash" one for her one year photo shoot, but when we did that the only way we could get her to touch the cake was by hiding some Cheerios on the back side of it. We had hoped this time would be a little bit better since she likes to show-off for an audience. We even helped her start off by showing her the icing and helping her get a taste. But, it was a no-go; her hands and face were not going to plunge into that it and get all dirty trying to smash it up and eat the cake. My brother Stephen was walking around with the camera capturing her day, and this photo here was one of our favorites during cake time - it's like she's saying, "Why me? Why do we have to do this again?" There was definitely a bit of comedy in her attempt to avoid getting her hands dirty. Smashed cake or not, it was still a great day for all of us. We're so blessed to have had this little darling in our life this past year, and now we're ready to tackle toddlerhood!

Click here for more videos and photos from the past month!