Hey Howdy Hey!

Hello friends! ::as she wipes the dust off the keyboard:: It's been a while, huh? I promise we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Life just happens! I kept telling myself I'd come back and update - and then we'd get busy, and I'd forget. And then I'd have a moment that I could update but the toilets would need cleaning. Or the dog needed taking out. Or mama just needed a nap. Like I said, life happened.

So here's what's been keeping us busy this past summer and fall...





Before surgery

• Emma's hernia surgery: Ever since Emma was born, she's had a little bit of a bulge right above her belly button. Her pediatrician said that umbilical hernias were pretty common, and if it didn't clear up by the time she was two, then we'd have to help it along. So at her two year check-up when it was still there, he gave us a referral to a pediatric surgeon. Now, no one wants their child to have any kind of surgery, but after meeting with the surgeon and doing some research on our own, we were reassured that it was a pretty straightforward outpatient procedure. We waited until school was out for the summer before we scheduled her surgery. The morning of the surgery our little girl was pretty chipper despite the crazy early hour we had to be up to drive down to the medical center and the fact that she hadn't been able to eat or drink anything. The pre-op nurses were great with her, and she went right on back with them with no fuss of wanting mommy or daddy. Of course, they waited til they got her back to do any kind of IVs or put her under anesthesia. Thirty minutes later - she was all done and still sound asleep. Our surgeon told us she actually had two hernias right together, and it was an easy fix. We got her to wake up enough out of the anesthesia so that we could take her home, and then EVERYONE took a nap (for like 4 hours!). The day of the surgery she was very whiny and snuggly, but the next day, it was like she had completely rebounded! We were expecting to have a "sick" child for a couple of days, but apparently, nothing keeps this little girl down for long.

Hanging out in pre-op

 

Trying to wake up from the anesthesia and her belly button afterward

• Summer swim lessons: We started up swim lessons this summer as soon as school let out. We were able to get our first one in before her surgery, and since she had no restrictions afterwards, we were able to keep up with them all summer. To say Emma loves the water would be the understatement of the year. She's practically a fish! It was nice for me this year to not have to get into the pool with her during lessons, and she did a lot better listening to her instructors (mainly cause her life depended on it!).

Video: Swim Lessons Day 1

Video: Swim Lessons Day #3



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  You're going to do what?!?

  Emma's first big girl hair cut: By the end of June, Emma's hair was looking quite mullet-ish. So it was time for a hair cut, not just a mommy trim. We headed over to my salon and let Miss Jessica have a shot at it. Now, Emma's pretty good at letting me do her hair (albeit a wiggle worm) and even lets me use a round brush to blow dry it. But I was a little nervous about her sitting still while someone was cutting her hair. She was a champ though! Until she got bored while Miss Jessica was blow drying her hair - but mama's phone solved that problem fast enough, and we were back on track. She ended up with a nice summer bob and looked completely adorable!

Hair Cut: Before and After

Checking out the cows
with Uncle Stephen

• Farm fun: We spent July 4th and a few other weekends up at the farm in Giddings over the summer. Emma is fascinated with Pappy's cows and loves to ride around the farm on the Gator to go look at them. She's definitely an outside girl, and so her Pappy (with some encouragement from mama and daddy) decided to install a swing set outside at the farm, so she could play and watch the cows at the same time. It's been a big hit, and a great way to tire Emma out. I think everyone in the family has now taken a turn on the swings and the slide because Emma's very persuasive like that.

 

So chic!

• Playing dress-up and princesses: As rough and tumble as our little girl is, she LOVES playing dress-up and princesses. While Aurora from Sleeping Beauty is still her favorite, she's also partial to Belle and Cinderella (maybe because she met them on our last Disney cruise). Whether she's playing with her Little People Disney princesses or accessorizing everything and everyone in sight, she's full of imagination and can be quite the prissy pants.  In fact, you know you might have watched a few too many princess movies when your child holds her dress up while walking down the stairs so she doesn't trip. Her royal highness has accumulated quite the collection of necklaces, bracelets, and sunglasses, and oftentimes, she likes to wear them all at once!

 

 

Building her rock collection

• Outdoor fun: When it wasn't raining, we tried to spend some time outdoors. Since Emma got a tricycle for her second birthday, she had been puttering around the house on it, and we were eager to take it outside for her to try it out. At first, pedaling was a bit awkward for her, especially if she lost her momentum. But slowly, with lots of practice and patience from her daddy, she's gotten better and better at it. In fact, there are some nights when they go out riding that she tires out Kevin before she herself wants to stop. She even has a tricycle at the farm that she likes to take out riding down the lane to collect rocks.

Video: A Distracted Driver

It seems like ever since we've moved into this house, we've been a hot spot for animals of all kinds. To date, we've found two lost dogs, had a family of kittens trapped in the back yard, become a nesting ground for mama birds, and now have rescued a turtle from our front yard. One day Lizzy just happened to be going berserk at the front door window when there was absolutely no one passing by. When finally went to go see what she was barking out, we saw a turtle just chilling out in our front yard. Now, there's a small lake in the center of our section of the neighborhood, but this turtle was a long way from home. Of course, we had to go check it out, and Emma had quite a ball inspecting it and helping Kevin return the turtle to its home.

Video: Catching the turtle 

Potty success!

• Potty training: Oh potty training, how are you both a blessing and a curse?!? Back in August, we decided to book another Disney cruise for November (more about that in another post!), and to use their pools you have to be potty trained. So two weekends before Emma started school, we thought we'd "give a whirl"...that was literally our attitude about it. I bought some underwear and pull-ups, Kevin put the toddler seat on the toilet, and we synchronized our watches. Without going into details, we had some ups and downs, and we're very thankful that we already owned a pet vac...lol. But by the end of the first week, she was doing pretty well as long as we reminded her to go. Now, if you've never potty trained a child (like us), it can be a nerve-wracking experience. Kevin was constantly worried she was going to pee on him (which she did). I was more worried about the fact that she was purposely not pooping - in either the toilet or her underwear. But in the end, mother nature won out, and coupled with a potty training sticker chart, jelly beans, and other prizes, Emma has been super successful!

• Starting school: At the end of August, we went up to school to meet Emma's teachers and see her new classroom. Ms. Adriana and Ms. LeaAnn are the best! This year there are 13 bustling toddlers in her class, which is quite the step up from the 8 little ones from last year. The classroom is setup in centers, and Emma likes to frequent the book corner and the dolls. She's also a big fan of art and the playground. I'm glad she's thriving at school and to have a little time to myself!

• Preparing Kevin to go to Corpus: So we've known since the beginning of the summer that there was high probability that Kevin was going to be sent down on assignment to Corpus Christi. The job entails him working as construction support from Wood Group for the Flint Hills refinery project he's been working on, and it means long 50 hour work weeks. What we didn't know was how long he was going to have to be there. At first, they told him maybe 12 months. Then, it was 18 months. And finally, they came back saying that the client had asked specifically for Kevin to go Corpus for the whole scope of the refinery construction project - 23 months! Now since we've known for a bit that he was likely to be going, we've had time to think about what that would mean for our family: Emma and I could move down there with him or we could stay here and visit. We've thrown around a lot of pros and cons, like having to sell or rent out our house (con) and Emma being able to see her daddy every day (pro). But ultimately, we've decided that Emma and I will stay here. This allows Emma to still attend her same school and be around her grandparents, aunts, and uncles - giving her some sense of normalcy. While the company will pay for Kevin to come home twice a month, by the time he gets off of work on Friday and drives the 3.5 hours from Corpus home and then turn around and leave Sunday afternoon, it makes more sense for us to go down to Corpus for visits. Emma and I can leave on a Thursday and come back on a Monday, so that gives us more daddy time. Kevin and I have made the trip down to Corpus a couple of times to try and find a place to live. We ended up renting a 2 bedroom apartment so that when we do go visit, everyone still has their own space. Kevin's parents also got us an iPad so that we can Facetime with him. Is it ideal? No, but we'll make it work. Kevin leaves for Corpus January 8th, so just keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this new transition.

• Fall festival and Halloween fun: It seems like with the start of the school year that the calendar somehow automatically speeds up and we find ourselves at the start of the holidays! This year the Fall Festival at Emma's school fell on Halloween, so instead of heading out to the A&M football game, I took Emma out for some fun while Kevin got to take his dad to the game. It was kind of a rainy, humid day, so some of the activities had to be moved inside, but it didn't put a damper on little miss' fun. We enjoyed a train ride; she got to ride a pony and pet animals; we played carnival games; and of course, she went down the giant inflatable slide a gazillion times. It was definitely her favorite thing to do. We ended up staying until they shut down!

 

After a lengthy nap for both of us, we were ready to go trick-or-treating once everyone got back from College Station. Everyone had been asking us what Emma was going to be for Halloween, and all I knew was she was going to be a princess...but I wasn't sure which one she'd pick to be that day. She could choose from Princess Sofia, Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora. In the end, it was her favorite that won out, and we set out with our own Sleeping Beauty in tow. Last year since she was little (and didn't know what candy was), we only visited our little cul-de-sac. But this year was a different story. Once she figured out that people would give her treats to put in her bucket, she was off to the races. We ended up going up and down both sides of our street, which is pretty long, before we had to convince her that she had gone to enough houses already. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the front yard, eating pizza, and handing out candy. We had quite the array of costumes, unlike last year when it seemed to be all Queen Elsas. Emma was content to people watch as long as she could snack on a lollipop.

 

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