February!

I can hardly believe it's February! Emilee is already 4 1/2 months old. She is SO cute and such a joy. She takes up all my time! :) She loves to play with toys now. She has several bug toys (a couple of bees, a firefly, and a lady bug), a squeeky Sophie the Giraffe, and a few little chewie toys. She loves them all and likes to stare at them and study them and grab them and put them in her mouth of course. One of her favorite toys lately is not even a toy... it's the cover on her boppy pillow! It has a cupcake printed fabric and she is mesmerized by it. She sits there and scratches at all of the different cupcakes and tries to eat them. She is just now starting to play with her voice. She'll lay there playing and make screechy sounds. Every couple of days she'll get in a giggly mood and crack up if you make faces or noises at her. She still loves to be held all the time, doesn't like tummy time very much, loves to smile, loves her pacifier, loves when Dada gets home from work, has a bit of a temper sometimes, and likes to relax in the bath. :) I LOVE snuggling her, playing with her, and making her smile and laugh!

This coming Sunday is our SIXTH wedding anniversary! All together we've been a couple for almost 9 years. I love my Ryan so much. He is so patient and loving. It has been fun to see him as a daddy the last few months. I only knew him as my husband and best friend for 5 years, and now I'm getting to know him as the father of my sweet baby, and I LOVE IT! She has captured his heart and it is so sweet. On Sunday, Grammy is going to watch Emilee and Ryan and I are going to see The Vow ( http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-vow/52482/main ) and go out to dinner at Crush. We were going to try Crush a few months back but we went on a Friday and it was super busy and they told us we would need a reservation. Fancy-shmansy. So tonight Ryan will call to make sure we can get in on Sunday. :) YAY! I'm excited.

Also, yesterday Ryan had his 7th work anniversary. It's going to be 10 years before we know it! Over the past 7 years Ryan has worked so hard and has moved up from an entry level position to the head of his department, overseeing about 10 employees. Several years back I realized (again) the power of prayer, taking two particular bible passages into action... Phillipians 4:6 - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." And also The Prayer of Jabez. His story is found in 1 Chronicles chapter 4, but the gist of it is verse 10: " Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, 'Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.' And God granted his request." I began to submit our financial fears to God, not "being anxious" but presenting my requests to God through prayer. I prayed, similar to Jabez's prayer, for God to "expand our territory", but specifically praying this prayer regarding Ryan's employment. Since I started consistently praying for God to bless us in that specific area, He has blessed us again and again! He has blessed Ryan with promotions, raises, a hard-working attitude, a good work ethic, and favor with his bosses. Thank you, Lord! In fact, even before Ryan got the job at APC, he prayed for a job with some specific needs... a minimum of what he needed in a job to feel comfortable proposing to me and starting our life together. Not much longer, this job posting came up with the exact needs that he prayed for. He applied, interviewed, got offered the job, accepted, and the rest is history! :)

Emilee's first Christmas

We had a great Christmas (and Christmas Eve) this year! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and Christmas dinner at our house with Tammy. We were blessed both days with tons of wonderful gifts - especially Emilee! :) She got a bunch of great toys and clothes and lots of hugs and kisses too! We had some great quality family time and it was so much fun.

Busy Book for my favorite boys!

I made a Busy Book (aka Quiet Book / Activity Book) for my boys for Christmas. It was so fun to make but it took forever! I'm glad that I finished in time for Christmas and that they (and their mommy) like it! :)

Here are pictures I took, Mostly before it was assembled, but after the pages were completed. FUN!

Alphabet

Planting Grass, Carrots, and Flowers

Picking Apples

Make an ice cream cone

Burger and Fries

"Paper" doll

Phone (and #'s for counting and learning phone #'s)

Tic-Tac-Toe

Mr (and Mrs.) Potato Head

(she's kinda ugly! haha!)

Cars (and color matching)

Vroom Vroom!

Barn & Animals

(If some of these pages look familiar... I must admit, I stole some ideas from other blogs/websites, and some ideas were my own.)

Decorating the tree

I'm so excited for Emilee's first Christmas! :) Tonight we decorated our tree. I made yummy pepporcorn steak for dinner with rice and green beans. We built our tree (Yeah, it's fake, whatever), put the lights on and decorated. Emilee slept through ALL of that! I can't believe we actually got it all done! I found Taylor Swifts Christmas album on grooveshark and played it while we decorated the tree. We also sipped peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows and crushed up Ghirardelli's peppermint bark on top. YUM!

Ryan stringing the lights

All ready with our hot chocolate!

Yum yum!

This is my newest ornament. No special meaning - I just love snowmen and he was sooo cute and on sale! :)


This one is for our first year of marriage. It's our wedding photo and the tag says "2006" which is the year we were married.

We got this one when we bought our first house

This year Nae made me a beautiful cupcake ornament in memory of our best friend Carrisa! I love it! :)

I got this last year shortly after she passed away. It's a bling-y frame, just like she'd like. One of my favorite pictures of us. I miss her!

We got this when we were in Maui last November.

Ryan LOVES sports...

And I love GIRAFFES!!! :)

Daddy also loves Emilee

The Family! (Tried to set up the self-timer. HAHA.)

Emilee the Christmas-Cutie!!!

Now I just need to get a special ornament for Emilee's first Christmas. I really like the one Grammy Tammy got this year. Little pink booties! I need it! :)