Sharing shoes... already

Emily has been obsessed with my shoes these days. If there is a pair lying around the house, you can bet that she is in them walking around in a matter of seconds. Oh, and when she gets in my closet, I think she tries on every pair. I don't wear many heels, being so tall, and all, so she gets really frustrated when the heels don't sit down flat. I always have to take those away from her before she throws her "I am frustrated" temper tantrum.

I can always hear her clanking all around the house as she walks around in her latest find. She makes circles and circles around the living room. Somehow this is fun. Unfortunately, she will never stop long enough for me to take a picture.

And don't shoes always fit better with a pair of boots on first?

Wii Fit

We recently bought the Wii Fit and our whole family has been having fun with it. And when I say "whole family," I literally mean whole family...

One aspect of Wii fit is measuring your balance. It is so funny to see how off my balance is right now. I am generally perfect balanced between my left and right side, but it shows me shifted way to the back. It's the belly. Unfortunately, there is no pregnant-lady setting.

I have had the most fun hula-hooping. I can only do it once or twice a day before all my ab and lower back muscles are killing me. I feel like it is the light way to work out these muscles when there is something the size of a bowling ball residing inside my stomach. And for all those freaking out about me working my abs, it is perfectly fine to do certain ab exercises when you are pregnant.

Emily has been very intrigued, and although we have entered her stats, she is not old enough to really participate in any of the activities. We pull up the box it came in whenever we play with it, though, and she stands on it with a controller and thinks she is playing, as well.

Sorry, Daniel. The picture of me hula-hooping did not make the blog.

Good enough

Emily has been attempting to put on her own clothes for quite some time, and she gets really frustrated with herself when things don't work out. She has slowly gotten closer and closer to getting the right articles of clothing on the correct body parts. We made major progress this past weekend...

She was quite proud of herself.

Multitude Mondays - Week Seven

154. that Emily is still taking naps

155. surprise checks in the mail

156. hour long phone calls from old friends

157. babysitters

158. going on a trip with Daniel... alone

159. eating at good restaurants in Charleston

160. Emily getting to spend alone time with her Mimi

161. catching up on movies

162. how Daniel and I don't run out of things to talk about, unlike our college dates

163. alone time with the husband

164. how excited everyone in our house in when Daddy comes home

165. having a long weekend due to MLK day

166. my Bible study starting up again

167. finding a mentor here

168. good ideas coming from other people that you can't wait to implement

169. what reading the Old Testament has done for my faith

170. being surrounded by people who are going through tougher struggles -- it puts a lot into perspective

171. free medical care we receive from the military

Nothing is sweeter to me than seeing a father with his daughter. Don't you agree?

Some days, nothing else works except being in Daddy's arms.

Charleston

I know, I know. I missed my multitude Monday's post.

Once you hear why, you will understand, though.

Daniel and I took our first ever trip alone. Did you read that? FIRST EVER! We have vacationed with family, vacationed with friends, and made many trips back home to Texas, but we have never vacationed alone. Due to military scheduling, we never got a honeymoon, and then a baby came around shortly after that, followed by a deployment, followed by life. I figured we needed to squeeze in some kind of trip soon, or it would be another year before we had another chance, due to our next little one arriving shortly.

As short as it was, the MLK holiday provided the only time to get away, so my mom flew up this past weekend and spent some quality time alone with Emily, which she loved, and Daniel and I headed down to Charleston. Charleston is an amazing city, and two days is definitely too short of a trip, but we had a great time. I feel like our whole trip revolved around eating, but that is one of our favorite things to do. It was so wonderful to go to nice restaurants and not have to worry about all the food/crayons/napkins that would end up on the floor. Unfortunately, there is very little room in my belly these days, so I didn't get to eat everything I wanted to, which was beyond frustrating.

It was so nice to not have any responsibilities that I somehow lost all motivation to do anything. I am getting sick of the disaster of a house I live in. Actually, it is not a disaster, at all, but I sure feel like it is. I just want to know that every inch of my house has been deep cleaned and there are no dust bunnies anywhere. Maybe this is nesting? I thought nesting was actually getting up and doing it, though. If I don't fit in spring cleaning in the next couple of weeks, then it won't happen until the fall. Daniel is going out in the field February 1st, and I do my best cleaning when he is gone, so maybe I will save spring cleaning for then.

Right now I will start with baby steps... I guess it is time to take down the Christmas decorations. In my defense, though, they were only up this long because I really wanted my mom to see them.

Multitude Mondays - Week Six

135. teaching Emily to put her dirty plate in the dishwasher -- I'm amazed at how much she is capable of these days

136. having our friends back in town

137. getting back into our routine

138. crosswords

139. Daniel going in later on Friday because of expected snow that never came

140. a wonderful weekend with Daniel at home

141. my Bible study starting up again

142. certain influential ladies that I am getting closer to

143. the direction the Lord is leading my family

144. seeing what prayer is accomplishing

145. learning to step back and let God take over -- although I am sometimes horrible at this

146. building lasting friendships through the Marine Corps -- our Greek friend Nick

147. good conversations with friends that last late into the night

148. surviving the cold spell

149. enjoying being back in my own kitchen cooking

150. a friend getting pregnant after years of struggling

151. my own fertility

152. getting a slew of kitchen staples from a friend who is deploying

153. lunch with friends

Swatting flies

Mom, I'm sorry, I had to post these...

When Emily and I went home in October, my mom discovered a little fruit fly problem she had. We eventually got rid of them, but a lot of swatting was involved. Apparently, this is something Emily has brought back with her. Every once in a while, Emily grabs our dish towel, looks up at the light, and starts swatting. I can't believe she remembered this small event from three months ago. It must have been really entertaining for her.

Pockets

This age absolutely amazes me! Everyday Emily is putting more together and is acting more like a big girl. She literally is growing up right in front of our eyes. It's sort of scary. I have mentioned before how much I dislike the baby stage, and I am finally getting to the point I am ready to experience it again, because Emily is so far away from it right now. She recently discovered pockets in her pants and now she wanders around the house with her hands in them. It cracks us up!

Multitude Mondays - Week Five

A little late because our Internet was down last night, but still a lot of gratitude to be shared...

106. Early mornings with Daniel

107. Safe travelling home to Texas for Christmas

108. Getting to spend Christmas with Daniel

109. Wetzel Christmas Eve gathering

110. Gafford family Christmas party

111. getting to catch up with old friends

112. my Aunt Pat's chocolate oatmeal cookies

113. seeing Emily get excited when she opened Night-Night Emily

114. giving gifts

115. receiving gifts

116. getting to spend time with the two sister-in-laws (and Mike and Maddie)

117. Scrabble with the Wetzel's

118. Jan's sugar cookies

119. watching Emily discover cheese dip and sweet tea (two staples in my family)

120.eating at our favorite Texas restaurants

121. getting to go see a movie - date night

122. learning about Emily's love for salad

123. making it through Christmas Eve mass with the little one

124. getting to spend Daniel's birthday with him

125. having help when flying with Emily -- I forgot how nice it was

126. safe travelling back to NC

127. coming home to a clean house

128. pulling out all of our newborn clothes

129. buying Emily's first potty

130. starting potty training (we think)

131. feeling refreshed being back at church

132. waking up early with Daniel to read our devotionals before Emily gets up

133. getting so much quality time with Daniel over Christmas break (15 days!)

134. seeing how close Emily and Daniel have become

Home for the holidays

I am quite embarrassed. We came back home from Texas with hardly any pictures. I have been really bad about taking pictures recently. My sister-in-law was always taking pictures, so I plan on stealing hers whenever she posts them (sorry Ali). It was a lot easier when Daniel was deployed and I wanted to keep him updated on our life. I just need to get in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution. Yes! I am deciding right now...

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

1. have camera with me everywhere I go

2. take at least one picture a day

and, of course

3. lose baby weight (literally)

Here are the few random pictures we do have...

We are lame parents. We only gave our kid one gift. It's not like she really knows the difference, plus, she was spoiled by everyone else. Night-night Emily is her favorite library book, though, so it was a hit.

Mimi gave herself and Emily matching aprons. There is still a little growing that needs to be done, but my mom can't wait for the day they can bake together.

We took another 4 generation picture. We actually took about 20. This was the best one. There was not a single picture with everyone looking at the camera. It happens.

And Emily received her first french braid, compliments of Aunt Ali. Look at all that hair! My daughter never sits still enough for me to even put her hair in a pony tail, although I believe someone was bribing her with chips the whole time.