HAPPY BIRTHDAY DA-DA

I love this photo of Emmie. She begs almost everyday for a bow for her hair, but she just won't leave it in.

Today was Daddy's birthday. We took him to McDonalds for lunch. Emily bought him a balloon, which she was so excited to give to Daddy, and Momma baked a cake and cooked supper and Granny and Poppa came over. I worked for several days to teach her to say "happy birthday" or sing Happy Birthday, but no such luck. She did enjoy it when I sang Happy Birthday. She liked helping Daddy blow out his birthday candle. All in all Emily enjoyed Daddy's birthday. That is what it's all about, isn't it. Next week Momma turns 4 - 0.....OH NOOOO!!!!

EMILY AND MAW MAW

Here are some pics of Emily and my mom (the pictures were taken the first of August). They have lots of fun "monkeying" around. They call each other PIG and run around saying CRAP.

Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Emily

Just a few pics of the tree that Gustav knocked down. And I know you want to see Emily. Really she is not a Hurricane, we call her our tornado!!!

WE SURVIVED GUSTAV

Just a quick post to say we are o.k. Yes, the storm was bad. We lost several shingles and a tree in the front yard that took out our water main. Donnie fixed the water Tuesday and began cutting up the tree Wed. We lost power and phone service. Phone came back last night (so glad, I was going through computer withdrawl!!!). We were loned a generator by my brother, so we have half the house up and running. Looks like we are in for the long haul on the electricity. Traffic is a nightmare!! And the lines to get gas!!!! We still have plenty of food (mom did go to Dominoes and get a pizza last nite - good stuff).

And now for the real reason you come to my blog - Emily. She is a trooper. I thank God that she is so young that she doesn't understand. She is just happy go lucky. We had 4 hurricane guests for Sun and Mon night, and she just knew they were there for her!! She now calls herself Emmie. All of her babydolls are named Emmie too. Cute Cute!!

Please continue to pray for us. Usually the day after a hurricane the weather is beautiful sunshiney. It is now day 4 and we have hardly seen the sun, which is depressing!! I will blog more when I can. Know that we are o.k., but please pray for Louisiana.

NO TITLE

This is Emily's favorite baby.

She is such a good little mommy
Emily and Granny (Daddy's Momma)
THIS IS HER MEAN/MAD FACE.

She pokes her bottom lip out - too funny.

Most of the time when you ask her to make a mean or mad face

she is laughing too hard to be serious.

No title tonight, just some ramblings and photos of course - the only reason to tune in!!

We are getting ready for Gustav. Not really worried, just getting prepared. Walmart is already wiped out of everything, and quite the madhouse. There were a few things on my list that Walmart was out of, I will finish preps tomorrow.

Emily is mischevious as ever. She can now say her name. It sounds like Ninny. Too cute. You can ask her her name and she always says dog first. You can ask her if she loves you and she says no, cry. She wants you to cry!!! She loves to jump - on (and off) the couch, off the coffee table, in her bed.... She doesn't care if anyone catches her or not!! I am looking into getting her in gymnastics at the first of the year.

SPEAKING OF THE OLYMPICS

THE FAMED "BIRD'S NEST"THIS IS WHERE THE WATER SPORTS ARE BEING HELD
AIR CHINA AND THE OLYMPIC MASCOT DOLLS

We have been watching the Games some, not a whole lot. We missed the opening ceremonies. We have been watching the Travel Channel specials on China. Oh the memories.

Here are a few pics of some of the buildings that were built for the olympics and some of the pre-olympics pictures that we took while we were in China last November. I have more, but will have to find them (Donnie stores pics in one place in the computer, and I in another!!)

ENTERTAINING IS HARD WORK!!

Uncle Raymond and Aunt Cayrn and cousin Gina came for a visit Sat. Raymond is my younger brother and he lives about three hours north of us. This is only the second time he has seen her (he came Christmas Eve). So Momma go out the camera, and had a ball taking pics. I have limited pictures of her with other extended family members, but I will post pics of Emily with grandparents and aunts and uncles later. I need to make more of an effort to get more pictures of E. with friends and family.

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.....

This was taken the day Emily came to the orphanage - 12/23/2006

This is her hands and feet - "inked" 1-30-2007

REFERRAL PICTURE

This was taken June 27,2007

We received the first pictures of our sweet Emily on Aug. 2, 2007. What a day!!! I had a funeral to go to in the morning and recieved "The call" in the afternoon. The first picture of her I saw took my breath away!! I never expected her to be as beautiful as she is/was. I was also blown away by her age - 7 1/2 months at referral. I was anticipating her being closer to 1 year or more. As for Daddy, he couldn't come home from work so that we could see her picture together, but he was just as excited as I was. This is typical Donnie personality: He couldn't see her picture till he killed the ants on the sidewalk!!!


To all of you still waiting, be encouraged . The wait is well worth it!! It is hard to beleive it has been since we first laid eyes on our precious baby.


To celebrate our anniversary, we are going to take Emily to the park. I'll post pics of our special time later.

MONKEY GIRL

She "mastered" the gate several months ago - she just isn't sure what to do when she gets to the top - it also is hard on the toes!!! (Emily and the gate are both 30")
The window ledge is about 18 inches off the ground
She loves to walk around on the window sill, and play peak-a-boo with the curtains!!
Oscar on duty as "Mommy lookout"

YES, WE HAVE A CLIMBER!!

And this is only what I caught pictures of today!! I wish you could see the expression on her face - she is so proud of herself!!!

We "retired" the highchair last weekend (we now have a booster seat). We were forever making her sit in her highchair - she could climb out of HC if she wanted to, she just didn't know she could!!

She has been "practicing" on trying to get out of her crib. For several months now she has been able to get one leg on the top rail, but then doesn't know what to do. The last couple of days she has been trying to climb onto the attached changing table portion of her bed - it is only a matter of time!!

As you can tell, I have to watch her constantly, she can climb anything, and isn't afraid to try new mountains!!

BUSY WEEKEND

SEE MY "BEAUTIFUL BOD" - MY GRANDMA TAUGHT ME THIS TRICK!!

I LOVE YOU MS. MARY - THANK YOU FOR HELPING MY MOM AND DAD BRING ME HOME. I AM VERY HAPPY AND WELL ADJUSTED.

This Momma is getting way too old for jam packed weekends!!!

Friday night I went scrapbooking. Had a great time, and did some really cute layouts of Emily. I stayed out till 2:00 AM and had to get up at 6:30 - UGH!!! The church that I scrapbook at once a month (not my church) is having a all night scrapbook fellowship in Sept. I was really excited about that, but I will need to either get Daddy or someone to watch Emily while I sleep most of Sat., or just not stay so late - The 2:00 AM and taking care of a baby the next day whipped me!!! We also ran the roads, swam at Grannys and had a party for Granny's birthday, and just plain had an action - packed weekend. The social worker came Sunday for the last post placement visit. We have now completed all the requirements for the adoption. YIPPEE!!
Here are some pics of Emily with Mary, our social worker.

WATER BABY

Emily just loves water. She thinks it is so cool that you can do so many things with it - drink it, bathe in it, and play in it. She loves the sound of water as well. When it rains, she stands at the window and says water.

Here she is swimming with her Daddy on July 4th. Daddy would put his hand over her mouth and hold her nose and put her under the water, and she loved it!! If Daddy got her face too close to the water, she would just choke and sputter. She really wanted Daddy to just let go of her. She also enjoyed jumping off of the ladder.

She is our water baby!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

THE CIRCUS

The white tiger - isn't this a cool picture?!
Daddy bought her this silly clown hat. Mom's reaction - You paid WHAT?!
Emily and mommy jumping rope with the pretty ladies

We took Emily to the circus last weekend. She loved it. Her eyes were as big as saucers. Daddy wasn't thrilled about going to the circus - he went at age 11 and didn't enjoy it - but he loved the circus through Emily's eyes.

She loved the clown - she let him hold her and she "beeped" his nose!! She enjoyed the elephants too. She said "Wow". The dog act was probably her favorite. It was 6 mini dashounds - 5 were brown and one was black. Her dog is black - we told her that was Dog!! Her little face lit up!! We asked her how Dog got to the circus, do you think he will beat us home, did he runaway and join the circus????

MISS PERSONALITY

Just a little post about Emily...no pictures!! She has quite the personality!!

• She is very much a people person. For that I feel very blessed, even though I have to watch her because she will go with ANYBODY!!
• Loves her dog. She calls him DOG most of the time. She sticks her tongue out and curls it when she says dog. She loves to tell him "git, git git" when he gets in my lap. She has also started saying "dog mean" and "dog bites". All of her bobo's are dog's fault she says. (She is mean to the dog, he is very good to her and would not hurt her for anything)
• She has started noticing bobos. She will point to a scratch (she scratches herself alot), and will fake cry and want you to kiss her bobo.
• If I am holding her and take her over and tell her to kiss daddy, she gets me by the back of my head and daddy by the back of the head, and wants us to kiss each other and leave her alone!!!
• She says she is daddy's girl. If I ask her is she is momma's girl or baby, she says dada.
• she refers to herself as a baby. If you call her a big girl, she says "no, baby."
• She calls her blankets baby, or bebe....It took me almost a month to figure that one out!!
• She isn't afraid of anything!!

Okay, I could go on and on....but I am sure you are bored already. Just one blessed momma here who can't say enough about her baby. I feel so blessed...I could not have asked for a better child. I don't think I could have prayed for a child as sweet, loving, beautiful....

WHAT??!! 18 MONTHS OLD???

Yup, Emily is 18 months old today. And my is she growing. I bet she has grown atleast three or four inches since she has been home. She is finally starting to pick up some weight as well. She weighed 19 lbs. and 13 oz. at last Dr. appt. about 2 weeks ago. We go at the first of July for our 18 month well baby check up. I am anxious to see how tall she has gotten. When we brought her home at almost 11 mo. she was 17 lbs. and 27 (I think) inches tall.

Not much new, just same old stuff. Emily's newest thing is to tell Daddy when he comes home from work that she wants to go out for ice cream (she signs Ice cream and please.....yes Daddy melts and readily takes his two favorite girls for ice cream). And as you can tell by the pics, she is ready to drive. It has been Donnie's joke that she is growing up so fast, that she will be asking for the car keys next week.

At the end of this month, the circus is coming to town, and we are taking Emily....I can't wait. Some other events that we are doing this summer: swimming at Granny's, going to the park (there is a state park about 45 min. from here that has fun sprinklers, fountains and such for the kiddos to play in), 4th of July picnic at church, 4th of July(Mommy can't wait to get pics of her decked out in red, white and blue.

I have also started scrapbooking again. I have so many things to scrap, that I don't know where to start!!!

ENJOY THE PICS.

POOL TIME

Emily just LOVES water. We have a little pool for her at our house, which I have gotten her in several times. She loves for us to sit on the ground and put our feet in and splash her. Then Granny has a 4 ft above ground pool at her house. Emily can't wait to get in it. Daddy put her up on the side and put her feet in - she thought that was the greatest thing. She would purposely get her feet "dirty" so that Daddy would wash them in the pool (Granny and Daddy were working on getting it cleaned and ready for summer).

COUSINS

Donnie's Aunt Mary, his cousin Tracy and husband Jerry and their two children came in for the long holiday weekend. We all had a great time. Emily loved playing with the babies, as she called them. She is right in the middle of them age-wise. Tracy suffered with infertility for a long time before she had her children, so it is extra special to us to have pictures of our babies together. Three miracle blessings!!

PHOTOS

me and mommy - photo taken Nov. 6, 2007
SSSSSHHHHHHHH
I Love Yogart!! It is good for the skin and hair!!
OREOS!!! Yes, I eat the filling first!!

Here are some recent photo of Emily. She is getting so big. The first picture of Mommy and Emily was taken the day after we got her.

JUST A LITTLE UPDATE

Well my goal was to post 3 times a month and it has now been well over a month since I posted. BAD MOMMY!! Sorry no pics this time (it is 11:00 pm, and I am exhausted.)
1) Mothers Day
2) Baby Dedication
3) Emily has been home for 6 months
4) Mommy and Daddy's 15 year anniversary
5) Emily is now 17 months old
6) Talks up a storm
7) Signs over 60 sign language signs
8) Loves to swim and just be outside
9) Loves Walmart (it sounds so cute when she says Walmart)
10) Is finally sleeping all night