82 Party Themes

 Please look at my sweet Grandma! I'm so excited we were here to celebrate her 82nd birthday this week. And did we celebrate! The kids (a 4 year old, almost 3 year old, almost 2 year old and 6 month old) were in charge! ha! You name a kids theme...and it was included in this wild get together!

 Grandma didn't even make it into the entry way before they were giving her her present and  ripping into. I think she liked her new purse and wallet, but we didn't get to ask her because it was onto more of the fun.

 The kids picked the cake. Yes, there was a princess theme, but if you look behind the crown there is also a dinosaur (theme #2). You should have seen the bakeries face when they said they wanted a princess/dinosaur cake.

 Notice the party hats and you can see a peak of the balloons. There was a Disney balloon, spiderman, Tinkerbell, star, etc...the themes were endless :)

 Thrilled about their party hats.

 ARRRGGHH! An 82nd party is NEVER  complete without a pirate game :)

 Singing and ready to dig in!

 Sugar High!

 Princess! (yes, that is the crown from the cake...party favor for Miss Stella)

Sweet Hunter sharing (ok, he was eating Grandmas after his) cake with Grandma Reen.

We LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!! Thank you for allowing this wild bunch to throw you the BEST party yet!

Half a Year...What?!?

HAPPY 6 MONTHS EMERSON!

 YOU ARE OUR JOY!

 WE CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ALREADY BEEN HALF A  YEAR!

WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR YOU AND THOSE SWEET BABY BLUES!

I really can't believe it's already been 6 months!
I'll admit there were days I thought we'd never reach this point, but now that we have I have to say it's flying by.
Little Miss Thing had a growth spurt these last couple months.

Stats...
27.4 inches long = 90th percentile (she was 50th percentile at 3 months)
15.4 ounces = 50th percentile

Emerson is wearing 6-9 months clothes, size 2 diapers.
She is eating some solids and loves it. So far, avocados are her favorite! She doesn't have much of a menu but we're adding to it! Poor thing has been teething for forever but has nothing to show for it yet :(
And it seems like her reflux is letting up, so things for this sweet pea are looking up.

Time flies when you're having fun and boy oh boy we're having a blast!

Potty Training Boot Camp

I'm proud to say my almost 3 year old is potty trained!

Some of you have asked me (ok, maybe 2 people asked, but I want to document it either way) how we conquered the potty.

Well, first of all we waited until she seemed ready...she was MORE than ready.

Then...

 Stella and I had a potty date to walmart to gear up for the week at home in panties. She was very thorough while trying to pick the perfect potty seat. (we don't even use it anymore, but it made her more excited at first, so it was worth it)

 Then Stella picked out a treat she was rewarded with for peeing on the potty. Star Marshmellows did the trick.

 Loaded up. Notice she picked the princess seat. And yes, lots of juice. Stella normally just drinks water and milk but in an effort to get her "extra" hydrated so we could jump start the trips to the bathroom we loaded up on Cars Juice:)

 Of course we picked out the perfect panties...hehe.

 We had reading material just in case a little extra time on the potty was needed. Nothing like reading a little Bible to motivate you :)

And of course we had a BIG treat (ie: ice cream with gummy worms) when she had no accidents and FINALLY went #2.

Ok, so now you've seen all our supplies. This is what we did. I cleared off my calendar for an entire week and we decided to hunker down at home and play, pee, drink, pee, eat, pee,...you get the idea. I started the week by setting a timer EVERY 15 minutes and taking Stella to the potty. She HATED that! HATED it. She was excited to be in her panties,  but she didn't like go to the bathroom so often so I stretched it to 30 minutes...she didn't like that much better. So, pumping her full of juice and water she just started telling me she had to go and that was it. We were DONE with the timers and my constant nagging. Stella hasn't had one accident in the last month since we started this. Going #2 was a BIG struggle at first, but she's finally coming around. She wouldn't have accidents she just wouldn't go.

I realize potty training is different for every child and we waited LONG enough to toss the diapers. I'm glad we waited until she was ready because my strong will child could havemade this a wild ride.

So, there you go..that's how we did it. If you're entering this fun phase of "toddler-hood" GOOD LUCK!

Stella's Interview and Pics of Emme

A few days ago my friend, Jennifer, interviewed her son for a little afternoon fun. I thought it was a cute idea so I did the same with Stella. I hope to do it again and compare answers as she gets older.

Please look at this pose. When she tried this swimsuit on she said "Mommy take my picture. This suit is cute." OH MY!

What is your name? Stella

How old are you? 2. After my birthday I'll be 3.

What is your favorite color? ummm, ummm, milk.

Who is your best friend? I don't know. My princess.

What is your favorite animal? Horse.

What are you going to be when you grow up? I'm going to be a bad girl. (oh Lord help us!)

What is your favorite book? Cat in Hat

What makes you happy? Sallie and Cilla

What makes you sad? A boy from school. (she said his name but I'm protecting him, ha)

What is your favorite food? peas, carrots, turkey, grapes, broccoli, and meal (oatmeal)

What is your favorite song? Mickey Guitar song

What is your favorite game? Hide and Seek & Coloring.

 I'm so behind on posting so I decided to take some of my phone pictures of sweet Emerson and include them in this random post. Here she is in her Sunday best.

 Watching daddy one EARLY morning.

Helping me in the kitchen.

 Sitting up like a big girl and VERY proud of herself.

I think she's trying to decide if she wants to suck her thumb. Only time will tell, but I sucked mine til I was seven. ha!

Pretty Princesses

 OH my word! When did these two grow up? I swear it was just yesterday Sallie's mom, Renee, and I would bump (literally and figuratively) at church and wonder what are sweet girls would be like. Well, almost 3 years later it's obvious....

 they're princesses! Stella and i don't get to see Sallie and Renee often, but it's always a fun time when we do. We finally had them over today and the girls played together great (for the most part). And soon before they left the girls decided to be princesses. I love that Sallie is also holding the Rapunzel doll.

 When we were helping into their "gowns" Stella was frantically looking for her crown and she informed me, "You can't be a princess without a crown." Now I know :)
By the way Sallie is a month older than Stella..last year they were both into Mickey and had Mickey b-day parties...this year they're both having princess parties.

The two princesses watched a little Alice in Wonderland and then it was nap time. As I'm writing this Stella is napping, but you should know she's now wearing the Rapunzel dress. Yes, she's even a princess when she sleeps. (sidenote: I would letter her wear her Belle dress to bed because there's too much glitter, so we compromised:))
As always it was fun to catch up with Renee. She really has the sweetest spirit and is super encouraging. It was also fun to sit back and hear the two little princesses carry on little conversations...such a fun age!

Happy Birthday Mollie Beth

 We had a busy Saturday. We kicked it off with a party for Stella's sweet friend Miss Mollie Beth.This is the best picture I could of both of them. They were too busy getting ready to splash around.

 The cute birthday girl wasted NO time getting wet!

 Stella wasn't sure about the sprinkler ball, ha!

 But this thrill seeker was in love once she found the slide/pool around the corner.

 I'm pretty sure she was saying again here.

 The birthday girl with her GOLDEN cake for her GOLDEN birthday...3 years old on the 3rd! Happy birthday Mollie Beth.

After the birthday party, Stella and I ran home. She went down for a nap and this cutie and I headed out to a baby shower for Mindi and sweet Emma Grace (on the way).

I went to a couples wedding shower later that evening. It was a busy day, but it was so fun to celebrate so many different stages in life with sweet friends! LOVE YOU ALL!

Make It a Better Day

 My daddy gets up at WHAT time?

It's ok because my daddy makes it a better day :) Emerson is a big fan of our local NBC stations, KNWA Today. She usually catches the last few minutes of the show. She is a big fan of watching her daddy on the news. I'm not kidding when I tell you that she turns her head in all sorts of directions trying to find him when she hears his voice come on. Sometimes she's so distracted I can't feed her, so off goes the TV. :)

Anyway, Tom's co-anchor gave this to Emme when she was born and it finally fits. She was pretty proud to support her daddy the other day.

I just love those cheeks!

PS "Make it a better day" is the shows theme/motto