First Movie Theater Outing/Nana's Organ



Fun at Nana's house



Well, found out that Emily has an ear infection so now is on medication for the next ten days! She still has a bad cough that the doctor says may hang around for 2-3 weeks! YEESH!

Friday evening we headed to Nana's house for a nice spaghetti dinner, visiting, playing games, and best of all Nana's fun organ to play! Emily played MANY lovely tunes using many or all of the buttons or gadgets! She LOVED it! Maybe piano lessons are in our future!

Today, Emily, Auntie JuJu and, Mommy went to the movie theater for Emily's first movie experience! She was a little anxious at first, not knowing what to expect for anything new always tends to bring out the anxiousness in her! As soon as we walked in the lobby, her first words were, "Wow, mommy". It was priceless!

We went to the movie RIO. She enjoyed herself immensely, ate popcorn, candy, goldfish crackers, soda, dance in the aisle, and watched the entire movie, all 90 minutes and all!

It was a great first experience at the movies for all of us! Cute movie too!

Enjoy the pictures of the wee one!

Love,

Kathy

At the movies with Mommy to see RIO!

All ready to watch her first movie

Sick Day

Well, we were all ready for work and school this morning, when right after I did Emily's hair, she said "Mommy sick", and proceeded to throw up all over the bathroom floor. Made it to the toilet for the next two times...ugh!! Needless to say I had to scramble to get Auntie JuJu over here as soon as she could, call my school secretary to get a sub, drive out to school to leave a very quick sub note, and then back home to take care of the wee one so JuJu could go to work!

Emily has had a bad cough for a couple days with all of the drainage, and I believe this is what made her sick. No fever and no loss of appetite, but she is going to stay home one more day tomorrow with Auntie JuJu because Mommy has a field trip scheduled at school!

Tonight Miss Emily was drawing at her easel with her new markers and drew Mommy a picture of a person's face and at the bottom she signed her name. She has drawn faces before, but tonight was the first time she drew a face and then when I said to her, "Where is the hair?" she proceeded to add the spikes of hair at the top all on her own!!  I'm sure in the picture you can pick out the letter E, but all of the rest of the writing around the E she says is her name. As she was writing it, she said "E," then mumbled some names of letters," as if she was spelling Emily. She then proceeded to take the picture off the easel and gave it to mommy with a big kiss and an "I wuv you." Talk about a tear jerker moment!

Great moment for Emily and Mommy!
Enjoy,


See the face with hair and her name at the bottom

 Kathy

Bike Riding and the Park

Well, we finally had some nice weather around these parts...nothing like months of rain to get you excited for a dry, yet, overcast day.

Such a big girl!

Emily, Auntie JuJu and I headed to the park and to a nice walking trail for Emily to practice riding her "bike" aka tricycle!

Let's just say, "Man oh man, has she come a LONGGGGGGGGGGGG way" since last summer when she first tried to ride a trike by herself. Last summer she had no leg strength to even push the pedals unless she was pushed from behind.

This is serious business...

Now that some time has passed, AND that she gets to practice riding trikes at preschool, the girl can pedal with the best of them. She only needs help steering ooccasionally and if there is any kind of incline on the path. Other than that she did FANTASTIC!!! She did quite a bit of riding and her little legs were plum tuckered out, but she made it all the way back to the car.

We then headed to another park that had swings for her to play on! Swinging is by far and above her favorite outdoor activity! Today though, she did venture onto some of the different toys at the park. She did the teeter-totter (with doggy of course), rode on some other bouncy toys and did the slide a few times, and most incredible of all was to see her climb up the rope ladders. She could have never done that before with what little strength she had. Today she just had mommy or Auntie JuJu standing behind in case of any tumbles! It was FABULOUS to witness her climbing and playing so  differently than last spring and summer! WOW...what a difference a year makes!
Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Kathy

WOW...I have the whole trail to myself!!



Heading back to the car

Whew...made it back to the car!

Look at me go, go, go

Shirt, Pull-up, and dress-up shoes...

Need I say more than the title??? Emily has been playing all afternoon in just her pull-up from her nap, her shirt, and the ever popular dress-up shoes!! She absolutely LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the new desk and chair from Grandma Judi and Kylie! It is supposed to be for a stuffed animal, but Emily thinks it was meant just for her! She hasn't stopped playing with it since they came for a visit this past Thursday. Thank you Grandma Judi and Kylie!!

Eating at her new favorite spot, notice the shoes

Enjoy the pictures and the rest of your weekend!

Love,
Kathy

My big girl, LOVE this photo, just a little blurry

Future Chef

Future Food Network Star???

I just couldn't resist a post on Emily cooking in her kitchen wearing all of her new cooking gear from Titi. She is such a crack-up and loved wearing the bandanna once we showed her how to wear it! She loves using her hot pads just like Mommy when she takes her creations out of her play oven! Auntie JuJu and I were laughing up a storm, it was way too CUTE!!

Enjoy,

Kathy



Oh...my timer went off...





Don't ya just love the ensemble...PJ's, pink sparkle shoes, and cooking gear...



My darling little cook!!!

Muffins With Mommy

I have the day off from work today so that I could attend Muffins with Mommy at Emily's preschool. It was fun! We slept in a tad later than usual, hey 6:15 is way better than 5 a.m. any day!


Muffins with Mommy



Got ready and headed off. All the way to her school Emily kept asking about nummies at her school and coffee for mommy at her school! Too cute!

We had a nice muffin, some grapes, coffee, and juice (you know which was which) :-)

Had our picture taken, and then went to say hi to Emily's teacher, Miss Katie. Emily got to give Mommy a "prise" and made me close my eyes...a very sweet Mother's Day frame with her hand print and lovely poem!

Now we are back home just waiting for the plumber!! Oh the joys of home ownership!

Emily LOVES grapes!!

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend!
Love,
Kathy

Dancing Queen



I am the greatest ballerina!



Tonight after coming home from preschool and a good play therapy session,  having dinner, and getting jammies on, Emily wanted to dress up in some of her costumes. Upon opening her dress-up trunk, she found a ballet tutu outfit. She immediately wanted help putting it on and proceeded to dance around in Mommy's room in front of the mirrors! Too funny! I just had to share! Nothing like dress-up clothes on over the jammies! The picture with the high heels she told me to take so she could see it on my camera! What a silly sweet girl!

Love,

Gosh am I cute or what?

Kathy

Little does she know she is signed up for dance class in July!

Mother's Day 2011

Our second Mother's Day together as a family, and it was glorious! Emily and I woke up, and lounged around in our jammies, had breakfast, watched her favorite movie, and then Auntie JuJu came over. They secretly went into Emily's room to wrap my gift, which Emily did, and sign my card!! How Sweet!!

Then I had to close my eyes, as Emily is very much into "surprising" people lately, and she "surprised" mommy with a sweet card and a new book by one of mommy's favorite authors, Karen Kingsbury. Then I was surprised with a big bouquet of flowers from Emily as well, (thanks Auntie JuJu).

Then we played for a while before Miss Em went down for her nap. After that we all went out for ice cream. Emily had never been to Cold Stone. Needless to say she loved it! She had cotton candy blue flavor with sprinkles!!

Now we are all watching Emily's new favorite movie, Cinderella!!!

Overall, it has been a very sweet  and relaxing day!

I have included a picture of my darling gift from my darling girl!
Love,
Kathy

Birthmother's Day May 7, 2011

The Saturday before Mother's Day is not a holiday on the calendar, but in the adoption world it is known as "Birthmother's Day". If I could tell Emily's birthmother about Emily, this is what I would like her to know...

The daughter that she wished a better life for is...funny, cute, caring, loving, empathetic, energetic, independent, and cared for

Lover of anything fruit, vegetable or potato

Lover of ANY dog, and pretty much any animal

Attends preschool five days a week and is learning her colors, letters, numbers and shapes

Loves to twirl in her dresses in front of a mirror

LOVES, LOVES, LOVES anything to do with the water and swinging

Adores her close family and friends

LOVES the Lord our God, and prays to Jesus and sings about him daily, as well as wants Jesus to come to our house for pizza!

That she is loved by all who meet her, and that she will be cared for and nurtured and educated so that she may  grow up and become anything she dreams to be!

If I could meet this woman that we will never know, I would like to say "Thank you" for being brave enough to give this child life and want the best for her.

In honor of Emily's birthmother each year we purchase roses for how old Emily is. This year we have four beautiful roses on our table to honor this woman, who somewhere in the Shanxi Province of China is wondering what happened to the little baby she had hopes and dreams for. I would want her to know that those hopes and dreams are my hopes and dreams as well for Emily! She lives in a place now that she can reach for the stars and all of her dreams can come true!

Love,
Kathy

Sun River Weekend!

Well, we ended up going to Sun River, and had a very nice time! Emily did wonderfully well in the car, and her fever was gone by late Friday evening! She had a fabulous time riding the ponies again. She got to do this last summer at our family reunion! The weather was sunny, but still chilly! We even had to go through snow over the pass on the way over Mt. Hood! Yes... I said SNOW in April/May! We just had a nice relaxing weekend, watching movies, playing on the playground, riding ponies, taking walks, shopping, eating out, and of course having ice cream!

Emily had a GREAT time playing on Auntie JuJu's Murphy Bed. She couldn't believe that a bed could come out of the wall! What fun for a four year old! While playing around on the bed, she had major static in her thin hair. The more Julyn and I laughed the more she would roll around on the bed! It was hysterical!

Be sure to come back for more!
Love,
Kathy & Emily