Our 3rd Anniversary

Today is Shawn and my 3rd anniversary, although we celebrated on Saturday night.  My parents kept Emily overnight so we were able to go out to dinner and out for some drinks after.  We had a great time and it was nice having some baby-free time!  When we got home, we even broke into the wine we made for our wedding.  The original plan was to drink it on our first anniversary, but since I was pregnant, that didn't happen.  I think we just forgot about it last year.  Let's just say, I don't think it got better with age.  :)  But I still liked it.  Of course, I had to make Shawn watch our wedding video too.  I especially wanted to watch the slideshow we played from our rehearsal dinner.  It has baby pictures of each of us and it made me realize that Emily is actually a good mix of both Shawn and I.  Overall, we had a great night celebrating 3 years!  To many more. . .

Happy 17 Months!

Here's what's happening with Emily at 17 months:

 - She's wears size 12-18 month clothes, size 4 shoes, and size 4 diapers.

 - She has 10 teeth - 6 on top and 4 on bottom.  We didn't even realize she got her two more teeth on the top until the other day.  She was laughing and I happened to see 2 new teeth on top.

 - She's learned a few more signs this month at school - crayon and baby.

 - She's given hugs for a while now if you asked her, but just recently she has started giving kisses too!

 - She loves building with her blocks and is getting good at building too.  She can stack 5 or 6 blocks now.

 - She tries to put her clothes, shoes, and socks on (unsuccessfully though)

 - Her vocabulary has increased a ton this month.  As of today she can say "mama, dada, bye, more, mine, ball, bird, ta ta (thank you), blue, shirt, shoe, bye bye, night night, ticka ticka ticka (tickle), truck, sock."  That's all I can think of right now, but I know she says even more.

 - She can point to most of her body parts when asked - nose, head, mouth, ears, eyes, tummy, feet, etc.

 - Brushing her teeth is slowly getting better.

 - She's still a very picky eater and isn't good about trying new things (this drives Shawn crazy!)

 - She's starting to put up more of a fight at bedtime.  As a result, her bedtime has moved from 7:00 to about 7:30 now by the time she's down.

Saturday

Pretty creative title, huh?  My creativity is running low today.  We had what seemed like a busy day today.  We went to Little Gym this morning and then this afternoon, we went over to our friends, Tommy and Jenny's house to celebrate Aubrey's 1st Birthday.  It was such a nice day out (sunny and 80!) that when we got home we played outside on the swing set.  I'm loving this weather and it's supposed to be like this all week!

Is it just me or does Emily look like such a big girl with these pigtails in?!

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Shawn and I are getting to go see a movie tomorrow morning.  Can't wait!  

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Dallas Zoo

Shawn and I took Emily to the Dallas zoo today.  Papa Mike came with us too!  We woke up early (even though it was daylight savings) and we were at the zoo by 10:00.  It was nice getting there early and beating some of the crowds. 

We started in the children's zoo area and Emily loved it.  There were goats, ponies, ducks, rabbits, pigs, and fish to look at.  She loved the giant fish the best.

The next stop was the primates area.  This was probably my favorite.  I loved watching the monkeys swing around.  They had several different types.  We also saw some kangaroo's.  Although most of them were more interested in sleeping then jumping around.

Next stop was the predatory animals.  Unfortunately, we didn't see too many of the lions and tigers.  We did see a couple of cheetah's though.  By this point, Emily was more excited to be able to just run around.

Our last stop was the Giants of the Savannah.  This was a really neat area.  It was very open and there were lots of giraffe's and elephants.  

Overall, we were very impressed with the Dallas zoo.  Everyone always talks about the Fort Worth zoo, but I thought the Dallas zoo was great.  We stayed just under 3 hours and we still didn't get to see everything.  We missed the gorillas and also didn't get a chance to take the monorail or ride the carousel, but since we decided to buy a year long season pass, we'll be back!

Yard Work

Since it was such a pretty day outside, Shawn decided he would do some much needed yard work.  We needed to have all of our flower beds cleaned out and new mulch put down.  I took Emily out to help him once she woke up from her nap.  She's a great helper!

We had to tell her the tulips weren't weeds and didn't need to be picked.

Shawn hard at work.

I picked a weed, Daddy.

Look, here it is.

Good job, Em!

Can you tell how much this little girl loves her Daddy?

I need to rest. . .



And of course we can't go in the backyard without swinging.

Randomness

Emily got another Happy Gram today!  2 in just a few days.  These little notes make me so happy! 

I was so happy when I got home and saw this came in the mail today. . .





It's my blog book!  It's all my posts from 2009 and 2010.  I read it cover to cover tonight!  :)  I love having all our memories printed now in a book.

Flashback Friday . . .Our Trip to Boston and Cape Cod

As I mentioned in a previous Flashback Friday post, Shawn and I were also able to take a trip to Boston and Cape Cod when his job sent him there for work. 

We went in August 2006 and had a great time. It was the first time I had ever been to Boston, as well as the Cape and I really liked both of them.   My brother and sister-in-law happened to be in Boston at the same time for a wedding, so we got to meet up with them 1 day.

The first few days of our trip we stayed in downtown Boston.  I don't remember the exact area, but we stayed at the Omni Parker Hotel.  It's a historical hotel and it's the birthplace of the Boston Creme Pie.  The location was perfect. . .right in the middle of everything.

Our first day we walked the Freedom Trail, checked out Faneuil Hall, ate at Cheers and just took in all the sights. 

My cousin lives in Boston, so Shawn and I met her for dinner our first night there.  Although I must not have taken any pictures at dinner.

Our second day we met up with Kevin and Julie.  This was one of my favorite days.  We took the Duck tour and also went on a tour of Fenway.  Both were so much fun and highlights of the trip.

Afterwards we did some more walking around.  We stopped by Sam Adams grave and took a picture near the only bar that you can drink a Sam Adams and see Sam Adams grave. 

Late that afternoon, Shawn and I made the drive to the Cape.  We stayed in Chatham at the Sandpiper Inn (sadly it just recently closed).  It was such a quaint hotel right on the water with it's own private beach.

On our drive in we went out to dinner at the Lobster Boat and I had my first taste of lobster, ever!  Up until then, I was not a big fan of seafood.  But, I figured if I was going to try it anywhere, the Cape was the place.

Our first full day on the Cape we just laid out on the beach, did some shopping, and then went to a nice dinner.  The Cape is definitely a place you go to when you want to relax. 

Before making the drive back to city, we drove all around the Cape.  We went up to Province Town and stopped to see some of the beaches.  They were all so pretty!

We stayed in Cambridge our last day and walked all around Harvard.  I guess I didn't take any pictures of it though. 

Overall, we had a great time and it was fun to go back last year.