Picasa albums have been updated!
There were just too many birthday pictures to include in a post so I decided to update the web albums that way you could browse only if you wanted!
Stephen brought home Emily this cool lizard from Arizona. It’s one of those that grows when you put it into water. In 72 hours, this orange lizard went from about an inch and a half to filling up the pitcher! Emily LOVED it! Every morning she would say “Daddy!!!! Look how big our lizard is!” It was a fun little project for them.
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- Day 1 1/2
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- Day 2
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- Day 3
my life changed forever. In a very, very good way. At 12:47pm, Emily Grace graced us with her presence. My world has never been the same since. God decided to bless Stephen and I with this perfect little girl who brings so much light into our lives. It’s hard to believe that 3 years have passed already. It just seems like yesterday she was born. I truly believe that she is the best thing that Stephen and I decided to do.
Dear Emily,
You have brought your daddy and I so much joy over the past three years. It’s amazing to watch you grow and change every day. I can’t believe how much you have change just in the past year. You went from this little toddler to a beautiful little girl. You are so full of life and love. You embrace everything full throttle, with open arms.
Because of you, our house is full of laughter and love. I find myself laughing with you and at you every day. You are so funny! Some of the things you say come out of nowhere and crack me up. You love to give hugs and kisses. When you said “I love you Mommy” out of the blue my heart swells and I get tears in my eyes. I wonder how was I ever lucky enough to be blessed to be your mommy?
You are so smart and so talkative. You love life and let everyone know it. You are truly a pleasure and a joy to be around. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for placing you in my care. You bring so much joy to everyone in your family, especially your daddy and I.
I wish nothing but the best for you in your life. I want you to be happy and healthy. I want you to have a full life. I want you to be kind and courteous to everyone around you. I hope all of your dreams come true. I hope you look back on your childhood with happy memories. I know I will.
Love,
Mommy
Our second trip to the land of pumpkins. This place is more about playing than pumpkins though. And the kids LOVE it!
We met Emily’s bestest friend Chase and her awesome mommy Julie there earlier this week. The girls had so much fun. It is so cute to see them walking, holding hands and talking. I know I have said this before..I don’t know if you can have a bff at this young age but if you can Chase is Emily’s. These girl love each other and enjoy each other’s company so much. You can tell by their squeals when they haven’t seen each other in a while.
They had so much fun at Pumpkinland. Emily is such a daredevil and Chase is such a scaredy cat. I guess opposites do attract! Emily has really opened up recently and has no fear on certain things. She had no problem riding the zip swing thing or climbing up the bales of hay. She went through the maze, got lost and found her way through. It was so funny listening to her tell Chase about it while they were lounging on the tire swing. “It was dark in there! I got lost” Chase says “You found your way out though.” They were cracking me up!
Even though the day was overcast, everyone had a great time. Thanks for going with us Julie and Chase!
Have been slowly working on some outdoor Halloween decorations and by slowly I mean one project. I am sad that my giant inflatable Scooby met his untimely maker. Or was it the Christmas one. I am really not sure and am too fat and lazy to figure it out. I really have nothing for outside now.
Ghosts. Tree. Ghost tree. I had an idea. I could make a ghost tree! I just had to decide how to do it. Think, think. That is a feat since I am pregnant as my brain has stopped working. Trash bags. Black and white trash bags. Not sure if ghosts are black but I had some junky black trash bags that I was willing to part with and only so many white grocery bags that hadn’t been recycled. I filled the bags with other bags, pieces of the cut up bags and so forth. I even made one using a paper plate and an old cd. Eclectic. Different. Just plain odd. Not sure. You probably can’t decide by the pictures either but I’ll show you anyway.
Pumpkin farm??? Pumpkin patch??? I get confused…What do you call it? Other than fun?! We usually go to several during the season but due to the yucky rain we only hit 2. We had fun though so quality over quantity!
We hit our first farm/patch this past Sunday. Emily, Stephen and I set off on our adventure after church and lunch. Stephen and I have a “tradition” of going to the same farm for the past several years. In something like 6 years, we had only missed once. Until this year. apparently, everyone decided that Sunday was a wonderful day to go there. Only we didn’t get the memo. We drive over there and see that there is a line of cars about 15 deep just to turn on the road the place is on. No telling how long it would take you to actually get into the parking lot. How enjoyable would it really be if it was that crowded. So we decided to try another one.
And it was SO much better than the first one would have been. It wasn’t crowded and it was free also. There weren’t as many “picture-taking opportunities” but we had a blast. We crossed the troll bridge, walked the troll trail and even did the corn maze. Emily led the way in there. Needless to say, we made our own exit! It was a lot of fun. We found an awesome pumpkin as well. Before we left, Emily had to climb this HUGE haystack tower thing. She has no fear. I couldn’t watch her come down- I was so afraid she would fall!
Even though we didn’t make it to our “traditional” place, we had a blast. Maybe even more fun. The pictures show a happy little girl!
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- She’s so darn cute!
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- Walkin the troll trail
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- In the corn maze
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- Leading the way. Hurry up!!!
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- Queen of the world…or is it princess?
One way Emily and I kept busy while Stephen was in Arizona was going to Quincy with Charla to get some apples and visit some family. We decided that we needed to prepare for our trip first. We chose two apple projects to work on one day after nap.
I must say, I was pretty shocked that Emily did BOTH of these in one sitting. This girl loves her paint and glue. She’s a crafty kid. She worked diligently on both projects for a good 45 minutes. I was impressed.
The first project we did was apple prints. First time I have ever attempted this. I don’t think they turned out too bad. I might try different paint next time. She had a blast doing these. The second thing we did was a paper plate apple. We tore up some red construction paper and glued it to a paper plate. Then she glued on the stem and a leaf that I cut out. She thought it was pretty cool that she got to use the glue by herself.
One thing that I have learned from doing crafts with Emily is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have to let go and let her do it. It’s her craft. It’s perfection in her eyes. And you know what? Each and every piece of artwork she does is perfect because she did it.
I don’t know how single moms do it. I don’t know how married moms handle it when their husbands are constantly on the road. I am SO glad that Stephen is no longer in the consulting business. Sure, the money was nice but his presence is much more valuable. I pray that his job situation stays such that he doesn’t have to go back on the road.
Emily and I were on our own last week…and we survived with flying colors! Stephen was out of town at a conference from Monday afternoon to late, late Friday night. Honestly, it was MUCH better than I had expected. I kept both of us busy most days. More importantly, I kept her busy during the “witching” hours after nap to dinner and until bedtime. We went for walks, went to the Mills and just overall kept busy. I think that was the key.
You would have thought I would have had plenty of time to catch up stuff around the house, blog posts, etc but that wasn’t the case. I was playing around with Emily’s bedtime and decided to push it back to around 8:15 so that left little time in the evening for “me” time. I will eventually get caught up around 2020 but it will be one thing at a time. I have some blog posts to work on but my time is up, as Emily either didn’t nap long or she just rested in her bed. Stupid post man ringing the doorbell, stupid dog barking…
Such is life….
This turned out pretty good and was SUPER easy to make. Emily LOVED this recipe! I will have to try it out on Stephen soon.
Ingredients
- 15 ounces, weight Ricotta Cheese
- 2 whole Eggs
- 4 ounces, weight Mozzarella Cheese, Divided
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Or Dried Parsley
- 1 pinch(es) Black Pepper
- 10 pieces Flour Tortillas (6-Inch Size) Or 6 Larger Tortillas
- 1 jar Or Can (26 Oz.) Pasta Sauce
Preparation Instructions
Mix together ricotta, eggs, 1/2 cup of mozzarella, parsley and pepper.
If using the large tortillas, cut them in half and trim a little off the “points” to roll up neater.
Place a couple spoonfuls of mixture into each tortilla. Spread a little layer over the outer “flap” to help seal it, then roll up the tortilla.
Spread pasta sauce on the bottom of a 9×12-inch casserole dish. Put tortillas seam side down on the sauce and add the remaining mozzarella.
If you want to skip the rolling up, use a smaller dish and make layers of sauce, tortillas, and cheese mixture, adding mozzarella to top. It will taste the same.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Serve with meatballs or sausages.
Found on pioneerwoman.com
A while back, I posted the “100 books every child should read before kindergarten” list that I found on the internet. We have made some progress! Out of 100 books, we have currently read 31. Not too bad for an almost 3 year old. I love that Emily loves books. We seriously go to the library at least once a week – sometimes twice. Our bag is full and we read all of the books at least 3 or 4 times. That’s a love of reading!
100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten
“More, More, More” Said the Baby
A Nap in a Lap
A Splendid Friend, Indeed
ABC, Like Me!
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Alphabet City
Alphabet Rescue
Amazing Grace
An Extraordinary Egg
Angelina Ballerina
Bark, George
Barnyard Banter
Bear in a Square
Big Fat Hen
Book! Book! Book!
Bread and Jam for Frances
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?
Caps for Sale
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chrysanthemum
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Come Along Daisy
Come on, Rain!
Corduroy
Counting Kisses
Curious George
Daisy 1, 2, 3
Does a Cow Say Boo?
Duck on a Bike
Each Peach Pear Plum
Eating the Alphabet
Fancy Nancy
First the Egg
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Freight Train
Goodnight Moon
Gossie
Guess How Much I Love You
Hands Can
Happy Birthday Moon
Hear Are My Hands
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
How I Became a Pirate
I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More!
I Kissed the Baby
I Went Walking
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
In the Tall, Tall Grass
Is Your Mama a Llama?
It Looked Like Spilt Milk
Jamberry
Jazz Baby
Jump Frog, Jump
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Little Red Hen
Little Toot
Llama, Llama Red Pajama
Love You Forever
Maisy Goes Swimming
Make Way For Ducklings
Mama Cat Has Three Kittens
Mama, Do You Love Me?
Max Cleans Up
Max’s ABC
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
Mouse Mess
Mouse Paint
Mr. Grumpy’s Outing
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha
My Friend Rabbit
My Very First Mother Goose
Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs
Old Black Fly
Olivia
One Beautiful Baby
Planting a Rainbow
Rosie’s Walk
Silly Sally
Snowy Day
Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails
Ten Tiny Tickles
Ten, Nine, Eight
The Doorbell Rang
The Hat
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Little Engine that Could
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
The Napping House
The Story of Babar
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Three Bears
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
There’s a Nightmare in My Closet
Wemberly Worried
Where the Wild Things Are
Where’s My Teddy
Where’s Spot?
