Seasonally Challenged

This is Kentucky weather in a nutshell, right? Daffodils blooming and 5 1/2 inches of snow. I'm slow to get these pictures up but given that it's Kentucky, there could still be snow. I think it has snowed on or near my birthday before (April 26th). I remember going to Thunder Over Louisville my junior year of college and it was snowing/sleeting and frigid (Kastle girls - remember we camped out at my Granny's house?). 

 

She's a peeping Em. 

 

Then we had a baby snow shower before church one Sunday. I took Em out to take pictures because I was afraid it was going to be the only snow this year.

THEN....we had a random 5 1/2 in snowfall over night. And it was the "best" kind of snow with no real traffic issues. Again, before work in the morning we took her out in it. The last time the snow had stuck, it was gone after lunch so we couldn't risk it.

Before wipe out.

After wipe out, courtesy of daddy.

That's a lot of snow. It was SO beautiful - the trees especially. But we don't have any trees in our backyard, so you got a grill...

Lent, Spring and Bunnies

I recently came across this video from a personal fave, The Skit Guys (www.skitguys.com). They do funny skit videos on various topics - sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're serious. As we get closer to Easter and are in the Easter season, I sort of wanted to focus on something other than Easter eggs and candy. I've been looking for some Easter decorations that point to the Christian history of the holiday - the reason for this season-and they're hard to come by! But you can get any kind of basket, Easter bunny, eggs, candy, etc. 

And trust me, I love the candy. I remember I used to be AMAZED by the many Easter baskets I received from the bunny himself as well as family members. LOVED it. So much candy and all for me (yeah, great values, eh?). 

And I don't choose the "reason for the season" as my "one issue" or soap box as a Christian. If you're Christian, celebrate the Christian aspect. If you're not a Christian, why would I expect you to celebrate that aspect of it. I maintain the stance that Wes and I take on Valentine's Day - we celebrate our love on a regular basis and don't want/need a specific day on our schedule to recognize it. Same for Christmas and Easter. As a Christian, I hope my life is defined by my love for God, for him sending Jesus to die for my sins, and for the miracle of Jesus raising from the dead 3 days later. I hope I live my life in a way that pleases God, the creator and Jesus, the savior. I don't need a specific day in Spring or Winter to thank God for sending Jesus to earth and raising him from the grave. But, as a Christian, I should be all the more joyful to celebrate that He Is Risen on Easter. As a Christian, we should have one focus and one purpose regardless of the day, and Easter should be no different.

SO - get your bunny on. Get your basket on. Eat your candy. Or don't if you're giving it up for Lent. Take this Easter to set the goal to celebrate our Savior on a regular basis, and make it Easter and/or Christmas every day in some way. And check out the video about The Rabbit and The Resurrection. AND (I'm like the Coke Zero commercial) find a church to go to on Easter to celebrate the joy of the day with others - if you're in Lexington (or surrounding areas), join me at Turning Point Church off Leestown Rd. Our service starts at 10am (every Sunday) and will be a casual environment. We start our new message series on Easter: "Baggage: check it once and for all."

Merry Easter!

Emersen's Arranged Marriage

This is Sam Woodyard. And Wes is trying to setup an arranged marriage. I mean he's cute, but a younger man! Our friends welcomed Sam about 3 weeks ago. We're super happy for them because babies are awesome! He is SO little and SO cute. We visited again yesterday and I took a few pictures and wanted to share...break up the monotony of Emersen's face all the time. It's a trip for me to hold little babies because it's an experience I simply haven't had with my own child. Emersen was 10lbs 14oz when she was born...that's a 3 month old for some people. I think Sam is just at about 8 lbs right now. 

Anyway, enjoy this baby face!

Little Girl's Night

Sweet? Or evil?

The Cecil girls and this Cooper girl had a ball playing together.

I just want to EAT HER UP!

This is she-woman, hear her roar. She's 6 months old and does one handed pilate's moves. Amazing.

Love seeing the little girls playing together - so sweet. Remember my little girl friends when I was little. Next to come will be sleep overs and dress up. LOVE IT!

Spring Before the Storm

A couple weeks ago I was sick and stayed home. I hadn't slept much because of a cold of some sort and my stomach had been bothering me. Fortunately, it was one of the first of these really nice days and was about 60 degrees. So we went outside - get some fresh air instead of germ-y air. Em loved it and I couldn't believe how much it helped just to sit in the sun and warmth! 

This of course is prior to the tornado outbreak we've since had that was followed two days later by 5 inches of snow which was followed a day later by 68 degrees. Welcome to Kentucky - seasonally challenged. I have more pictures of Emersen experiencing the slide for the first time that I still need to add. I had prints made to send some friends and family and wanted them to see the pictures first before I posted them here, so I'm a little behind. But my next day off has a forecast of 77 degrees and sunny so there will probably be more outdoor adventures posted soon! 

Happy Spring!

What She Loves

 

Here is my sweet girl. She is getting so tall. And her hair is getting so long. And she is like 10 years old or something! I can't believe how much she can communicate, understand and do these days. 

It's SO SO SO fun!

Don't ask me why she's trying to smell and/or eat the sock. It's unbelievable the amount of random socks we find around the house. She picks them up, carries them around, hugs them - you name it. She loves socks. 

Speaking of things Emersen loves, I wanted to include a few others:

My dad found a Dora Backpack toy second hand for Em to play with and she fell in love with backpack. She sings the song a little bit - Wes knows all the words. Abby Cadabby is on one of her cups. I don't know that she LOVES Abby but she sort of acknowledges her...

Her eyes light up and mouth drops open when I get out the Cheerios box. And she LOVES local commercials, specifically local lawyers. And car commercials. She loves go-go's, which are cars.

I highly recommend this First Words book. I think I finally found it on Toys-R-Us's website in this exact form, which is the one Emersen reads. She LOVES this book. And she can identify SO many of the items in the book now. We can tell her to find the fish page and she opens it to the Underwater Friends pages. She knows the foods, of course. And there is a Transportation page she loves because of her go-go's and airplanes. And Wes has started doing This Little Piggy to Em's toes. She is signing for "more" before the little piggy wee-wee's it's way home. She wants to do it again and again!

This is a bowl of vegetable soup. Now I don't know if Em loves all vegetable soup, but she does love my mom's vegetable soup. She had it for dinner last night and just kept saying "mmm" after every bite. Crazy kid. But anybody who has had my mom's soup can attest that it's pretty darn good. 

Other things Em is loving right now is her stuffed animals - a little dog, a panda, a bear, and a couple baby dolls. She is still doing air traffic control with the airplanes. She LOVES the wind in her hair in the car she got her her birthday that we push her in on walks. She likes to "go" on rides in the car. She loves to look out our front window with the blinds open, and/or the side lites to the door. Her words right now are:

uh oh, go go, go go go cats, da (yes), ba ba (bye bye), some version of good night or night night, pillow, ruff, bye bye grandma, mama/mom and dadda/dad/daddy. I think that's about it? She sometimes repeats a word we use, but not again. But she communicates with us very well. She is pretty obedient most of the time. And I can't even believe how well she is eating. She eats all of her breakfast by herself usually using a fork and/or spoon depending on what she is eating. 

I simply can't believe what she is capable of as a 17 month old - they develop SO fast! 

Hodge Podge