Easter 2011

This was Emery's second Easter but her first Easter that she really got to participate in. We went over to Matt and Niki's for a little egg hunt and a delicious lunch. Matt's mom, Niki's parents and David's parents came too. We had a lot of fun watching our girls play. They sure do love each other and we get the biggest kick out of watching them together. Here are some pictures of our afternoon...











Best friends for ever! We love our best friends Matt and Niki and hope our girls will feel the same way about each other! So far, we're pretty sure they do.

I love Saturdays

I love weekends with my two favorite people! David was taking photos Saturday morning and this is what Emery and I were up to. As you can see, she's hard to keep up with!

Played for a little bit in the den...

Helped mom with some laundry.Emery 's not a huge fan of me putting away her clothes. She likes to empty the drawers just after I fill them up!

Here's all that's left in her pajama drawer...one pair of pj's and a random maraca!

Then we moved back to the den for some lunch. I have been bad lately and have been letting her watch "Wonder Pets." She loves it! As you can see she doesn't like the fact that I was blocking her view...

WAY to into this show!!! At least I got her mess cleaned up though!

We had a fun three day weekend! Emery and I watched a mama bird build a nest. She was fascinated! She loves birds and could watch them all day long. I even got her to say tree and nest! She is learning so many new words. I love it! We also played in the backyard and found a lady bug. It crawled on our hands for a long time and Emery was very gentle with it.

The weekend passed by way too quickly. I am so ready to do these things every day this summer. It can't come soon enough!

David took some pictures of Emery and Maddie hunting for eggs this morning. I'll hopefully get around to posting those sometime this week! Of course, he won't let me just post them the way they are - he must edit them... :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Dear Cancer

A friend of mine posted a letter to cancer a couple days ago. Well, I say she's a friend even though we haven't met yet - I know we will be dear friends as our babies both have been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. It will be so nice to have another mama to talk to about what our babies are experiencing. I have already enjoyed getting to encourage her as she and her family are just starting their journey. Emery's story is precious to us and it makes us so happy getting to share it with others.

So, anyway, here's my letter to cancer and a few pictures to show just how far our little miracle has come. Go here to write your own letter to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Dear Cancer,
You tried to take by baby girl when she was only a couple months old. She was so tiny, so fragile. You made my baby roll over for the first time in a hospital. You made my baby girl need occupational therapy. And worst of all, you made my baby girl go through chemotherapy, blood/platelet transfusions, hundreds of needle sticks, and scans I wish I didn't know about. You made our baby girl endure things in her first few months of life that I wouldn't wish on anyone. You scared us to death. Unfortunately for you, our daughter is a fighter. She made it through surgery and four rounds of chemo and handled it all beautifully. She is now a precious 16 month old little girl - perfect in every way. You lost. We won. Our God won. He is her healer, her protector and you will never reside in her perfect body again. Remember that.

Bonnie

Look at how far Emery has come... here she is the day after we arrived in Houston after her tumor biopsy surgery.

Daddy reading to Emery - Psalm 91 - "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."

Here's Emery and the best oncologist ever, Dr. Thompson. This was at her check-up this summer in Houston.
As you can see, cancer has not slowed her down. She is all over the place - keeping us plenty busy.

We love you little girl...

Maybe it was a fluke!

And she hasn't done it since...wish we had gotten it on video!

Gotta brag a little...

This may be totally normal for her age...if so, don't burst my bubble! Tonight David and I were giving Emery a bath and she was playing with her bath toys as always. We started quizzing her to see which animals she knows and which ones she doesn't. She correctly identified (on her first try, might I add) penguin, shark, dolphin, pig, duck, and hermit crab! The only one she didn't know was the whale! Now, she can't say these words but she sure does know which ones we were asking her to hand us. She has been able to give me the duck and pig for a long time now but we hadn't tried any of the others. We were quite impressed with our little Emery! Just had to brag a little! I hope you're all having a good night!

Sweet Cousins

Sarah, Miles, Elle and Beck came to visit the end of February and I never posted any pictures from their visit. It was so much fun having them here for the weekend. It is a long drive from Dallas, so we were very happy they made the trip all the way here to see us.

Emery and Elle played all weekend long! They played at the park, played dress-up, and had lots of fun in the bath. I hate that they don't get to see each other very often but I know when we all get together again they will pick up right where they left off.

Beck was a sweetheart. Such a good baby! I look forward to having an easy second child as well! Did you hear that, Lord?! :) He was absolutely adorable. It was so good to see him and hold him again!


David had some fun taking pictures of the girls in their semi-matching outfits. We thought they had the same shirts, but turns out they were a little bit different. They still looked cute though!

Elle and Emery thought it was the most hilarious thing let the dogs lick their hands through the gate! They were giggling so hard. It was precious.


I think we were cheering for Emery here because she didn't want to smile! She joined right in!

Elle was so sweet with Emery. I loved hearing her say Emery's name. Such a sweet voice...

Elle loved giving Emery hugs...and I think we were telling her to make sure Emery didn't fall off the chair!
Fun at the park!
Aunt Sarah swinging with Emery.
Elle loving the slide! She is so much fun!

We had a fun, relaxing weekend. I wish we could do it more often. It's so hard when family is so far away. We miss our sisters and sweet nieces and nephews! Emery says everyone should move to Amarillo and we could do this all the time!!

Spring is here!

We are loving this weather! Emery wants to be outside most of the time and I don't blame her. I can already tell this is going to be a fun summer! I cannot wait for school to be out so I can spend every day with my little girl.

We have started walking down to our neighborhood park as often as we can. Emery loves the slides and is absolutely fearless...this scares us quite a bit! Here are some pictures of her going down all by herself. She stayed on her bottom in these pictures but she has stained up quite a few shirts since then going down on her tummy!






I hope you all are enjoying the nice weather as much as we are!

Picture update!

Here are some pictures to make up for the last pictureless post!

This photo is actually quite old and I cannot believe I never posted it! It is absolutely priceless! We thought about using it as our Christmas card this year, but unfortunately changed our minds.

Here's our sweet girl! Bath time is the best!

Here's Emery working on her "I can do it myself" skills. She loves being independent and I LOVE cleaning up her independent messes!

I'm not sure how it ended up in her hair but nothing surprises me anymore!


Here are Emery and Maddie one night at our house after a bath. We get together with Matt and Niki at least once a week. The girls absolutely love each other.

It looks like Maddie is trying to talk Emery into doing something naughty right here...

Goodnight (or nigh-nigh, as Emery says) kisses! Niki and I were talking the other night about how awkward she felt one time when we were in Dallas and Sarah was having Elle give kisses to everyone. Now we are the moms who have our girls give everyone goodnight kisses. They are quite good at it now and Maddie usually wants to go back around for seconds! They are such sweet girls!

We hung out at Matt and Niki's last night and Emery for the first time was a little too rough with Maddie. Maddie recently got a fun little red car and they were taking turns riding in and pushing each other. Maddie apparently has been lifting weights during the week because she could push Emery around all day long. Emery on the other hand was not a huge fan of pushing Maddie. In fact, any time Madeline got in the car, Emery tried her best to pull her out. It was not good. Emery was grabbing her clothes, her head, anything she could get her hands on. I had to get onto her several times for being so ugly to her BFF. I am not looking forward to the "mine, mine, mine" stage. We got them in the bathtub though and it was much better. Emery has recently started dumping cups full of water on her head in the bathtub and decided to try it out on Madeline. Luckily Maddie is such a good sport, because we thought it was hilarious and let it go on probably a little longer than we should have. Emery has also become obsessed with soap and shampoo so she then proceeded to wash Madeline's hair for her. It was quite comical. I wish we had gotten it on video!

Well, I need to find the pictures from February when Sarah, Miles, Elle, and Beck came to visit. Maybe I'll get those posted while Emery is still asleep!