Christmas and 13 Months old!

Well, we never got around to taking Christmas pictures and putting together a card. Emery was sick for a couple of weeks and then I got sick. We just didn't get it done! Here are a few pictures that David took of Emery one afternoon when he took pictures for some of our friends. She didn't want to cooperate and just ran around the whole time! There was just too much to see and do! She's a very curious (and nosey) little girl...kinda like her mama. She is very interested in everything and everyone around her. I love that about her cute little personality.




Niki and I wanted to get some pictures of the girls with Santa. Neither of them were too fond of him. Here are some funny pictures to enjoy!

Emery wouldn't sit in Santa's lap so I had to hold her. It's hard to see in these pictures but she has an adorable Santa shirt on!

She was letting Santa have it here! Too funny!

And this one is priceless!

After their traumatizing Santa experience, Santa's little elf gave the girls some candy canes and that made everything all better. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas. Lots of family, lots of gifts, lots of laughs. I have more pictures I need to post from our Christmas in Abilene and here in Amarillo, but this will have to do for now!

Oh, Emery is 13 months old now! Here is what she has been up to:

Saying - "Uh oh" all the time! So cute!
Barks when she hears the dogs barking. It is adorable!
"Heeeeey!" has been saying this for a while but it's still just as cute!
She has said a few words once or twice but not consistently - boot, two, night night

Walking all over the place! Her left leg seems a little weaker (this is due to the Horner's syndrome) but we had her evaluated by a therapist and she's not worried. She thinks Emery will get stronger the longer she is walking.

She loves playing with her babies. She will push them in their stroller, give them bottles, and pat them on the back. It's precious.

She got a kitchen for Christmas and has fun playing with her real stainless steel pots and pans her Aunt Hannah and Uncle Josh got her. She also likes to talk on the phone while cooking. Yes, her kitchen came with a phone. Very realistic!

She also got a soccer ball from Gigi and Pa for Christmas and she loves kicking it around the house and the backyard when the wind isn't blowing like crazy.

She got a wagon from Popi and Grandma for her birthday and that is also one of her new favorite things to do. She loves going for rides in it in the driveway (if I'm being super lazy) or down the street.

She has gotten three teeth! FINALLY! They all came in at the same time so that was a treat...we think she has more coming in again. Not fun!

She has a thing for dog beds. When we are over at Matt and Niki's house, she will disappear sometimes and we will almost always find her on Jerry's bed in Matt and Niki's bedroom. Hilarious. She thinks it is so funny when we find her there. The other day we were at Bo and Rosanne's house and she did the same thing, except this time it was Rowdy's dog bed. She had put Poo Bear in the bed too. We constantly have to keep her off of our dogs' beds too. It totally grosses me out!

Emery is finally eating better. She still has her favorites - fruit, yogurt, and bread. She is getting a little bit better about trying other foods though. Hopefully, she will get less and less picky as she gets older.

Well, this has gone on long enough! Emery is so much fun and I have loved every minute of our two weeks together. Too bad I have to go back to work on Monday. Thank goodness for school holidays! I sure did need it! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. We are so thankful for how well our baby girl is doing and we look forward to what 2011 has in store for us.

One more update...we head back to Houston January 11th. We haven't been since July so we are really excited to see Emery's doctor. Emery will be having her third round of scans since her surgery in April. Her last scans showed no signs of cancer so we're looking forward to more good news this month.

New Nephew!

Our nephew, Robert Beck Durham was born on Emery's birthday! What fun it will be for these sweet cousins to share a birthday! I look forward to many birthday parties and Thanksgivings together! We have so much to be thankful for!



Congratulations Sarah, Miles, and Elle. Beck is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to meet him in a couple of weeks!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Emery turned one year old on November 23rd. I can't believe my baby girl is one year old already! This year has flown by. I'm not sure where the time has gone...it better slow down though because I couldn't handle it if every year went by this quickly.

We had a family birthday party for Emery at Bo and Rosanne's house the weekend before her birthday. It had been a long time since most of us had been together. Hannah, Willow, and Grady were in town from Dallas and Tricia, Steven, Isaac, and Hannah were here from Monroe. It was so fun having all of them there to help us celebrate Emery's birthday. So much to celebrate - so many prayers answered this year. What a little fighter we have. I am so proud to be Emery's mama.

Here are the pictures from her first birthday party.




She wasn't too interested in eating the cupcake. She's not really interested in food period. I thought sweets would be different, but she didn't really care for it!

Here she is opening gifts from all of us. She was really excited when she got this baby doll. She has a lot of babies at Grandma's house but needed some for home. She loves holding them, patting their backs and giving them bottles. So sweet!

Her first puzzle! I absolutely loved puzzles growing up. In fact, I would tell my parents I was going to go "puzzle up" any time I was going to work on a puzzle. They should have known I'd be a math nerd...

Emery LOVES this book from her great Aunt Mary. It makes animal sounds and has pop-ups. Hopefully the pop-ups will survive more than a month...

The next day, we had a birthday party with my girlfriends and their little ones. I cannot believe we didn't get a picture of all of the kids together! Sorry!

Here she is walking around the house with her pretty dress up purse. I believe she was carrying around a bath toy in it!
Precious.
Talking to daddy.
Posing for daddy.
Her bumble bee cupcakes that I made for my special girl!

Happy Birthday Emery!
Eating her cupcake!

Emery and her BFF, Maddie. Emery loves Matt. She smiles at him any time he's around!

Our happy little family. I can't believe it was one short year ago that Emery changed our lives forever. I love her more than I ever imagined I could. I look forward to many more birthdays and the fun memories along the way!

Here's what our girl is doing at one year:

Walking! - started at 11 months
Still saying dada, mama (well, nana some of the time), hi, hey, that
Trying to say - "I love you" , Josie
Stacking blocks and rings
Plays with her tea party set
Loves her babies and loving on them
Loves to dance to music
Loves her baths, will actually lay down in the water now - used to hate it!
Still loves to be rocked to sleep and I love every minute of it!
I'm mixing whole milk in with her formula now to make the switch - so far she hasn't noticed!
She loves cheese, yogurt, and fruit.
She usually will eat pasta but not much of anything else...not sure how I'm going to get her to eat when she's off formula completely.
Not much of a juice drinker, which is okay with me!

Little girl weighed 17 lbs 12 oz at her 1 year appointment - 5th percentile but our dr. is not worried. Neither am I as she is a pound heavier than I was at her age.
She is in the 50th percentile for height though!

We have had two rounds of scans now since her surgery last April. So far there is no sign of cancer in her little body! We are so thankful!

We will go back to Houston in January to see her oncologist there and have her third round of scans. I am looking forward to seeing Dr. Thompson and Dan and Lauren! It will be fun minus the fact that we have to be at the hospital part of the time!

My Little Bumble Bee

Emery was a bumble bee for Halloween this year. She looked so cute and had a good time posing for daddy. Here are some pictures from her first Halloween!





I love these pictures of her! David captured her personality perfectly!

Emery 11 months old!

Emery is now 11 months old and is doing so much! She is finished with occupational therapy now! She had only been going once a month but this Monday was her last session. We are sad to not see Jennifer anymore but we'll be sure to go visit her from time to time. David is sad about not getting to play with all of the fun toys they have there!

Well, Emery decided to walk this weekend! She took a couple of steps and has been taking more each day. David counted 16 steps in a row today! She's going to be walking all over the place in no time!

Here is a video of her playing. Please ignore the TV show in the background...I think David was watching Dexter. It's very much an age appropriate show for Emery. ;)

10 Months Old!

I can't believe my baby girl is 10 months old - well, almost 11 months now! She is so much fun and is growing up more and more every day. Here are the latest pictures David took of her. We were in Abilene last weekend so we took some chairs out to the old fort by my dad's house for some photos. She was very cooperative as always, and I think David got some great pictures!







What Emery is doing at 10 months -

Still crawling and walking holding on to things.
Eating a little bit more table food. So far she has liked Chicken Spaghetti and Lasagna. She also likes bites of cheese, puffs (her favorite), strawberries, peaches, and apples. She's finally starting to eat bananas as well. Feeding her can be very frustrating but hopefully she'll start liking food more.
Still saying Dada and daddy, saying mama again, hi, trying to say dog. She talks all the time and is always making noises. She is so funny. Her latest thing is pulling the bottle out of her mouth and blowing raspberries. She thinks its hilarious!
Loves her baths - but she has for a long time now.
Can stack her plastic rings! Rosanne also has some wooden rings, squares, and triangles that she stacks over at her house. She puts one on and then looks at you to clap and cheer. She's a ham.
She claps her hands and cheers for herself all the time.
She is waving hi and bye now.
She gives the best kisses.
She has become very much a daddy's girl lately. Any time David is around, she wants him instead of me.

Emery puts a smile on our faces every time we see her and we couldn't be more thankful for our precious 10 month old baby girl!

Emery's 9 month Pictures

As usual, I'm terribly behind. Here are the pictures from Emery's dedication at church and her nine month pictures. I have not done a very good job of writing down what Emery is doing each month. I'm trying to remember what all she was doing at 9 months old! It doesn't seem like much has changed over the past couple of months but I'm sure there are many things to celebrate! I'll try to remember some!

It was so nice to finally dedicate Emery at church. Our church dedicates babies once a month and we wanted to dedicate Emery at the same time as her best friend Madeline so it took us a while to find a weekend where we both could do it. There were so many babies dedicated that morning. It was so fun seeing all of the babies and their parents, many of whom we knew. What a special way to spend our Sunday morning celebrating the gifts God has given to us!


We took some pictures after church in her cute little dress and shoes. She is standing up so well now! I can't wait for her to walk! I know everyone keeps telling me that I will not like it, but I am tired of carrying her everywhere!


This was at the church. We couldn't stay in the sanctuary for much of the service. She just gets a little too loud yelling and playing! So we hung out with one of our friends and his little girl during the service.

Nine Months old -
Still in the 10th percentile for weight and 50th for height.
We are attempting to give her table food now - not a fan! She hates it and so do I!
Crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, and walking holding on to furniture.
She says Nana (she quit saying mama shortly after she started saying it), Dada, Daddy, and hi.
She still loves the dogs although they don't really think her pulling and tugging on their fur is nearly as cute anymore. Emery will pull up on Josie and Josie will walk away making Emery fall down. Emery does not appreciate it very much but keeps doing it!
Emery loves looking out our front window. She will bang on the window and yell like she has something really important to say to everyone outside. It's pretty adorable.

I think that's about it! Now, I need to post her 10 month pictures!