Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I know, I know, it's January 9th and my handful of regular readers are anxiously awaiting Christmas photos, updates, and news from our corner of the world. I promise, I'm spending the evening uploading photos and editing them (which totally takes forever by the way) and I promise to try to spend more time updating the blog. Charles' cousin (hi Sue Nell!) sent word that she thinks I need to quit my job so I can go back to blogging and our friend Nancy thinks the same thing. I wish! But, one of my resolutions is to try and do better.

There is so much I have wanted to say, I'm certain I've forgotten most of it. Emmy is hilarious these days. She was 20 months yesterday, so only 4 more months and then we stop counting in months, right? Ha! She talks all the time. I'd say that mostly she is still speaking one word at a time, not a lot of sentences, but she does have some phrases she repeats, and she does put things together. Tonight Charles offered her a toy while she was in the tub and she said "no, thanks." This is even funnier because "thank you" is not a phrase she repeats. Still when we tell her to say "thank you" it's usually a wave of the hand that only slightly resembles the sign, but we know that's what she means. Probably because most of the time when we ask her to say thank you she's too busy eating or drinking whatever it is she'd just asked for.

One of our favorite Emmyisms is her "yes" response. When we ask a questions and the answer is yes, she says, with a big grin of excitement, "n-kay!"
Us: "Emmy, do you want go to get some milk?"
Emmy: "N-kay!"
Us: "Do you want to go to church?"
E: "N-kay!"
Us: "Are you ready for a bath?"
E: "N-kay!"

And on and on. She also tells us "I'm okay" sometimes. We think it's because if something happens like she falls or she gets upset when her milk does get to her fast enough we tell her "you're okay."

The last two days she has started saying "hold you" when she wants us to hold her instead of "hold me", and of course we love that.

It's amazing how fast the vocabulary keeps coming. By the time Christmas was over she could tell us that Santa says "Ho", which cracks us up. She's also at that perfect age where she repeats things, but doesn't always retain it, so my slip up with a 4 letter word when I dropped the computer one day and she repeated what I said hasn't seemed to cause any concern...meaning she hasn't repeated that word again. :) Time to be even more careful about what we say in front of her! Of course there are the appropriate words that come out inappropriately and because we are immature, it is hilarious. Glasses are "asses". That one still hasn't gotten old.

Emmy's favorite game right now is "Where'd it Go?" She will hide something in her hand, under a cup, wherever and say "where'd it go?" Sometimes it sounds just like that, other times it's more like "go go go?", but the inflection is always the same. When the object reappears, she'll say "here/there she is". That's right, "here she is". I think because when we play peak-a-boo with her and she's hiding herself we say "there" she is" and so it's mostly coming out that way. Sometimes it sounds more like it, but it's really adorable.

It's hard to believe that it's already 2011. Christmas was very busy. We had both sets of grandparents and Aunt Mer here. It was great to have everyone here, but it was hectic with our Christmas Eve service and everything going on, not to mention a ridiculous number of presents. We didn't have Emmy open her presents from Charles and I until the day after Christmas. They were first under the tree, so last out, and she was a bit overstimulated Christmas Day (not to mention a bit under the weather with a cold resurgence) so it was better that way. She was a lucky girl! Photos to come soon!

We spent New Year's at our annual getaway while Emmy enjoyed some time with her grandparents. After the busy holiday, it was super nice to have some time away, although of course we missed our girl and she THREW herself into Charles' arms when she ran in the door Sunday after church. It was one of those movie moments and I'm glad I caught a glimpse as she came around the corner. I managed to snag one of those big hugs next. :)

One thing about New Year's is we end and begin each year with the same people...very dear people. Because we don't always get to see each other very often, there's a lot of catching up, and thus in a sense reflection that goes on, whether we mean to or not.

The last few months have been hectic. I like working again, it does give me a sense of accomplishment, but the job is stressful. I like the people I work with, and that's what keeps me going. I've made a commitment through June and I intend to honor it, but there are many days when I wonder if I can make it that long!

One of my primary reasons for going back to work was so to help pay off some debt. We have accumulated more credit card debt than we should (well any at all is not good) in part due to my time out of work and in the hospital (not from bills...from other expenses). We both still have some student loans, Charles' car, etc. We've made a bit of a dent, but we've also made some home improvements this fall (new storm doors!) and had some unexpected repairs to do (our furnace broke). And, we've been on the go a lot. So, we've decided that if we want get close to our goal, we need to make some changes, so we have committed to staying home the next few months. We have one trip we'd already committed to, so we'll honor that commitment, but otherwise until April (when we have a wedding out of town to attend) we plan to stay home. We had hoped to take a trip over Charles' Spring Break, but unless we can find a way to do it super on the cheap, we may have to forgo that as well. We'll see.

So, if you want to see us the next few months, feel free to come visit! The guest room is open!

There are lots of other changes we need to make (or make again) but I think the travel one has been the most significant, and the hardest.

All of this is moving towards another goal...having another baby (and me staying home again for a while). We were very open about the fact after Emmy was born that we would try again when she turned a year. Unfortunately, as you can guess, that isn't going so well again this time and we have been working on fertility treatments for a few months. This is not going to become a infertility blog...I don't feel comfortable putting that out there publicly but suffice to say when we have good news, we will share. We are disappointed, but hopeful.

All of this is also moving towards a move. In all likelihood 2011 will be our last one in this house. We don't know anything for sure and we won't for a while now, but Charles will graduate in December 2011 from his Masters program and then it will be time for his next assignment. That may be the next "Army school" required for his rank, or it may be a new unit, but either way it's very unlikely that we will be staying here. It's time for him professionally to move on, as hard for us as this will be personally.

So, we enter this new year a bit bittersweet and trying not to get bogged down in "one last times". This will be the last Winter, our last Spring planting a garden, our last Easter here, etc. Plus, we have work to do on the house in preparation for putting it on the market in the fall, which is not the ideal time to sell a house, particularly in this market (although our area has fared far better than many others).

Bear with us this year. While we know it may be crazy, we know it will be a year full of great things a new memories! Happy New Year to you and yours.