Two little pumpkins and a wedding

This weekend we headed up to Mom and Dad's for our friends' wedding in Hendersonville. We were planning to just relax and enjoy not having a plan. Then we got up Saturday morning and the guys working on Mom and Dad's house were there replacing the back door and getting started on building the screened porch. This equaled lots of hammering which was driving Rags CRAZY. So, we took Lisa and Lucas up on the offer and we headed over to their house for lunch. We'd discovered that we had matching Halloween outfits for Emmy and Will so we dressed them up. Aren't they the cutest?? It was nice to let the dogs play, the babies play and the adults got to eat lunch in peace while the babies napped. Woohoo!

Saturday afternoon Mom and I did some shopping while Emmy napped with her Daddy. After dinner we visited with Grandmommie, cousin Jessica and her hubby Nick. Emmy fell asleep and slept with Grandmommie for a bit. So sweet!

Sunday we'd decided to skip church and head on up to Hendersonville and go to Sky Top orchard for apples and to take pictures. The wedding was at Camp Kanuga so we thought we'd make a day of it. When I told Lisa our plan, she got excited because they had wanted to go to an orchard this fall, so she talked Lucas into skipping church, too, so we all headed up for lunch in Hendersonville then went to Sky Top. I wish we'd had more time, but it was fun! Sadly, we did not have time to wait in the long line for apple cider donuts. We'll just have to try again next year! The drive up was wonderful, the trees must have been close to peak. I can't remember the last time I saw them so beautiful!

So, Charles, Emmy, and I headed over to Kanuga for the wedding. We did a quick change of clothes and I fed Emmy. She fell asleep right before the service started, and she mostly slept through the hour long ceremony, save for a bit of fussing when the music stopped after the processional. The child loves music, that's for sure! Here's Emmy with the groom, and then the bride and groom, Joe and Kathy. Congrats you two! It was a beautiful day, a beautiful setting and a wonderful ceremony.

After a quick chili supper, we gave Emmy a bath and headed home. It was a nice weekend! But, we look forward to being home this weekend and getting some yard work done. It's time to plant pansies!

I'll leave you with my favorite photo at Kanuga after the wedding. Have a good week!

Road Trip!

This weekend we headed to Charles' hometown for the weekend. Mary Louise and Richard, AKA DiDi and Granddaddy, were of course glad to see Emmy after a couple of months!
On the way we stopped in Alpharetta to have lunch with Jane and Jasper. (Jeremy was at work.) Jane is my "Little Sis" in my sorority so we have always had a special relationship and it was fun to finally introduce Emmy to Aunt Jane! Jasper is two and he was really more excited to see Rags than Emmy, but he was cute with her. He showed us around his new house and gave us a counting lesson on the stairs to the basement and then up to the 2nd floor. Fourteen is the magic number! We had a great time visiting with them!

We arrived in Rome and got settled in the hotel and then met Richard and ML for dinner. Emmy fell asleep in her Daddy's arms when we finished eating so it was obviously close to bed time. We went back to put her to bed and ML came to visit during bathtime, etc. while Richard went to the football game. He's the "color announcer" for the high school marching band. Here's a photo of Emmy and DiDi after bath time.

Saturday we took Emmy to Granddaddy's clinic (he's a veterinarian for our readers who didn't know this) to meet some of the staff. Here she is all dressed up and ready to go. Also, we got to see Rags after her little procedure that morning. She needed her teeth cleaned for the first time (at 7, that's pretty good!) and while she was under anesthesia Richard also fixed the umbilical hernia on her tummy. She did fine and was very glad to see us! She stayed at the clinic while we went to get some lunch, but Richard took back at their house later in the afternoon.

After a delicious lunch of BBQ (and fried pickles, yum!) we went downtown to take pictures at the new fountains at the Forum. It's representative of the fact that Rome is built where two rivers meet to form a third. Then we went to the visitor's center to take a few photos. ML's garden club (aptly named the Three Rivers garden club) takes care of the flower boxes around the center so we took some photos there. Then it was nap time! In the photos we are in front of one of the River monuments, and the other photo is Granddaddy, Daddy, and Emmy at the visitor's center. It was COLD outside!

Emmy got a little tired of being put in and out of her car seat, which she let me know by stiffening up so she was practically standing up when I put her in. I love the look on her face, as if to say "see, I told you I was tired of this!"

We had dinner at their house that evening and of course many more photos were taken. I will post more of Richard's photos in my Picasa album, too.


Sunday we went to church and Emmy stayed with us since she was a special part of the service. Each year the United Methodist Women at the church where Charles grew up give donations in honor of all the babies and grandbabies born in the last year. They made a special presentation at the end of the service and invited the babies and their parents and grandparents down to the front to present certificates. Overall, Emmy did SO well during the service. During most of the hymns, she "sang" along with us which was hilarious! However, during the final hymn she fell asleep (as you can see from the photo I posted here). Of course all of the Richard and ML's friends were glad to meet Emmy. She was so good; she did us proud. :)

After lunch we went back to change, and more photos ensued. (For those of you who don't know my father-in-law he's a photo fanatic and rarely without a camera!) Here Emmy is posing with Granddaddy after church. Then it was time to hit the road. We stopped again in the Atlanta area on the way home to visit with friends. David was Charles' brigade commander several years ago and we have stayed close to their family. Walking into Sharon's house is just like coming home and tt was so great to see them. They have always been such a huge source of support with us and I know their prayers helped get Emmy here safely! Unfortunately I didn't take any photos while I was there, but we'll take some next time! We stayed for a delicious homemade supper, then headed home.

Emmy fell asleep in the car and I was able to transfer her to her crib without waking her. Yahoo! Of course then she woke up at 2 a.m. That's been the routine lately. I'm not sure if it's the cold she's had, the fact that we're not swaddling her anymore, or something else, but she is now waking up between 2 and 4 am. (She goes to between 8 and 9 pm.) Sometimes she's ready to eat, sometimes she just needs help getting back to sleep. Needless to say the switch from waking around 6 or 7 to 2-4 has been hard on her Mama. I need to make myself go to sleep a little earlier. I was doing pretty good for a while, but I'm moving back into my night owl ways.

Many more photos from the weekend are posted on Picasa in both the October album and one containing all of Richard's photos from the weekend. Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry that the text is running into one of the photos. I am an inexperienced blogger and with html, so if anyone has a tip, let me know!

She's trying so hard...

Emmy is trying to roll over, she just can't quite get there. Actually, I should say she's trying hard to get off her tummy during tummy time. This often includes screaming and fussing, and lately it's involved more and more movement that looks like rolling. I was sure she was about to yesterday, but she just didn't quite make it all the way over. I was poised and ready with the camera, though! I'm quite certain this means that when she DOES finally roll over, the battery will be dead in both the camera and the video camera. Ha!
Happy weekend everyone!

Our little pumpkin

We went to pick out pumpkins today at the church where we have bought them the last several years. Emmy wore her "My First Halloween" outfit that her grandparents gave her. Too cute. The men working there joked that we should be careful not to loose her in the pumpkin patch! Here are a few photos.

P.S. One year ago today I found out I was pregnant. Now look at her!

Five Months Old!

We can hardly believe she's five months old!

Wofford class of 2031

Here are Emmy and Will eating their first meal at Wade's (no, they're not really eating) before their first Wofford football game. This past weekend was Homecoming so Emmy made her second trip to Wofford on Saturday for the game. She did pretty well! We tried to stick her her "routine" as much as possible in that we tried to get her to sleep or let her sleep every couple of hours. She usually eats, plays for a while, then wants to sleep. Maybe only once a day, if that, will she go without napping in between feedings, even if it's a 15 minute catnap in your arms. She didn't take a long nap in the afternoon like she usually does but really overall she did quite well. She's such a good baby!

I'm afraid I didn't take tons of photos this weekend, but a few are posted. We had a great time seeing so many of our friends and catching up. Emmy got to hang out with Will, Elliott and Stella and met lots of folks. And, we found out a new friend will be arriving in May to Cindy and Kyle. YAHOO! Sunday after church we went back to Sparkle City for Stella's baptism. She was so good! What a sweetheart. She wore a Christening gown that's been in Eric's family for over 90 years. Very neat. We have Emmy's baptism planned for the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we're very excited!

The congestion that came around last week has settled in to stay. Emmy was kind enough to share it with me and I managed to fight off the sinus infection it became, thanks to the wonders of the neti pot. Now I'm just coughing a bit more, and so is Emmy. Her new penguin shaped humidifier is running tonight, so hopefully that will help. She is no longer sleeping swaddled and it's been hard to tell if when she has woken in the middle of the night if it was because of having her arms free, or if it was the congestion. I'm pretty sure it's the congestion. It doesn't seem to bother her really, for the most part, but today she was coughing more. Her first cold, poor pumpkin!

I can hardly believe Emmy will be 5 months old tomorrow! Our little baby is growing up!

I am inept with the snot sucker

Emmy has a little congestion that has appeared the last few days, and she's graciously shared it with me. She doesn't seem very bothered by it, but she does have a little rattling sound when she breathes sometimes. So, I have attempted to use the nasal aspirator, AKA the snot sucker, to help relieve her of the congestion. Either it's not so bad that she needs anything relived, or I'm very inept at using the aspirator, because usually all that happens is I make her madder than a hornet. Some saline drops have helped a little, but if you think the aspirator alone makes her mad, you should ask her how she feels about the saline drops. May I suggest ear plugs when you do so.

This past Saturday we took a trip down I-20 to meet "Aunt Sarah" for lunch at the Blue Willow Inn. Yum! She really wanted to see us and wasn't able to get here anytime soon for a visit, so she asked if we could meet halfway, so off we went! It was a quick trip so we could get back for nap time, but it was a fun trip. The food was delicious and it was good to catch up. Emmy loved looking at the fish in the pond outside.

On the way to Social Circle, where the inn is located, Charles noticed a big field of sunflowers along the interstate. Seriously, a sea of yellow. So on the way home, we got off at the exit right there and decided to try really fast to see if we could get a picture. Sure enough, the first right was a road that ran through the field so we stopped to take a picture. Yes, this does indeed mean we are undeniably related to Charles' Dad. :) Hopefully, we did him proud.

Emmy is in love with ceiling fans and light fixtures. She smiles at them and sticks her little tongue out when she does, which is super cute. She's particularly fond of fans. Turn a fan on when she's looking at it and her face lights up. She is also in love with the painting that hangs over our sofa in the living room. I sit there to nurse her frequently and she will stop eating sometimes to smile, laugh, and talk to the painting. The other night during dinner we had her laying on her boppy, facing the back of the sofa and she just sat there and smiled at the painting. It was painted for us by our friend Jocelyn when we moved into this house. We love it, but now it's even more special! Perhaps this means Emmy is going to be an art critic? Above is is a picture of her earlier today smiling at the painting, and a picture of the painting itself. It has been hard to catch a good photo since usually I'm too close to her, but I tried!