A Beautiful Autumn Day at the Arboretum

The girls and I went to the pumpkin patch and Halloween activities at the Dallas Arboretum yesterday with our friends Katherine and Ethan. We had a wonderful time on a chilly fall day. Blake and I seem to disagree on how wonderful the cool autumn days are. Every time I say "Oh, I love it when it gets cool. Isn't fall great?" she says "No I think I like summer". I may be crazy, but I love the cooler weather. The girls had a great time and even put their costumes on at the end (I'll post pictures of them in their costumes later). Blake couldn't wait to get her face painted. She loved her princess face paint and kept asking me the rest of the day if it was still on.













Emma liked trying to stack her "baby" pumpkin we found for her.































The other pictures are of the girls yesterday morning sitting on the couch watching TV together. I just thought it was so cute how they were cuddling under the blanket together. I'm so happy to watch these sweet little sister moments.

Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

Today my baby turned 1. Sweet, happy Emma has brought so much joy to our family this year and so much more love to my life. What they say about mothers having plenty of love to go around for their children is so true. Emma just is love. She's so kissable, huggable, happy and sweet she makes everyone (even strangers) fall in love with her. I can't imagine our lives without her and I can't help but try and imagine what it will be like when she gets a little older and starts talking and really showing her own unique personality even more. Today she wore her Baby's 1st birthday onesie and socks with her pink tutu and birthday crown. We celebrated with lunch with Ami and Nana and dinner with Nana again at Benihana's. Emma (and Blake) seemed to enjoy the food preparation and Emma really enjoyed the food. Emma also rode for the first time in the car with her seat forward which seemed to really surprise her and she has had her first cups of regular milk. What a big day and fabulous way to end one wonderful year and start another. We will also be having a small party on Sunday for some more family to help us celebrate. At age one Emma is able to: crawl, cruise and stand on her own for a about a minute; she says dada, mama, hi (sort of) and her favorite sound to make right now is blah-blah-blah; she can clap, wave and sort of blow kisses; she lights up for her sister; she sleeps like a champ; she loves any food we give her and eats a lot; she gets startled easily and is scared to death of Tickle Me Elmo; she loves her blankie, baby dolls, music and opening and closing drawers and cabinets; she loves to hang upside down; she loves to pull all of her hairbows out and she puts everything in her mouth; and at age one Emma melts my heart and brings a smile to my face about a million times a day. Oh Emma, Mommy loves you so so much!!!

Deja-vu? and a Kiss Too

The pictures of the girls in the dress made me think of a couple of other pictures I've taken recently of the girls doing similar things at similar ages. I'm hoping to do my best about not making comparisons of Blake and Emma as they grow up so I won't make these photo comparisons a regular occurrence. However, it is kinda fun to take pictures of the second one doing things the first one did. I liked Aubrey's photos of Joshua and Andrew each eating an Oreo on a recent blog post. These two pictures of Blake were some of my favorites so I had to get Emma in similar poses. The last picture is Emma blowing a kiss. She just started doing it last week. It's so cute! She puts her hand to her mouth, but then she just leaves it there kinda blowing behind her hand. She hasn't quite gotten the blowing the kiss away part down. She's so sweet about kisses though. She goes around giving sweet little half-open-mouthed kisses to all the stuffed animals and dolls around the house all the time. She's also pretty willing to give out kisses to Mommy and other family members too. What a sweetie!

Emma's picture is first and Blake's is second in the towel and in the Aggie cheerleading outfit in the stroller. The picture of Blake in the doggie towel has to be one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken of her.

Great-great-grandmother's Dress

I finally took some pictures of Emma in this dress that was made by the girl's Great-great-grandmother. My Mother-in-law wore it when she was a baby too. I just think that is so cool and the dress is really beautiful. We took pictures of Blake in the dress when she was about Emma's age or a month or so younger. As you can tell Blake liked the whole photography session a little better than Emma. Poor Emma just did not want to be barefoot in the grass or dirt and certainly didn't want to touch the tree. I'm thinking she's not going to be the outdoorsy type. She really just hasn't been cooperating when it comes to picture-taking much at all lately, but I'm hoping she'll come back around soon. I felt kinda bad torturing her for these pictures, but I really wanted to continue the tradition. The first picture is of Blake and the other three are Emma (in case it isn't obvious).

Happy Birthday to Blake!

My first sweet, precious baby girl is really growing up. Sometimes I just cannot believe it was 4 years ago that I gave birth to my amazing Blake. Wow, how my world has changed since then. We've been on quite a journey, Blake and I. I can't imagine a more wonderful child to help me learn how to be a mother. Emma and I are still developing our bond and I'm sure it will be incredible and strong in its own ways, but I think there might be something special about the bond a mother develops with her first child. Not to say I'm playing favorites in any way (believe me I can and will gush about sweet Emma too on another occasion), but Blake has been like my introduction to parenting in every new stage and every new discovery. She's been the one through which I've discovered what it means to love a child and be in constant awe of her and God's power to create such individuality, personality, curiosity, brilliance and beauty. I'm always thankful that God chose me to be Blake's mother and I consider it such an honor, privilege and blessing. I just pray often for the guidance to do my best at it. Through these past four years Blake has grown up so much and developed so much personality. Some of the personality traits that have really shown through over this last year are Blake's intelligence and desire for and love of learning (I think that's some of Daddy shining through there), her loyalty and nurturing for her baby sister, her stubbornness (maybe she gets that from Aunt Rachel), her girlyness (a love of ballet, dressing up, make-up and anything pink come to mind) and a love of the arts (she loves to color, paint, craft, sing, dance and listen to music). I can't wait to find out what we have in store for us this year and in the years ahead for Blake, but at the same time my heart breaks to think of a time when she won't be so eager to sit with me, talk with me and be with me. These past four years Blake has pretty much been a "mommy's girl" and sometimes I find it hard to appreciate her wanting me for this or that, but I know a time will come when that won't be the case so I will keep trying to appreciate and enjoy this moment of motherhood as much as I possibly can. Try as I might to make every moment count I know I will still be one of those mothers who talks about how fast it all went and tells new moms to "enjoy it now". I will be a mess when my kids grow up and leave me. But hey, she's only four so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow she'll still wake up and need me to make lunch for school and run to me and give me a great big hug when I pick her up. And I'm going to enjoy that 4-year-old hug so much. Thank you Blake for the most wonderful four years any mother could ask for. I love you more than I could ever put into words.

My how she's grown! Blake on her past 3 birthdays and this year: