12.28.2009

Merry Christmas!!! (Childers’ Style)

We are back from our unexpectedly long visit in North Carolina!  As mentioned before, we ended up travelling there on Sunday due to the blizzard in DC, and so we were able to spend a few extra days visiting family and friends.  Mamaw had lots of new toys for Emmy Cate to play with, even prior to Christmas morning. 

  EC jumper Christmas

On the night before Christmas Eve, EC had dinner with the Childers’ side of the family, and opened her first official Christmas gift.  Unfortunately, none of the pictures turned out very well.  Here is the best we have:

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On Christmas Eve, we headed over to EC’s great-grandmother’s to celebrate with the Smith side of the family.  But first, we took some time out to take a family picture!!

Fam in front of treeIt took a couple of tries to get a good shot!  Ever since EC’s little toother has been coming in (or maybe it’s just her silly little personality!!), she makes all kinds of funny faces.  Case in    point …

EC funny face   

She was quite the entertainer while we were there, mainly running around in circles with her walker and enjoying lots of attention from all of her relatives!  Papaw and Daddy took a minute to pose for a pic as well:

And not to be outdone, Great Uncle Terry posed with all three babies ….

  And it wouldn’t be a visit to NC without the obligatory 3 baby shot!!

Of course, in pictures, EC looks all sweet and calm, but here she is caught in the act of her usual shenanigans!!  Don’t get me wrong, she is sweet, but calm she is not!!  :)

EC Christmas stereo

On Christmas morning, EC opened gifts along with Macy and Makayla at Mamaw and Papaw’s house.  I love the look on EC’s face in this shot where Mandy is showing Macy one of her presents!!

EC and Macy opening gifts

Then it was on to spend Christmas with the McDaniel family back in Atlanta … more to come!!

12.26.2009

Our little Frequent Flier and Blizzard 2009!!!

Last week, Emmy Cate took her first airplane trip!  Her parents are happy to report that she did very well!  We were lucky to have gone to the pediatrician earlier in the week and she prescribed some numbing ear drops in case EC had trouble with her ears.  They worked like a charm on the descent. 

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As mentioned before, we were up in DC for Nathan’s company Christmas party, which was Friday night.  We were supposed to leave Saturday and head home, but umm, yeah, that didn’t even begin to happen!  Even as of Friday morning, all flights Saturday were canceled.  We were rebooked on a flight for Sunday, but as the storm wore on, most flights on Sunday were also canceled.  The blizzard proceeded to drop record-breaking amounts of snow on the whole east coast, including DC where we saw 17” fall!!

EC in snow 

After several flight cancellations and re-bookings, we decided to rent a car and drive down to North Carolina to Nathan’s family’s a few days early.  What an adventure to be able to tell Emmy Cate about when she gets older!!

12.22.2009

Snowed In!!

It has been a whirlwind few days!! I'll post lots more later, but Emmy Cate, Nathan and I flew up to DC for Nathan's company Christmas party last Thursday and we got stuck there!! A huge blizzard came through dumping a foot and a half of snow on us!! Needless to say all flights were canceled for days but we managed to make it out. More later!! Here is what the weather looked like outside:


And here is what we were doing inside:



I'll update more later when I get my computer and get the files loaded. Sorry for the poor quality - these photos were taken on my iPhone and I'm using the Blogger internet-based software to post. :(

12.16.2009

All I want for Christmas is ….

Yesterday, we went and had Emmy Cate’s first photo with Santa taken!  It couldn’t have been more perfect … there was NO line, I’m talking none, and Emmy Cate was so smiley and happy that we had a hard time choosing the photo!!

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12.13.2009

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas ….

Recently, we got Emmy Cate all dolled up to take some Christmas pictures under the tree, mainly to use for our Christmas card.  We were planning to get pics with Santa, but then we all got terribly sick and decided that our tree at home would work just fine!  We still plan to get the Santa pics too, but we needed to get those Christmas cards out!!  :) Anyway, Emmy Cate had just woken up from a long nap and was a very happy girl eager to get her picture taken!!  Of course, that is until she realized what was behind her!!  After she caught sight of the tree, it was all over!!

Here is the first take with a headband on …. but it was a little too big …

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This was outfit #2 … at this point she was loosing focus and kept laughing and looking a little too happy!!  Ok, so that’s not really possible ….

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Then she spotted the tree and lost total focus once she saw all of the pretty lights and sparkly ornaments …

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So we tried distracting her with a present to unwrap ….

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But by that point, she was a goner!!  So we went back to one of the very first photos ….

EC Christmas Card

Happy 1st Christmas to our little girl!!

12.10.2009

Yummy …. Homemade Baby Food

This past weekend, I made some baby food for Emmy Cate.  I wanted to see if it really would save some money as everyone says and I wanted to make her some things that you just can’t buy in a Gerber jar.  Also, I’m fine with the plain veggies, but I am wary of things like the “meals” and “smoothies” and “custards” because of added ingredients and preservatives.  I’m fairly adventurous when it comes to food, including veggies, so I’m scouring the aisles looking for things like pureed rutabaga, Fordhook lima beans, and even your basic mashed potatoes (Daddy’s fav)!!  So, I figured it couldn’t be hard to make, and it wasn’t!  I just bought bags of frozen veggies and followed these simple steps:

Boil or steam for a few minutes on the stove according to the directions on the package …

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… throw into the food processor with a little bit of water and puree …

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… and voila, homemade baby food!!

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I put each veggie in empty Gerber jars, popped them in the freezer until frozen, then popped them out into ziploc bags and labeled those.  It was pretty easy and didn’t take too much time.

As far as the financial stuff and whether it was worth it, here is how it breaks down for me.  Each bag of veggies was $1 and made approx. 6 jars of food.  If you buy premade Gerber food, a two pack is $0.90.  So homemade, each “jar” is $0.17 and Gerber is $0.45 per jar.  If Emmy Cate eats about 2 jars per day, then that’s a savings of about $4/week.  Since she will only likely eat baby food for a few months, I don’t think the cost savings is worth it to put in the effort.  Still, it’s great to make for those things that you simply can’t find in a jar, or if you don’t want your little one to eat things that you can’t pronounce!!

And because everyone wouldn’t be happy without seeing EC’s smiling face, here she is hamming it up:

EC sitting up 2 EC and Mommy EC sitting up

12.08.2009

Life as Bits knows it is O.V.E.R.

Bits better watch out because Emmy Cate is on the loose and she is gunning for him every chance she gets!!  She has figured out the walker and her favorite activity is chasing “kitty”!!  She can really get going down our long hallway, but when she hits a roadblock, she is still stumped as to how to turn around or maneuver in another direction.  She has gotten unstuck a couple of times now, so I think once she learns that, we are in trouble!  Here is what we hear around the house … pitter patter pitter patter …. then …..  BAM!! as she hits a wall or the Christmas decorations!! 

{P.S. Ignore the mess in the dining room – we were putting up Christmas decorations!! :) } 

12.06.2009

Buh-Bye College Football (*tear*)

I was planning to post this after USC won the Rose Bowl but, ummm, yeah, that’s not going to be happening this year.  Our good friends the Schweitzers gave this to EC and even though she has been cheering on the Trojans, it hasn’t worked!!

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Earlier in the year, Emmy Cate also got in the App State spirit and has been able to cheer the Mountaineers to a number of victories!!  Even though they aren’t having a very good year either, the Demon Deacons also have a little supporter but we haven’t snapped a pic of her Wake duds!!

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And since Mom’s first love is Vanderbilt, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the Commodores.  I think anyone can look at their 2-10 record this season and know that we didn’t have a banner year.  But, there is ALWAYS hope for next season, right?  And don’t think that even though they are the underdogs of the SEC that Emmy Cate won’t be sporting this next season:

    Vandy smocked dress                 vandy smocked bib

I mean how adorable is that?

12.04.2009

What a difference a week makes!!

I’m always amazed at how quickly Emmy Cate catches on to things and then never forgets something once she does it!  Just last week, she couldn’t do any of these three things, and now she can do them all.  I’m talking about sitting up, blazing trails through the house in the walker (Bits, be scared, be very, very scared!!), and learning the game of “peek-a-boo”!!  They say good things come in threes!!  We also think she has somewhat figured out the camera and is always ready to ham it up when we get either the video camera or regular camera out!  Here she is sitting up playing:

 

12.03.2009

SURPRISE!!!!

My aunt Sally and I threw my parents a surprise 40th anniversary party on the Friday following Thanksgiving.  Yes, we both live out of town, and yes, it was at their own home, and yes they were very surprised!!  It was a lot of planning and there were many little white lies and secrets, but we managed to pull it off!!  It was totally worth the effort to see their faces that evening!!

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There was plenty of food, cocktails, many toasts, and even a recreation of the wedding cake cutting!!

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  Even the kiddos got in on the action and enjoyed all of the attention!!

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Overall, it was a wonderful party!!

12.01.2009

Turkey Day!!!

We had a great time visiting family in Memphis over the long Thanksgiving weekend!  We were busy, busy, busy and the time flew by!!  Emmy Cate met her uncle and aunt, Ben and Meredith, and her cousins Molly Claire (2 and 1/2) and Atticus (7 months) for the first time!! 

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She and Atticus hit it off and they loved to play on the floor together.  Atticus also enjoyed all of the new toys that Emmy Cate brought!! 

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Atticus is quite the ham and loves to smile, giggle, and roll around on the floor.  He is the typical little boy and loved to roughhouse!!!  Emmy Cate held her own though and was able to participate in a serious eye poking competition!!

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and quite a full table with 3 kiddos!!  Here is Emmy Cate at her first Thanksgiving dinner!!  She didn’t get any turkey this year, but she did get to taste a little bit of lemon icebox pie and some mashed potatoes – yum!!

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We also had a surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents, so more to come on that later …