November!

In November, we headed up to MA for a ceremony honoring my late grandparents.  

Emma got to hang out with her awesome cousins on the hay wagon while we were there.  

She also got a chance to go to the barn and go for a pony ride with Memere and Grandpa.  

We spent Thanksgiving with Grandma, Bumpa, and Aunt Lauren!  

Emma had a great time hanging out with her other awesome cousins!  

Emma Turns 3!

I last left off in September with Emma sporting a broken arm. Around that time, she started preschool!  She went twice a week for 2.5 hours each.  She loved school, learned a lot, and made some new friends!  Here she is on her first day:

Shortly after, Emma's cast was changed out for the shorter purple version.  She was very excited!  This one stayed on for about 3 weeks or so.  The cast came off the day before her birthday and she got some more x-rays done afterwards.  Everything has been healing up great, and she is nice and strong!  You wouldn't even know it happened.

Speaking of her birthday, Emma turned 3!  We spent the day at Bear Mountain Park visiting the zoo.  We had a blast!  It was a gorgeous fall day.  

 We ended the day with a merry-go-round ride, a giant birthday cupcake and of course, candles to be blown out!  

The only way to eat a cupcake:

We had a little get together to celebrate the big "0-3" that weekend.  

Emma was spoiled with many gifts by her wonderful family.  Then it was time for her favorite part - more candles!  

Happy 3rd birthday, Emma!  You are growing into such a wonderful girl.  You are so smart, and you are learning new things every day.  You are so kind, and love to share and give hugs and kisses.  You are hilarious, and love to tell jokes and make people laugh.  You are beautiful, inside and out!  We love you so much!  

Tap, tap - is this thing on?

Well, hello there!  It's been awhile since my lost post, huh?  A lot has happened in these last 9 months - Emma's story now includes a baby sister!  I have been mulling over what to do with the blog for awhile now.  Should I rename this one and keep going?  Should I leave Emma's blog as is, and start a whole new one?  I haven't decided yet, but in the meantime, I'll catch up Emma's story until the arrival of her sister.  Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments for a new blog name!

Fall Fun!

Well it seems that summer has ended and we are on to fall!  We celebrated the arrival of cooler weather by spending the morning at the apple orchard.  Emma had so much fun and LOVED eating all the apples!

Happy fall! 

Our Little Birdie has a Broken Wing

Well, Emma has officially reached another milestone - her first broken bone!  A little over a week ago, our little monkey was jumping on bed and just happened to land wrong on the bed.  She cried quite a bit at first and Matt diagnosed her with a broken bone, so off to the ER we went.  Emma stopped crying in the car on the way there, and seemed to snap out of it, so we second-guessed ourselves for a bit but decided to still have her checked out.  She seemed perfectly fine while we waited and she made friends with all the nurses.  While we hung out, we told Emma quite a few times that there would be no more monkeys jumping on the bed, which of course made her jump on the hospital bed!  She was laughing and having fun, so imagine our surprise when the X-ray came back positive for a broken bone after all.  Emma is quite a tough cookie! 

 

Luckily, the left arm is broken and Emma seems to be heading toward being a righty, so she has adapted well.  And the break is not near a growth plate or anything like that, so there shouldn't be any long-term complications.

 

Emma got all splinted up, and the next day we went to an orthopedist to have her cast done.  The nice receptionist gave Emma a goody bag which had some cool new shades! 

 

Emma was back to playing and being her silly self as soon as we got home.  We go back in a couple weeks for a follow-up, and they'll probably change the cast to another one that goes below the elbow to the wrist.  Never a dull moment with this one!!  :)

Weekend Getaway!

We had a wonderful little getaway to New Hampshire this weekend!  The drive up to NH was just beautiful.  We went through the White Mountains and got some nice shots from the car.

 

Before long, we had arrived at Santa's Village!  It is a Christmas-themed park that is open year-round.  I have some wonderful memories of going here with my family when I was younger, and couldn't wait to share those experiences with Emma and Matt!  

Emma hopped aboard the merry-go-round and away she went.

 

The best Santa's Village memory for me is driving these antique cars.  They go along a track, so kids can steer and accelerate, without doing too much damage!  Emma loved getting behind the wheel and we had such a blast. 

 

Emma learned to fly a sleigh at the little elf flying school!

 

What's Christmas without reindeer?

 

Daddy taught Emma some firefighting skills in case Santa ever gets stuck in a chimney.

 

And of course, you can't go to Santa's Village without seeing the big guy himself! 

Before we headed out, we splashed around in the water park area to cool off a bit.  

 

 

The next day, we headed over to Story Land!  Another theme park that is based around storybook characters... 

Such as Mother Goose!

 

And the guy from Heidi (??)

Both parks had a log flume ride - there was quite a drop to them but Emma loved it!  This is our ascent... eek! 

 

 

Let's hope this isn't a preview of 15 years from now!  Ha! 

 

After we broke Emma free from the slammer, we were off to Cinderella's castle.  What other way to get there than a pumpkin carriage?

 

We couldn't resist having Emma's face painted - it came out great!

 

Thumbs up for flying whale rides!

 

There was another driving ride that was farm-themed, so Emma drove her tractor all through the farm (sounds familiar, huh?!).  Of course she had to give a wave to the horses along the way! 

 

 

After a wonderful and tiring weekend, our little butterfly was fast asleep!  We had such a great time!!