June Jamboree!

I think June gets the award for one of the busiest months we've had in a long time. I have a whole month to catch up on with blogging!

After Dad & Josh left, Gammie and Poppa came to visit. They got to visit Emma on her last day of school and participate in her graduation. Here she is with her diploma:

Here is Gammie presenting Emma with a new book. She knows how much Emma loves the touch-and-feel books. This one is called, "peekaboo! I love you!"

So the Emster finished school, I finished work and celebrated my birthday all in one week. After Gammie and Poppa left, we all traveled to Houston to visit Sarah, John and baby Jack. We got to stay with them in their gorgeous house! It was reallllly hot that weekend, so poor us, we had to spend most of the days at their incredible neighborhood pool - complete with baby pool and water slide. Emma couldn't get enough of the 'wawa'. It was the first thing she asked for in the morning, and the last thing she talked about before going to bed. She would have swam allll day long. There were so many pictures, so I decided to compile a slideshow (make sure you can read the descriptions):



We couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some video at the pool too. Luckily, our point and shoot is waterproof so we could take it in the pool with us. Fun! You can catch Emma enjoying the water slide (note the HUGE smile on her face) and chanting 'more! more!'. We'll definitely have to get this one some swimming lessons soon, she is FEARLESS.

It's been just as busy back at home. In fact, we're having so much fun that Emma has decided to stop sleeping. Lucky me! I kid, I kid - I think she's cutting her 2 year molars. We've been enjoying the summer with great weather and being outdoors as much as possible. This includes a little outdoor painting (note the various stages of undress):

yummy watermelon

trips to the playground with friends,

Here she is playing with her friend, Shae. Emma and Shae were born on the exact same day!

more pool time
and...I got to finally break in the portable studio I got for my birthday. I love it! I can't wait to use it more. Emma was happy to help me do some test shots, and she's sporting her very first ponytail (or 'ponie' as she calls it). :)

That's all folks!! It's the last day of June, so tomorrow starts another month of great fun! We're headed to Vermont to celebrate Opa's 60th birthday and then to New York for our friend Justin's wedding. We'll be back soon!

A girl and her garden

These pics were taken at Hotel Del Coronado - what an amazing place. We had a great visit from Pache and Uncle Josh this weekend, so we took the whole gang here to get a little photoshoot in. Someone seemed to enjoy the good weather...

Forrest Gump

"everywhere I went...I WAS RUNNING"

Busy Bee

Emma is a very busy bee. All of these pictures were taken within 5 minutes. She loves coloring:

and playing with her baby. Here she is telling me "Shhhh.....the baby is sleeping."

and singing and clapping:

and trying on mama's slippers:

and climbing into and jumping off of the ottomans:

Me: "Emma, are you allowed to draw on the furniture or walls?"
Her: "Ohhhh no, no, no" (complete with shaking a finger, just like I do!)

All of this playing makes me tired! I think I'll take a little nap.