self-portrait

dragging myself out from behind the camera :)

Happy Valentine's Day from the Wild Animal Park!

Please excuse the hokey blog layout. I'm trying to customize it, and I got as far as my header, but html befuddles me sometimes. Should be cleared up soon!

This Valentine's Day we celebrated as a family at the Wild Animal Park. It was the first time we've been! It's a 30 minute drive, but sooooo worth it. I like it better than the zoo (and I didn't think that was possible!). Emma loved, loved it. I can't tell what was more fun - the petting kraal or the gorillas (primates are my all-time fave, and these guys were out and play-fighting.). I tried to get good pics of them, but ended up with lots of ape butts! :)





On our drive home, we stopped by some of the orange groves that had suffered in the 2007 fires. It's really eerie to see forests full of blackened wood. These are my pics, but I doctored them up in photoshop to emphasize the eerie feeling.

Happy Halloween!! We had a great Halloween, and our neighborhood totally came alive!! Wow! I think every single house within a 6 block radius was open and welcoming. Tons of kids at all ages everywhere. How fun!

We went trick-or-treating with the twins up the street - Lily (ladybug) and Jorin (dinosaur). Emma has never been afraid of anything in her life. But that dinosaur costume really got to her. She was scared for a good half hour. She finally warmed up to him, just in time for us to hit the neighborhood haunted house!

Emma is giving Lily a kiss. She is getting really good at that! We are also working on giving hugs too. Mom's nerdy costume was Pippy LongWitch. Not terribly creative, but it was the best I could come up with!

Emma is the walker in the group, so getting a picture of all three of them together is not an easy task!

This haunted house was AMAZING! The owners spent the better part of the last month putting it all together. It was a full maze through their backyard (although you could barely tell you were in their backyard)- they had floors, walls and ceilings completely covered with halloween decorations, lights, sounds, etc. I would have LOVED this as a kid!! Emma was fascinated by all the lights. It was kid-friendly so nothing jumped out at you. It was really cool!

Saying goodbye to the talking head before we left! Trick or Treat!!

birthdays and black eyes

Finally getting around to posting this. It's been busy here at Popsicle Central. Three different people have caught the cold! I think we're finally on the mend now. If only the weather would decide which direction it was going to go!

So we spent a week back east celebrating Emma's first birthday with family and friends. She ended up having more than one celebration, what a lucky girl! To make things more interesting, Emma decided to start walking on the trip. And everyone knows that with walking comes bumps, and bruises, and yes, the occasional black eye. So she had a little black eye under her right eye (see below) for her birthday celebrations. She's a tough girl, though. I think she was almost proud. :)

"I'm so excited! I get to have FOUR birthday cakes this week!"

On Friday night, we had her first birthday cake and singing at cousins Morgan & Tommy's house. She loved everyone singing to her, and hanging out with her fun cousins!

We had a Virginia celebration on Saturday, the 27th. Thank you to Aunt Sarah for the beautiful party dress! We got to hang out with G.G., and Tia and Uncle Andy, our special, wonderful Emma (for whom little Emma was named), friends from New York, Florida and Portland, cousins and more! It was great, and Emma loved being the center of attention (before taking a nice long nap in the closet. hey, she slept like a champ!)

On Sunday, we had a birthday celebration for her in Maryland with family. She had a beautiful Princess Cake handmade by Aunt Kelly and cousin Morgan:

Gammie created an amazing birthday Princess party for her Precious Angel. It was a fairytale dream! Just look at this spread!

When it came time for Emma's cake, she was a little tired, but she's still a party girl through and through. She loved her birthday treat!

The wonderful legacy of her first birthday, is that she was able to share it with THREE other generations!! That's right, she had two paternal great-grandparents at her party, and we had to capture it on camera:

What a lucky girl she is. She got lots of wonderful books, clothes, baby dolls, games, puzzles, handmade sweaters, two necklaces, a handmade book by Aunt Kelly and more. The best gift of course, was just having our loved ones around us to help celebrate this little treasure. I think she enjoyed herself immensely and we look forward to many more! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make her day so special!

For the rest of our trip, there are simply too many pictures to post at once, so take a look at ALL of them here:
http://eeks101.smugmug.com/gallery/6164504_GM5h3#388568957_Mhntk

enjoy!

Happy Birthdayyyyy toooooo youuu!!!!

It's Roger's birthday today!! Happy birthday to the hottest, goofiest, most loving, hardest working husband and father - we love you and are SO glad you're finally coming home. Can't wait to see you! :)

And if she's not a spitting image of him, I don't know what is!

Self-portrait

How is this my child? About the only likeness we have in common is our rosy cheeks. :)

Oh, and she loves being kissed. Every time we kiss her, she does her best papparazi smile.