Emmy's Bday pictures

Here are my pretty girl's birthday pictures. She had to wear her "medium sized bump it." She's stuck on her bump its :)The girls wanted to have their picture taken together. Little Callan won't take off her soccer uniform.... It's been 4 days (it does come off for wash though, Thank God!).

Happy 7th Birthday, Emmy!

Today my baby girl turns 7! What a beautiful young lady she's become. In this past year, she moved up from Primary to Elementary, made new friends, had her first "crush," and sadly, her first taste of a broken heart (MEAN, EVIL BOY!).

She is a wonderful helper with her brother and sister, a great role model friend. When she smiles, you can see the purity of her soul. When you look in her sparkling eyes, you know that you're looking into the soul of a little angel. She is genuine and real. She wears her heart on her sleeve and is always willing to share her love.


Emmy is an articulate little thing. She always has an idea and almost always talks everyone into her plan. She's outgoing, happy and social. She loves to take care of younger kids and entertain them. She is so patient with younger friends and her brother and sister. She is a wonderful big sister and a perfect daughter. I couldn't be more proud.

She'll have her birthday party at Jump Zone this year with family and friends. She has some odd requests this year. She wants "bump its," a light up glow doodle thing, a "Grecian history book," eggplant seeds, and a locket. She wants a Hannah Montana Birthday (though she's never watched the show) and wants to give out mini Barbies as favors (how am I gonna pull that one off?).

I've become sentimental since being a mamma. With that, I must do my annual indulgent retrospection.... I look back and can still feel my babies as infants. I try to explain that feeling to them and they love hearing me tell them about when they were sooo little.

7 years ago, my Emmy was born and in one instant, my world changed. I remember I first saw Emmy when the doctor laid her on my chest. I couldn't believe that something so perfect came from my body just like that. Unbelievable. She cried on my chest and stopped when she looked up at her daddy who was leaning over her. From the moment she was born, I've felt like I've known her like the back of my hand. I certainly didn't know how to be a mommy, but I knew my daughter. She was happy, determined, intelligent, thoughtful, and stubborn. 7 years later, she is still all of those things and more.

I remember the first few nights in the hospital. I had NO CLUE. I remember the nurse teaching me how to soothe a crying baby and telling me how, and how often to feed her, how to swaddle her, how to hold her. I had never changed a diaper before. I knew nothing. And yet, we've made it this far.

I remember when she was 9 days old, my mom took a picture of her and I, and, crying, I left her with my momma to go back to law school (lest be dropped). Everyone thought I'd drop out of law school when I was pregnant with her, but I wouldn't do that to my baby girl. I was determined to finish, so while it was indescribably tough emotionally, we kept on. She laid by me as I read case after case in my law books aloud to her. I held her while I briefed cases and we finished law school together. At 17 months old, I took my cranky baby with me to take the bar exam. My girls and I passed the bar exam together (I was 6 mos pregnant with Callie at the time). We did together.

And I remember her first day of school. She was 3 years old and though I believed wholeheartedly in her new school, I was nervous as heck when I dropped her off on the first day. When I went back to the school after an hour, there she was bawling, and her teacher was walking around the class holding my sobbing baby. The first few days were tough and then, before long, she started to love school and the friends she'd made there.

I look back on the 7 years since she's been in our lives and what do I remember? I remember her birth, leaving her to go back to school, her first steps, her first day of school, her falling cutting her head open at the Grand 2 days before she turned 4. I remember all these big events in our lives, but mainly when I think about these past 7 years, I just see Emmy. I see my baby girl's contagious smile and her beautiful, happy eyes. And I'm just so lucky. These have been, by far, the best 7 years of my life.

These past 7 years I have learned so much and I've questioned every decision I've made twice or three times over. I've learned the depth and purity of love. I knew nothing at all about life or love until I had Emmy. She has been a light in our lives since she was born. I couldn't be more proud of her. She has brought us nothing but joy and I thank the Lord for her. I am so blessed.

Happy Birthday to my big girl, Emmy Lou, who will always be my baby.

These pics are from our recent trip. We haven't had any parties for Emmy yet and she's still asleep this morning, so I've got no "actual" bday pics. Those are to come.

Self portrait:

Happy 5th Birthday, Callie Bones!

My Baby Girl is 5! I can hardly believe it. These past 5 years have flown.

5 years ago, at 5:30 in the morning, feeling both guilty and excited, I kissed my sleeping, almost-2 yr old Emmy goodbye, took a picture all big and pregnant with Shad and we headed to the hospital. I was unsure about how our lives would change, but ready to welcome our newest member. We went to the hospital to check in and I spent the day on Pitocin waiting for her.


After 7 o'clock that night, she was born. I remember the first time I saw her, I cried with joy because I was in love instantly. I was so overwhelmed with emotion and so thankful to have it. Up until this point, you see, I was worried that I wouldn't instantly be in love with this baby as I was Emmy. I couldn't fathom loving another person as much as I loved Emmy. But, looking back, I remember seeing her little face in the mirror, all squishy, with her eyes closed tight, and her features so defined, and I was in love. I cried and looked at Shad and looked back at my baby girl and haven't taken my eyes off her since.


I remember those first few days and weeks with her. Trying to figure out how it would all work. Being stressed out about everyone getting attention and everyone feeling loved. I've tried to give my all to these babies and, still, at the end of the day, it's very clear that I'm the one who "gets" the most. I am so blessed. I've often wondered what God saw/sees in me to give me such perfect little children. I've been blessed with the best gift in the world and these individuals are beyond words. They are incredible.


My Bones at 5: She is still very little, but very mighty too! She is so sweet. Tough and sweet all at the same time. She is confident, happy, and loving. She has a great sense of humor. She comes up with amazing insights on things and is very perceptive and analytical. She is a mamma's girl, sometimes a daddy's girl and a grandma's girl too. She certainly has my heart.

She likes Peanut Butter Bumpers for breakfast every morning, prefers soy milk now, likes meat (much to my dismay), and of course, still likes her sweets. She likes to play games, color, dress up, pretend, organize her Little People, and do workbooks, puzzles and game books. She loves her friends at school, is a fairly dedicated worker at school, can read and write. While she can read, she says she cannot and she refuses to unless she's confident that she can read whatever it is whoever it is wants her to read. That's the trick with Callie; Until she's ready, she isn't going to show you anything. My take is that she doesn't want to attempt and fall short, so she just doesn't do it unless she knows she can do it well. She likes to wear dresses that twirl with brightly colored socks pulled up as high as they can go (and she pulls this look off). When she grows up she wants to be either a butterfly, a dentist or a "trashman" with me (we're gonna be co-trashmans). She likes Phineas and Pherb on tv, likes pink and princesses and dancing and singing. Callie turns everything into a song. She is full of life and full of love :)

She had her party at My Gym this year and had a great time with a lot of her buddies and our family. There are some pictures from her family below. Thanks to all our family and friends who came out to make her day special. She felt like such a special girl.

She turns five today in Illinois, she's celebrated her birthday out of state every year. We will have a little party for her in the campground and all of the shooter folks who love her come and celebrate with us.


These past 5 years have flown. Our family is so much more wonderful because of Callie. She makes us laugh and think and she loves us so well. Today I thank God for blessing us with her. I can't imagine life without her.

Summer Fun

We've had a lot of fun thus far this summer. Here are some recent pics :)

This pic is a crack up. Too bad it was taken on my camera phone :(

Nicole, Shane, Cadence, Brielle and Abigail left the hot state of Tx for a few weeks to visit in Ca. We met them for a fun day at the beach:

Thomas loves "pretty shoes." Dressing up for swimming lessons:

The kids w/ Maycee and Natalee playing hospital.

Playing in the backyard on their new "motor bikes" as they call them. Shad bought these things for Christmas last year and we decided not to give the things to them, so he's been dying to pull htem out. So the girls got them as early bday presents.
I'm in love with this picture

Crazy kids.

This pic was actually taken upside down as she zoomed by me on her swing whatchamacallit.

T and his "Bo" Happy Birthday, Grandma!

The Toon clan got my girls tap shoes for their birthdays. They love them!

18 months old

Thomas has officially had his half-birthday! He's 18 months old. The last few months have brought several changes in him. He has a temper, he expresses his anger, he moves more. Some things are the same, he smiles a lot, is very friendly and outgoing and he remains a constant chatterbox.

Thomas loves Wow Wow Wubzy, Elmo and Thomas the Train. He loves to play outside and loves his dog. He says everything you can think of, is trying to sing the ABCs (he gets to E) and knows what the number 2 is- pretty cool. Someone asked him how many eyes a baby had and he thought for a minute and said "TWO!" I think that's about the only number concept he has, but he has it down! The boy amazes me with what he knows, what he remembers, and what he says. This age is great- so full of exploration and emotions and kisses and hugs too. He's learning that his voice carries, that we listen, that his feelings count. It's really neat when you think about all that's going on at this age. Fun fun!

He still doesn't like to eat much. He likes goldfish and cereal and sometimes macaroni and cheese and pizza. He's about 22lbs, still wearing 12-18 mos shorts- in fact he's wearing the same shorts he wore last year- so some 6-12mo size.

He's a great boy. People either say how sweet he is or what a little devil he is. I think he's a little bit of both. He knows what he wants and as long as everything goes his way, he's happy as pie. Even with his little temper though, he loves his mamma :)

Kingsburg

Another year has passed. Our favorite vacation of the year is over :( We had a good time camping in Central Ca at the Ca state shoot. We took the kids to the Sequoias, which were pretty amazing. Emmy swore the trees were fake.Shad took off Emmy's training wheels and wouldn't give them back. She fought us at first, but a day later, she was riding her bike (and whistling at the same time). If you know Emmy, you know what a big deal this is. Emmy is the most cautious kid. She was afraid to ride her bike with training wheels at times. So I'm super proud of her.

Emmy still hasn't lost a tooth yet, but look here, her adult tooth is coming in. I thought this was really weird and cuase to see a dentist, but when we got to Kingsburg, we saw that another little girl Emmy's age had the same thing going on (she ended up losing her tooth up there).

Callie in a little ice chest. She's still so little.

Emmy lou, happy about riding her bike:

Emmy trying to teach Callan how to ride a bike

Thomas pouting about something.

Thomas grabbed the camera and told me to take a picture, here it is!

The girls with Delaney, a buddy they see around the country at various shoots. They play so well together (thank God). Mean boy face: