Half Birthdays

Emalyn Faith celebrated her half birthday last Friday. Is she really half way to two? That's just not right. Here are some things about our sweet little 18 month old baby girl:

She still loves that baby. She just calls her baby, no name yet. She has been playing with her baby outside quite a bit since the weather is getting nicer. Emalyn and Ellie play babies in the front and it's so cute. They will trade strollers now and then but mostly just play side by side. Emalyn says "Ellie, babies" all the time. It's so sad that Ellie is going to move to Texas, because I think her and Emma would have been great friends.

Any time Emalyn hears one of the kids mention the word "trampoline", she starts asking for her coat and wants to go outside. She doesn't necessarily have to be on the trampoline, she just wants to be out there with them. She has started to get brave and walks/climbs up and down the back steps by herself. She now walks the stairs inside up and down rather than crawling them. The back steps don't have a railing though, so that makes me a little more nervous.

This picture makes me laugh! She's so funny. She is still quite a chunk. Here are her stats from our 18 month check up. Weight-25 pounds, 14 ounces which is 75th percentile. Height-33 3/4 inches which is 95th percentile. Head was 70th percentile. I wish I knew where Maddi and Cade's height and weight info for this age was. Cade has never been on the chart for height, he's always been off. He's always been the top of the chart for weight. Maddi has never been more then 75th% for height and has been about 50th%for weight. I'm curiou to see if Emalyn will be freakishly tall like Cade. I really hope not...not for a girl....guess she could be a supermodel if she's really tall. Ha!

She is wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes, but wears some 2T as well. She is making me crazy with shoes. She will only wear 3 different pairs of shoes (size 5). Everytime I try to put others on her she freaks and says "no,no,no". The other day I tried to get her to try some on at Target and she screamed bloody murder like I was hurting her or something. There are so many cute little baby girl shoes that I'd love to buy for her, but she's not having it. I wonder if Daddy put her up to this?

Stinker shut the door on me..

..now whatcha gonna do?

Oh, hello.

We all love her little curly hair. I just can't imagine her any other way. I don't think we'll ever cut her hair because I'm afraid the curls might go away. Emalyn is talking all the time. She frequently goes through "roll call", Momma, Dadda, Bubba, Sissy, Cocoa, baby. She says her name now, it's like Eyyyaaa. Not going to write all the words she says now, it's a bunch, but some of our favorites are "good girl", "aaaaal gone", and when she says "woo woo" (she says it if I say pretty girl or if I put her bow in her hair, etc. She's copying me because sometimes I whistle at her when she looks pretty.)

This is one of her favorite people, Sissy! I knew Maddi would be so good with her. She's always been so nurturing. Maddi just had her half birthday too, the week before Emalyn had hers. I felt bad because we had such a busy weekend and I forgot all about her half birthday until Chuck E Cheese sent me an email with coupons her half birthday. Way to go Mom! I can't believe she is half way to 11. She is such a sweet girl with such a wonderful heart and we're just so proud of her.

I love the look on Maddi's face here. She adores Emalyn.

Maddi picked Emalyn a dandelion!

I am so happy for Maddi and Emalyn that they have a sister. I always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. Sometimes I still can't believe that I had two girls. I love Cade man to pieces, but I'm so glad to have more girls than boys :)I hope Emalyn and Maddison always have a close relationship.

Weeee. Emalyn loves sliding, swinging, jumping on the trampoline, riding in the bike trailer, and anything and everything else outside.

Happy half birthday sweet Maddi and Emma! We love you both so very much.

Weekend Update

We had another fun and busy weekend last weekend. It started with a sock hop at the kids school on Friday night. They had fun doing the cha cha slide, a hula hoop contest and just running around with their friends. I found out all kinds of scoop from other parents as far as teachers moving grades, the principal is leaving, etc. We were given the option for Maddi to have her same teacher in 5th grade because her teacher is moving up a grade level. We like her teacher, but have decided to give Maddi a fresh start next year with a new group kids and a new teacher. So far the odd grades have been the better ones for Maddi so let's hope the trend continues.

Emalyn found this wheelchair in Maddi's room. She wanted to bring it downstairs to play with her baby. It's so funny to see her push the wheelchair because it's really the perfect size for her. Makes you realize how small she still is.

Little cutie. She is just so nurturing and takes great care of her baby. She always has two bottles for her and they have to be just the way she wants them or she gets really frustrated.

The kids accidentally broke off a branch from the tree in the backyard. I decided to put it in a vase to help me focus on the positive. It's been so stinking rainy and gray and cold but the rain is helping the trees blossom and making everything so green. The tree has a really bad odor, but it's pretty so I'm enjoying it.

Saturday morning the rain finally stopped and Cade was able to get a baseball game in. He started out the game playing first base and then I think he played 3rd base.

The kids pitch and it makes me so nervous. You can see why...they can throw some pretty wild pitches. I'm just waiting for the day Cade gets nailed, or nails someone while he's pitching. Ugh...

It's a swing, and a...miss. Oh well.

Then it was on to playing catcher. So much work getting all the gear on.

You couldn't pay me to be a catcher. All that stinky gear, squatting down, a batter that could hit you with the bat, the dust in your face. Should I go on? Cade thought it was fun though.

One of the cutest fans at the game.

Maddi doesn't look happy here, but she enjoyed the game. She's such a supportive sister and such a good cheerleader. She gets into it and doesn't complain and ask when we can leave. Love that about her. She did get to leave the game early for a birthday party. Then she got to go home with a friend and play after the party.

Emalyn and "z z" watching their big brothers. This little girl Mackenzie is exactly a year and 3 days older. She kept wanting to play with Emalyn but Emalyn would pretty much run away. They ended up hanging around each other after a while. She calls herself Z Z. So cute.

Cade also got to pitch in the game. I love how you can see the ball leaving his hand. He only pitched one inning and struck out 2 batters. Not bad brother bear!

After the game, we had a babysitter come and Brett and I went on a date. We had a couples massage and went to dinner at Uncle Julio's. It was a perfect getaway. The kids had a blast with the sitter and all was right in the world :) Sunday we spent the day at Wrigley for the baseball clinic. Another weekend is history!

Cade playing baseball at Wrigley Field

On Sunday, Cade got to go to a baseball clinic sponsored by Chevrolet at Wrigley Field. It was a free clinic, we parked for free and we even got 5 free dinners of a hot dog, chips and a drink. That's unheard of. When are things free, especially in Chicago? It was great! Cade's friend, Ethan, went to the clinic too. Here they are outside of Wrigley waiting to get in.

Maddi, Emalyn and I hopped on the L and went to State street for a little shopping and had a snack at Macy's and then we came back toward the end of the clinic. Brett stuck around at Wrigley and took tons of photos. 267 pictures to be exact! Here is Cade waiting in the bleachers for the camp to start.

I think this was his first station. Catching grounders. Pretty cool for an 8 year old to get to play baseball on Wrigley Field.

Too bad the ivy is dormant right now. Doesn't look so nice in the pictures.

Another station, not sure what exactly...

Fielding again.

Loved this action photo. You can see the tennis ball he's about to catch right above his glove.

Brett enjoyed being able to roam freely around Wrigley. This was from behind home plate.

More catching pop flys.

Moving on to batting...

And now waiting to get in the batting cage. Somehow, Brett talked his way into getting inside the batting cage and the boys were suprised to see Brett in there. Cade's friend, Ethan, is on the right.

Batter up. Hitting is not Cade's strength right now, but he was happy with how he did in the batting cage.

Not sure of the story exactly, but Cade is about to catch a ball that they were all trying to catch. I think since he caught it he got to do something special.

Moving on to pitching. Cade makes such a cute little ball player, if you ask his mama.

Maddi enjoyed watching Cade's group pitch when we got back to Wrigley. When they moved on to the next thing I asked Maddi where Cade went and she said, "they went to the dug in". Ha! I love it. She's a dancer, not a ball player.

Emalyn's first time at Wrigley Field.

Emalyn was loving the freedom to walk around and climb all the stairs around Wrigley.

Pitching...

...pitching...

and now the last station of the day...the dug out! Cade is the 3rd from the end on the bottom row. He had a blast and made some great memories. This is our first year in this baseball league and that's how we were able to go to the clinic. Hopefully they'll offer it again and he can do it again.

Some cute and funny faces of Emalyn eating a hot dog.



See the hot dog! Or as Maddi called it, a "dot dog". We can still hear Maddi's little voice in our head saying "I want another one dot dog". She said that a lot. She loved dot dogs. Now she thinks they are so gross. Silly girl.

Cade after camp is over and about to enjoy a hot dog.

Maddi, Emalyn, Cade and Ethan sitting on the Cubs dugout.

Emalyn was not enjoying being man handled by her bubby. Her face makes me laugh.

Cade man!

Inside the Cubs dugout. I thought it would be more fancy than it is.

I thought this picture was cute of Maddi, Ethan and Cade. I wonder what they were talking about.

Our family outside Wrigley. The last family pic we have with the sign was from when Cody and his family came to visit and I was pregnant with Emalyn. Now she's almost 18 months old. Time flies when you're having fun.

And lastly, a picture with the Ernie Banks statue. It was a fun day and even more fun that it was compeletly free!