A New Year, a new outlook

Out of my way Mom!

Emily & her Pony

Looking outside

Good Morning!

Em J & Daddy

Classic Santa Picture

Emily loved all the Christmas Bells, here she is in her Christmas Dress

Ready to go Christmas Shopping!

Christmas Tree Hunting

My 26th Birthday

Happy 2010! We had some dinner guests over last night and I was asked how 2009 treated our family - it was OUR year!! How could it get any better? Just when I think things could not get better, God proves me wrong and shows me otherwise.
We had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope with our 'blog plug' in our Christmas letter that I have some new blog readers! While my blogs are few and far between...mostly on a day when Emily takes a longer nap than usual, I do enjoy updated and being able to share with everyone about our life.

We had a wonderful Christmas, exhausting, but wonderful:) Our sweet Emily is now at a stage when she really does best in her own environment. Her own bed, rocking chair and toys. We felt a bit guilty taking her away from her comfort zone for Christmas Eve-the day after Christmas. She was also getting a new tooth (her 5th!) so was not in the best of spirits. But she sure did bring smiles to everyone she came across and did enjoy all of her new presents!! Christmas is VERY different with a baby, in a good way:) We enjoyed helping her open all of her gifts, and then taking all of the new toys out of the boxes, batteries installed and the living room was transformed into a Christmas Playland!:) Todd surprised both Em and I with a beautiful snow globe for Emily. Engraved with her name and a special Bible Verse, inside the snow globe is an angel holding a sign that says "Faith" - how sweet for Emily's first Christmas, especially from just her Daddy:) I was very proud of him for picking out something so sentimental:)

We got to take Emily to visit her Great Grandpa Hamllik in Washougal, WA, along with her Great Uncle and Aunt Hamllik. We enjoyed a nice day visiting as everyone watched Emily crawl all around:) New Years was very low key for us this year, we really enjoy spending the evening in reflecting on the past year, staying warm, eating good food and watching some movies.

Emily will be 8 months old on the 13th of this month. Here are some of the new things she is doing:

*CRAWLING! Emily began crawling right after Thanksgiving, she has recently began to pick up speed and zooms around our entire condo, we have baby proofed, put away cords and wires, put the kitty food away and put up a baby gate at the top of our stairs.

*Sitting by herself, Emily was a supported sitter for awhile, and is now able to pull herself up to sit by herself with no help, she can also pull herself from sitting, to her knees, and SURPRISE to her FEET! She is now standing on her own (while holding onto something for support). Unfortunately this has called for some tiny bumps and scrapes as she is falling a lot more:) She is a trooper though, and most times she falls we clap and make it seem happy and not sad:)

*Feeding herself, Emily loves her cereal puffs and eats the best when she is feeding herself. She can keep herself very busy with a tray full of Cheerios. She is also enjoy many different foods, her favorite is bananas, so we do mix banana oatmeal with most of her food to get her to eat more:) She kicks her legs and gets very excited when she tries a new food that she enjoys, just recently she had Apple, Strawberry Banana puree and she loved it:)

*Vocalizing, Emily has a very soft voice, but when she wants Todd and I to do something she can get very loud!! She mostly repeats...nananana and it gets louder and louder as she gets more and more upset. She also just started making the bbbb sound and puckers her lips together while making it...sort of sounds like an elephant. Todd has been calling her his 'Little Elephant'

*Upgraded Car Seat, Emily has outgrown her infant seat, and was very uncomfortable in it. So we did some research and found a wonderful new seat for her. She still is rear facing but it is a much bigger seat for her. With TONS of cushion...looks like a recliner in the back seat of our car now:)

Todd and I both are so excited for 2010, we can not wait to see what is in store for us! We are dedicated to our daughters safety and happiness...and the happiness of one another. That is all we need!! Here's to a wonderful New Year, full of God's faithfulness and daily blessings.