Aidan and Emma have a new Blog!

Please check it out, I have decided to combine Aidan and Emma's blogs into one! Go to: http://aidanandemma.blogspot.com

Emma and Aidan's blogs

I know I have some followers that only check Emma's blog. Aidan does have a blog on a different site and if you want to follow that one it is: http://aidan-memoirs.livejournal.com I am thinking about combining there blogs into one, b/c I have a hard enough time updating one, since Emma is over a year now, I thought I could creat one that was for both of them, make it easier on me atleast! ha!

I need to upload some new pictures I've taken, things have been super crazy around our house with an open house recently and Aidan still getting over this stomach bug which I just found out today it was bacteria related and not a virus, you can read more about that on his blog. Emma is just getting around so fast these days, she doesn't even crawl anymore, but her poor legs are showing a new walker, she has scraps and bruises from tripping and falling down, but she usually just brushes it off and keeps on going, much different than her brother! ha! She is so adventurous as well, when we go to the playground she wants to climb up there right behind Aidan. We went to the park yesterday and I let her climb up behind Aidan and I had to climb up behind her, not the most fun for me, but I didn't want to deny her the enjoyment of climbing up to the slide. She climbed all the way up to the top and it was a huge slide probably about 10 feet or more off the ground, I tried to make her lay on her back and slide her down with Chris waiting at the bottom and he said she was grining from ear to ear when she got to the bottom! Fearless! It took Aidan probably until he was 2 1/2 to get up the nerve to go down big slides. I think I am going to have my hands full with Emma. :)

Emma trying to Swing

I just had to post this video that my mom took of Emma last weekend. She has had this baby swing for a while and Papa Rick has yet to put it up and Emma discovered it while playing and tried her best to swing in it and is clearly upset with her Papa for not having it up for her. too cute!



I ran across this video of Aidan when he first started walking, so cute when they are learning how to walk. It really doesn't seem like that long ago. He's 3 now and he and Emma both started walking around 15 months.

Emma's starting to walk!

Here is the video of Emma the other day walking around! Enjoy!

We are Walking!

Well, I can't believe it, my little baby is walking! She has been teasing us for about a month or less with a few steps here, few steps there, but the past few days she has started walking across the room and can get up from a sitting position and walk off. She has been really good at standing for about a month a half, her one year pictures were mostly of her standing, she has really good balance when she is standing still. She is still very unstable and will fall down after about 10-12 steps, but she is on her way. I got some video of her walking this weekend and will hopefully post it this week. They are so cute when they first start walking, all babies have that drunken walk with their arms in the air, so funny to watch. I love to see the excitement in her face when she is walking or has walked across the room and she turns to see if we saw her, too cute!

On another note, I'm so ready for my two babies to stop fighting over me, although part of me loves that they both want me to hold and cuddle them or sit in my lap, its also so frustrating and tears at my heart b/c I end up having to choose one over the other b/c they will both hit and poke at each other if I try to hold them both at the same time. Emma has gotten really good at this and thinks its hilarious to poke at his eyes and pull his hair which he totally freaks out when she does this. She is tough one though, when he does push her or try to be a bully big brother, she is right back at him and is very determined. I still nurse Emma in the evenings and that is usually when Aidan wants to sit in my lap and watch tv or wants me to pick him up, makes my evenings super stressful and Chris trys to intervene and help out, but it usually ends up with them crying louder which I feel bad about too for him. He has a hard time with the crying and whinning, which I do too, but I guess I can tolerate it longer than he can, mommy thing I suppose. This too shall pass I know, but its definitely tough having two so close in age, I'm glad I did, but its hard and exhausting at times!

Beach Trip 2009

We recently got back from our annual family beach trip to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. We had so much fun getting together with the family. Although I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation. The kids had a lot of fun, but there was a lot of fighting over mommy the whole week and boy was it exhausting. I think my family definitely was feeling exhausted for me, b/c as much as everyone including Chris wanted to help me they couldn't when all either of them wanted was me. Don't get me wrong I definitely feel loved by them both, but it is really hard to try to confort both of them at the same time when they are fighting for my attention. Aidan's favorite words that week was "My Mommy!" while he is trying to push Emma away from me, Emma is going to be tough after all of this with her brother, b/c she does not hesitate to push him back. She is closer and closer to walking, but still would rather crawl or her fav to walk around on her knees. I'm not rushing her to walk by any means, but I will be glad in some ways when she does start walking b/c it will mean that Aidan will start walking around everyone again too! Since Emma gets carried around most places, he wants to be carried too and usually by me. Maybe I'll develop some toned arms after all this carrying 35 pounds around! ha! Even though they have times fighting they also have the sweetest moments too when they are laughing and playing together, its so cute. I need to try to get some of those on video. Here are some pictures from the beach. I am also going to post some on Aidan's blog as I need to update his too.

Emma playing on the playground at the beach.

Standing up by the slide


Loving the slide!

Playing in the sand in front of our beach house.

Sweet Girl

Playing with her brother in the sand

Sitting pretty

Hanging out with her cousin Matti by the pool

Sitting in her brother's beach chair.

Playing with Matti.

Playing with Daddy in the Pool

Playing with my brother

I love this picture even though the film is overexposed. I can probably crop it to print.

This one turned out so well of both of them playing in the tunnel.

Playing in the sand.

I'm getting the hang of pushing these things.

Having fun riding around

Emma loves her big brother (most of the time) ha!

Aidan making Emma laugh in the baby pool.

Hanging out on the front porch.

Playing with my cousins and brother on the beach.

My little dare devil

Emma is going to keep me on my toes that is for sure! She is growing and changing so much and doing her best to keep up with her big brother. She is also trying to keep up with her cousin Carter, he is almost walking and she is not far behind. She took her first couple of steps this past week and has started walking some when holding on to her hands and occasionally with only one hand. She is so different in how Aidan was at the same age, he has and still is very cautious when doing anything new, for example the slide, it took him until recently maybe a little over 2 1/2 before he got up the courage to go down any slide, now he does it with ease. But, Emma is different, she is already going down even the tallest of slides with the biggest grin on her face and wanting more! We recently went to my dad's for a cookout and he took me and all the grandkids for a ride in his "mule" tractor, similar to a golf cart but lots more power. We went all over the property and up and down the driveway, fast enough to blow our hair back and Emma was holding her arms up the whole time like she was on a rollercoaster! too funny! She loves checking out the horses, chickens, dogs, and the kittie. Yesterday we went out to lunch to Chickfila and let Aidan play in the playground, another recent discovery of his, took him until recently to get up the nerve to go ALL the way through. Since no one was in there I let Emma crawl around and check things out, next thing I know Chris's Dad is asking me if I put her up there, she had climbed up all by herself and was about 3 steps up into the playground. Well, she was having so much fun I didn't want to yank her out, so I let her keep going. She was so proud of herself and was having so much fun and just kept climbing and climbing. Well, then I started realizing that I should have stopped her after I couldn't see her anymore. I kept asking Aidan what she was doing and he told she was right here. Then, I asked him if she was near the slide and he said yes, I asked if she was comng down the slide, well, i'm not sure, but I think he misunderstood and gave her a little shove b/c I heard him say "Here she comes". Next thing I know she is tumbling down the slide, poor little thing, very startled. She did not get hurt thank goodness, just a little scared, but after crying for a minute or two she started pointing like she wanted to go back. Oh man am I in trouble! ha ha!

I took her to the park on Saturday and had her 1 year pics taken with Becky Vanderveen and had so much fun. The weather was perfect and I think we got some good shots, Emma did a lot of standing, I didn't realize until then how good she was at standing for periods of time. She did not however like the damp grass. When I put her down in the grass she imediately picked her legs up and gave me a look like ewww, gross what did you just put me on! It didn't take her too long to get use to it though and was crawling around in know time. The only bad thing was I think she had a reaction to the wet grass and now has nice red bumps on her legs. Here is a picture that Becky put on her blog from the session. My sister and Carter came to watch and ended up in a few of the pictures at the end. Here they are on the grass together. Emma was pooped! ha!