My Little Girl is ONE!

Emma turned one on November 23rd and we celebrated her birthday last Saturday, the 24th.

We (mostly Derek) have been working very hard to finish our basement before her party. (With tons of help from family & friends, THANK YOU so much!) Derek was working right up until the first guests arrived. So, I would say that our basement is now 95% done - YAY! It's been a long time comin!

EMMA's Party - With knowing that Emma was going to have a BIG day I was trying so hard to get her to take a nice, long nap that morning. Well, I am pretty sure that she knew that there was some excitment around. My mom came over and they finally took a nap together, for only about an hour! She woke up just when the party started.

Here are some pics of the party . . .

Some cute pics, and Emma in her b'day dress I found for her -

Here is the cute cake that Aunt Prudy made for Emma.
Emma did not care for the cake AT ALL!
Emma opening presents . . .
Here is Aunt Megan & Uncle Mark with Emma. . Here is Emma's friend Evan (4 months now!)

Emma's friend Maison stopped by too! They got her the Elmo shake n giggle chair. They both tried to sit in it at the same time!

Here is a little trip down memory lane. . .

This is our first family picture in the hospital.

Here is a pic after Emma's first bath in the hospital (sorry it's sideways)

Emma's 1st Christmas picture. . .

Emma had her one year check up on Friday. She is a healthy little girl, Dr. Heilman was very impressed! She lost a little bit of weight, but the doctor said that is to be expected with how much walking around she is doing these days. She was 22 lbs, 4.8 oz. & 2 ft. 6.75 in. tall. She is the 95th percentile for height and I think 80 % for weight (don't qoute me on the weight, i will have to check)

She has been walking now for two months, she is crusing. She LOVES the stairs, doesn't know how to go down yet (scary!). She says a few words when she wants to. New to her vocabulary is Quack, Quack for her rubber ducky. Emma needs to always keep her self busy, she is always into something. Emma still has just 4 teeth, I think some are working their way in again.

Emma has changed so much over the pasted year, Thank you to all our family and friends who have helped us out over some tough times and been with us thru the good times. I know that Emma absolutely loves each of you! This has been a change forsure, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Happy Belated Halloween!!

Emma was a ladybug for her 1st Halloween thanks to Aunt Prudy who bought her the costume!!

Here is daddy and Emma. . .Our first stop was at Great-Grandma's . . .
We then headed down to Stacy, Chad and the kids. We also got to see Ross, Lori and Natalie.
I just thought this was cute . ..
Girls having a FUN Time!

Aaron's Confirmation

On Sunday, October 28th, we went to my cousin Aaron's confirmation. He had around 171 + (i think) in his confirmation class. I believe that is more than our high school graduation classes!! It is just a amazing, but I guess that is what you get from living in the cities!Here is my grams with Aaron.
This is Aaron's nephew, it was sooo darn cute because all he wanted to do was keep giving Emma hugs and kisses.

M.O.A.

On Friday, Megan, me & Emma went to Mall of America. Megan needed to get a few things for her honeymoon coming up. We took Emma to the Rainforest Cafe for her first time. I thought that it would be kind of fun for her to experience. She absolutely LOVED it!!!Megan, this one is for you!
Here is Megan & Emma walking out to the car.

10 & 11 months!

Here are some pictures of Emma since Sept. 30th. I don't have much time to blog so here are some updated pics for now:

Here is Emma at her cousin Natalies 11th b'day party.

Emma cuddling up to a HUGE stuffed animal.Here is Emma waiting for cousin Justin to march by in CF Homecoming parade.

Justin is the one playing the bass drum, closest to us. Good job Justin! It so emotional, b/c that was just me about seven years ago. Same uniform, same drum. And Justin, you are suppose to be my little "brother" who still wants bear hugs!! :(

Here are some pics after her bath last week, just for fun!

I will hopefully get more up soon. Emma has been walking like crazy now, so I have to keep an extra eye on her!! Can you believe that she is almost one!!!!

the zoo

Let's see, the beginning of Sept. we took Emma to the Como Zoo for her 1st time. I was so excited because going to the como zoo was something we did growing up quite a bit. She would look at some of the animals and just stare, not quite sure what she was thinking.
We went to the conservatory, it is so beautiful! Here are some pics from there.


Here is daddy and emma checking out some plants.

Here is a pic I took of grandma tammy and emma, kind of cute.

demo, cabin & misc.

Derek was in a demo in Balsam Lake, WI on Sept. 1st. He took 8th place out of 27. I think he did pretty darn good on his first demo!
We left after the demo and headed straight up to Perham, MN to my Uncle Chad's parent's cabin. We will NEVER do that much driving in one weekend, let alone ONE DAY!

Here is our stop at St. Cloud to get Emma some food. She was "driving" when I got back out to the truck.

Here is Auntie Megan, Emma and Jezzabel. Here is Emma on the hammock, she really didn't know what in the world to think.

Here is a pic. of Emma and Cousin Ali have a bath. (I hope it's okay to have these kind of pics. on blogs?)

My mom brought Emma home one day last week, it was one of those days that was pretty chilly out. Well, My mom had a cute, but funky looking hat on her. Kind of cute.

Here is Emma and Tommy.

Emma is chasing Tommy, which happens on a daily basis!
Here is Emma's 1st time with Blueberries, just thought it was kind of cute!

Emma will be 10 months on Sunday, I can't believe where the time went!!