Our weekend in DC,

I had mentioned to Bron within the last year that I would love to see the cherry blossom trees in DC sometime. And little did I know, that he was planning a weekend away for our little family, as a late birthday present. We stayed with friends, which was such a blessing and we so enjoyed getting to hang out with them. It was so nice to be away, together, with nothing to do but enjoy eachother. Emmy slept well, and even napped on a blanket in the grass when we were out and about. God gave us such a beautiful day! The sky was so blue, and the sun was so bright. It really made it feel like Spring was here. Here are a few pictures of our fun day out.

Spring Mix.

Easter in our dining room was a success! God provided chairs in the form of borrowed chairs from Bron's office:) There were 10 people in all-including Bron and me, my sister Rachel and her husband and two boys, my parents, and my sweet sisters Dot and Maddie, who stayed for the weekend and helped out. (Oh yes, Emmy was there too- who refused to nap in all the excitement. We are thinking she is going to be a social butterfly...)

We ate lunch after church, and chatted while Emmy played in her new playpen close by. My nephews hopped in and out with her. We even managed to have a egg-hunt for the boys, who didn't seem to notice at all how small our backyard is. We played Apples to Apples, and watched Little Rascals. It was a fun, layed-back day.

April is here! It is feeling alot more like Spring around here. We're excited about having a vegetable garden this year and about our new set-up to have friends over more often. We're looking forward to being able to walk to more things in the city in the evenings, since it's warmer and the sun stays out longer. Tonight we are walking to a new cafe nearby for our date night.

It's going to be so fun to watch Emmy grow into more of a little girl in Springtime,- to be able to play outside with her and take walks and things, and to dress her in sweet little outfits without worrying as much about bundling her up.

She is climbing on everything and babbling "Da-da-da" all day long. (video at the end of this post!) She seems to understand when I tell her "Daddy's coming home!" She looks at the stairs until he comes, and she squeals with delight when she sees him.

She has specific favorite toys and books now. She loves pickles and meat and bananas and avocados. She waves and claps, and looks at us when her musical toy plays it's song so that we can dance, and she laughs at us. Her little personality is shining through. Also her little sinful nature! She has an angry cry now. It's all part of the experience of raising a little girl.

Oh, and if we had any hopes of making our home not look like a baby's home, we have given them up. Her playpen came last week, and Bron and I are a little too excited about this thing. You may have even heard us talk about it, hehe. It makes life alot easier! And Emmy is getting better at entertaining herself. Such a blessing to our every day life. It is also kind of fun to go in there with her:)

A new view around here;)

We have paint on the walls!

It is so exciting. I'm sorry that I have not done a good job of documenting the progress of our dining room remodel. It is pretty much been our life since the new year has begun. Even now as I type, it is almost 10pm, and Bron is downstairs putting on the last coat of paint. 

Bron has been such a hard worker. He comes home from work and eats dinner. After that, he helps give Emmy a bath if needed, and he plays with her if she's still awake. Then, he gets right to dining room stuff. First it was knocking out the wall,then it was pulling of the old paneling, and stripping wallpaper (really pretty wallpaper!), then it was wiring, then insulating/sound-proofing, then dry-wall, then sanding the dry-wall, and this weekend the fun part came.(Hm, did I get all that right babe? :) )

 On the weekends, we had help from the Irwins a few times. (Once they even came just to watch Emmy while we went to a marriage conference held at our church.That was so nice!)

Here are a few pictures of it all. To give some perspective, when you come up the stairs- this was once the wall to your left. What was once a very tunnel-y and dark hallway has now become a sunny and open place. Yay Bron!

Anway, I'm sorry for the wife-ness of the description and summary. There's still a couple things left to do, but we're ready for Easter with my family for the most part. Right now I am praying for dining room chairs for our dining table. We can't wait to start using this place! We are dreaming of having friends and family over. If you've ever been over our house, and eaten dinner on our couch, you understand why we are so excited:)

Emmy claps!

I haven't taken much time to post on here in awhile. We're still here:)

Life is very busy!This video is a little glimpse into  life at our home. This pretty much sums it up! Bron working so hard on the dining room every chance he can, and Emmy learning so many new things we can hardly keep up.

Yay for the last steps of this remodel! Hoping to be painting this weekend:) And yay for spring coming! My family is coming for Easter at our house. We can't wait to use our new/improved space.

Developing her copy-cat skills, !

Well, sort of. :)


But, for some reason she always gets fustrated when I try to get her to say 'Da-da'.

Oh yeah, she has teeth too! :)

 And she sits and plays with her toys like a little kid. And scrambles off her blanket to try to play with the dvd player and things like that. It's all happening so fast, it's hard to keep track of!

A bittersweet moment-

If you haven't heard- our life has just gotten quite a bit 'easier'! For the last couple of weeks, Emmy has been sleeping really well. The trick was dropping her third nap, which was usally around 4:30 while I made dinner. So now, instead of making-dinner-time being a relaxing time for me before Bron gets home from work, it's Emmy's last hour before bedtime and she's a little cranky. But it is so worth it:) Bron gets home, spends a little bit of time with her, then we put her to bed between 6:30 and 7. And we have evenings free together. She wakes around 10 to nurse, then sleeps till 5 or 6 or sometimes 7. Hallelujah!

Last night, Bron and I were having our weekly "date night", which lately means just talking on the couch and drinking tea after dinner, and Bron not working on the house. And we started to hear some Emmylou cries from up in her room. We ignored them, sort of. She shouldn't have been hungry or anything. But eventually, we gave in, and look what we beheld as we opened her door- ! It was the strangest feeling to see her standing on her own like that. She probably figured 'I'm 7 months old today, it's time I start standing in my crib', hehe. Like true first parents, we ran to get the camera, which made her cry a little harder. ;}