Emily's Birthday

EMILY IS TWO!!

We celebrated Emily's birthday in Texas this year with J.R.'s sister Bridgette and her husband Ben. The two boys are Devin and Layne, her cousins. J.R. was not able to be here because of work but we had him on skype for cake, ice cream and presents. I came to Texas to help Bridgette with her boys while she is on bedrest with her 3rd pregnancy. J.R. and I are planning on having another little birthday party when we get home.

Uncle Ben (or in Emily's words Ankle) and Aunt Bridgette gave Emily a Mrs. Potato Head!

Changing some of the accesories

The boys were just as excited as she was to open the presents!

Emily's Ducky cake

The head broke part way off before I started frosting the cake so that's why it is crooked. I was just thankful it stayed on long enough for me to finish frosting it and get pictures. We ate the head first so we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.


Emily on her Birthday

I gave her a pair of new shoes the day before her birthday because it decided to get really cold here in Texas and she needed something warmer than crocs.

I was trying to get a few pictures of Emily by herself but she wouldn't hold still, she just wanted to see the pictures!

This one worked a little bit better

Emily really likes to put her shoes on all by herself so I was a little worried that I would have to help her put her shoes on since these are sneekers and her other ones are crocs. I do have to make sure that the velcro is completly undone but other than that she can get them on by herself.

Her first attempt at putting her shoes on

I gave Emily her shoes a day early and it was a good thing because they were the wrong size. I ended up taking her to the store with me and trying on shoes. She need a six, not a five. She loves trying on shoes so I'm sure she was glad I got the wrong size origanally.

Here is a close up of her pretty princess shoes. She insists on wearing them every moment of the day that she is awake. At least I don't have to worry about getting her shoes on when I need to go somewhere!

She looks so sweet taking a nap

Pretty Hair

I finally got some pretty hair things for Emily. Since her hair is so curly I have never needed to do anything with it, so I just haven't. Recently though I have had a desire to do her hair so here is my fist attempt. I did it dry and she was pretty wiggly so this was a even as I could get the little pig tails. I think it turned out really cute. When Emily looked in the mirror she said

"oh, pretty!"

Hiking to Laurel Falls

My sister Becky came to visit us for 3 weeks and while she was here we decided to go hiking. We picked a beautiful day to go too. It was November 2nd and it was around 67 degrees so it felt good. The hike was only classified as moderate and family friendly. It was about 2 miles long round trip.

Family friendly bridge? Definatly not for kids Emily's age. There was a deep rushing river under that bridge. It made me a little nervous especially since Emily was wanting to walk by herself. I made her hold my hand and that just made her squirm and try to get away! I was so glad when we were over the bridge.

Laurel Falls

Stream flowing away from the falls

Emily and Mommy standing a safe distance from the falls. For some reason Emily was terrified of the waterfall, she wouldn't let me put her down at all!

Becky and Emily standing as close to the falls as we could get without Emily screaming and crying

Cute!

Emily had such a hard time walking with all the rocks on the ground. They were really close together so we had to be careful not to twist our ankles or get our shoes stuck between them.

Funny looking root with moss all over it

Laura and Emily sitting on a tree trunk

Becky and Emily

The description of the hike said there were stairs the last 3/10ths of a mile but this is not my definition of stairs! It was more like a rock slide in my opinion. Becky and I didn't dare carry Emily down the rock slide because if we fell it would probably have killed her. We each took one of her hands and when we got our feet on stable rocks we would swing her to the next rock between us. She loved it and said "Wee Wee! and laughed everytime we swung her." It was cute but our arms were tired by the end. It took us about 20 minutes to get down the hill and maybe 5 or 10 to get back up. Becky carried Emily most of the way up. I was very grateful for that.

Becky hiked up to the top of the waterfall while I stayed at the bottom and gave Emily snacks. She got some good pictures from up there.

I like this one

Through the trees

This is what Becky climbed to get to the top

Rock face along the trail that looked neat

Laura and Emily

Becky and Emily

Crossing the bridge on the way back

They're both just so cute!

Here is the river that went under the bridge. It was moving pretty fast too.

I love how much Becky and Emily love each other

They always want to be together