Visit from Santa

Santa called last week and asked if he could drop Emily's gifts off early this year . . . so he dropped by during Emily's nap yesterday afternoon and left her some really fun presents!

She got a new kitchen from Santa and some pots and pans from us:

Here she is trying out her egg she had just cooked:

She got an Elm0 Vacuum cleaner:

and a stroller for her baby dolls. Joe also bought her an Auburn blanket to cover up her baby dolls. She covers them up and has been taking them for walks all last night and this morning:

Santa also left her some crayons, coloring book, and Elm0 stickers in her stocking:

We got her an Elm0 book:

and Emily enjoyed eating some of Joe's mint chocolate MM's that Santa left him:

Merry Christmas from the Wilsons!!!

Saturday night we used one of our sushi coupons and Emily wanted to try some of our sushi!!! She ate a bite of the eel roll and loved it (don't worry . . . everything is cooked in an eel roll)!!!

Enjoying Christmas Cards

Sorry for the blurry picture today . . . I was trying to capture Emily enjoying all the Christmas cards we've gotten in the mail. I LOVE getting Christmas cards and letters in the mail from everyone and Emily has been enjoying it as much as I do. She asks to hold the cards and walks around and looks at them and then spreads them out on the floor and asks me to "read" them . . . or tell her who the people are in the picture.
We went grocery shopping this morning and I always carry my grocery cart cover that Angela made for Emily. This keeps all the nasty cart germs away from Emily . . . especially since she always carries her milk and goldfish with her to pass the time at the grocery store. Well today for the first time she noticed the grocery cart with the big car in front and asked to ride in it. So I figured I might as well get used to trying to maneuver that HUGE cart around the store at some point . . . why not today. What I didn't realize was how GROSS these carts are . . . oh . . . my . . . word!!!! It looked like it had about 15 years of dirt on that thing. Luckily, the store has the Clorox wipes you can use, so I ran over and grabbed a couple and wiped as much down as I could . . . of course Emily had already climbed in so I was wondering the whole time if my efforts were in vain to keep all the germs off of her. Then I started thinking about the clorox that I was wiping all over the steering wheel that wasn't drying . . . and started getting phobic about what clorox would do to her skin . . . sigh! . . . I decided I might as well just get over it and start shopping. I just pray that she didn't catch the "epizutic" in that car. She was definitely more entertained today and I only hit the aisles with the cart 3 times : ) She was so quiet way down there that it was almost like shopping alone . . . a mother's dream! That ended when she saw the coupon dispensers on the aisles and started hollering for "Emily's coupons"! Can you tell I've used those to entertain as well : )

23 Months Old!

Emily is 23 Months Old Today!!!

I can't believe our baby girl is about to be 2!!! Oh my! We see little glimpses of her independence coming out from time to time. She definitely wants to try everything herself these days . . . and for the most part she does well. The past week she has climbed up into the car and into her carseat waiting for me to buckle her in . . . I must say that is a nice skill to have since her car seat is in the middle and not the easiest to get into when you are trying to pick up a 23 pound child! I can also feel her 2 year molars starting to cut thru the skin. We could tell she was teething because at night time when she has her pacifiers she chews on them constantly. Her food preferences have changed as well . . . instead of gobbling down brocolli and okra she likes to gobble down pizza : ). She still eats her veggies . . . just not with the gusto that she used to have. Last night on the way home we heard her counting in the car and she counted from 1 - 7 and then "Ah Ah Ah" like the count does . . . what!!! It's amazing how they just pick up stuff . . . I wish my brain would absorb new things that easily : )

Polar Express

Tonight at church they had the Polar Express for all the kids. We got a ticket at the door and then each classroom had a different activity where they stamped our ticket. All the kids wore their Christmas PJ's. Santa was there but Emily didn't want to sit with him so we didn't get a picture . . . but she enjoyed the other activities:

Making Gingerbread houses:

Writing letters to Santa:

They also had a game room and a story time room. Emily had a great time!

In other news, Emily locked herself in her room today!!! I kept trying to talk to her thru the door to tell her to turn the little knob in the middle. She kept crying "turn knob in middle" really loud . . . so once I realized that wasn't going to work I took my side of the door knob off to see if I could tell what to do. Then I was afraid to push the other side thru and let it fall because I was afraid I was going to need it . . . so I ran and got my cell phone and asked Joe what to do. He told me to let the door knob drop on the other side and then I could just turn or push or pull the bar on the inside to open the door . . . well I didn't know what I was doing and Emily was crying louder and louder and kept trying to put the door knob back on the door . . . bless her . . . so Joe started heading this way. But about 5 minutes on the road and I figured out how to open the door!!!! So thankfully Joe didn't have to make the trip all the way home. And Emily was very glad that I got the door open. Good gracious! What drama we had this morning!!!! But I know how to take apart a door knob now : )

And because I'm always excited about a good bargain . . . I have to share this. We got a deal today to purchase $25 gift certificates to local restaurants for a cheap price. I called the restaurant to make sure it was legitimate . . . so we now have $50 gift certificates to a sushi restaurant for $4 . . . sweet!!!! I also purchased a $10 gift certificate to a fish restaurant for 60 cents and a $25 gift certificate to a Chinese restaurant for $2.00 . . . so cool! We are looking forward to using these.

Emily has been cracking me up this week because one of the party favors that we got at Anna's party was a Hell0 Kitty notebook and pens . . . that girl asks for those the second I walk in the room every morning. Here she is playing with them:

They also had their Christmas party at school yesterday. Here they are eating their lunch and playing at the train table:Emily also enjoyed trying to put her t-shirt on the other day. She walked around the living room and tried to play with her toys while she had this shirt on her head. Crazy nut!!!
Never a dull moment . . .

Birthday Party

Here are the pictures from Anna's party on Saturday. Here's the birthday girl. Anna we had a great time!!! Thanks for inviting us:






Here are my favorite pictures from the party. This is the round circle they were holding onto that I mentioned yesterday. See Emily's little head poking over the circle:And here they are running in a circle where I thought Emily was going to lift off of the floor and fly!! Emily did a great job keeping up. Look at her go!!!! She was running REALLY hard:

Christmas Party

We had our Christmas Party last night with our Sunday school class. We had a great time! We had an ornament swap and the kids enjoyed picking out the ornaments as much as we did. Don't we all look groovy:
Saturday morning we went to Anna's Birthday party and had so much fun! I forgot to bring my camera so hopefully I can share a couple later when Carey uploads her photos of the party. It was at a place where the kids could jump on a trampoline or slide down the slides, etc. The host at the facility had the kids play some games and Emily kept up with them pretty well (all the other kids were 3 and 4). There was one time where they were all holding on to a circle and the guy had them run around . . . I thought Emily was going to take flight because the kids were running so fast . . . but she kept up with them and only fell when she tripped over a foam block on the floor. The adult guys decided it would be fun to try to jump as high as they could on the trampoline and dive into the "pit" which was a big hole filled with big foam squares. I thought they were all going to hurt themselves. . . .they all looked a little stiff Sunday morning!

Saturday night Joe and I went on a date! A guy that his company sends business to gave them each a $100 gift card to a nice restaurant in town. We decided from their website that it wasn't very kid friendly so took it as an opportunity to go out! Our friend Leslie came over to babysit. We had a nice time.

Emily woke up at 4:00 this morning crying for some milk . . . I gave her some and she went right back to sleep . . . and is still asleep right now! Hope she wakes up soon or my schedule is shot for the day : )

Visiting Santa

We went to visit Santa tonight. We talked him up all day today to see if Emily would sit in his lap. But as we guessed we all got to be in the picture with Santa : ) Santa almost didn't make it in the picture! Emily enjoyed seeing Santa and loved walking thru the mall:
And Emily is still enjoying Bud's pallet. Doesn't he look thrilled that she is sitting next to him!
I also finished Emily's 2nd pair of pants tonight. This time I added eyelet lace to the bottom of these. I'm now going to attempt to make a top to match the pants!