WALKING!!!!!

That's right - EmJ's walking!!!

I'm a little bit of a slacker mom because she's really been walking

for a week and I'm just posting it, but hey... I do what I can! :o)

Here's a video of her walking:

As you can tell, she's not what I would call a "walker" yet... she obviously toddles... (funny how they call this age "toddler"). She's gotten lots better in the week that she's been walking and it's been so fun for us to watch her learn. She's still figuring out how to stand up on her own (without holding on to anything). She can do it sometimes and other times just crawls to the couch or something to stand and then walks off. It's been so much fun to watch her figure all this out!

Here are a few pictures too:

I know I'm partial... but isn't she just beautiful?!

Jeff loves this picture - probably because she looks just like him when he's playing ball! Dribbling away with that tongue out and all!

See how she's pointing to her shirt? Just wants to make sure you all know that she's a Jayhawk fan through and through!!!!!

We love this shirt!!! (Thanks Em, Adam, and Gianna!)

OOOOOklahoma!!!

EmJ and I just got back from a fantastic vacation to Oklahoma!!! We went to see Kimmi, Chris, Ireland and Chloe - and we had a blast! Here are some pictures from our trip... The girls hanging out...

Yes, you're seeing it right - that's me shooting an M16. I'm hardcore.
EmJ with her woobie on her head. Silly kid.
Chloe - isn't she so cute?!
Ireland's camera smile!
Chloe and EmJ enjoying their morning milk. Can you tell they just woke up?

Chris and EmJ playing
That's right... EmJ's hair is curly! TOO CUTE!!!!!
As you can see, Chloe is a climbing fiend! They are too cute! PS - I don't think this is really allowed, but it happened while Kimmi was cooking and I was watching the girls. :o)
Chloe and EmJ playing with shoes. It's started early...
Chloe and EmJ playing with their woobies together. This was hilarious! They played like this for probably 15-20 minutes - if you know 1 year olds, that's a LONG time!

Awwww....
EmJ so pretty with her "bracelets" Stinkin' cute Chloe...
Ireland "so pretty!"

The cute girls playing in Chloe's crib right after they woke up.

We obviously had a blast and can't wait to see our Shellaby's again!!!

our dancin' queen!

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Here's a fun little video of EmJ dancing! :o) I think the funniest part is how she's crawling away from me at the end! Stinker! Also... there is a new blog with pictures just below this one! Enjoy! :o)

silly EmJ...

Just a few new EmJ pictures to share...

We put a swing up on our porch that EmJ obviously likes a lot! :o)
And one day she decided not to take an afternoon nap... that is until she was in the swing!
Our cutie on the 4th of July :o)
This is what happens when I'm making dinner... "MAMA!!!"
If you look closely, you can see her 1 tooth. That's right... only 1! Silly kid! PS - I'm not looking forward to the day 7 teeth come in at once!

Oh, so pretty with mama's watch on!

Giving her monkey some love before bedtime - notice the crazy hair! As she gives love, she always says "aawww!" It's stinkin' cute!

video!

Just a quick glimpse at our fabulous EmJ... :o)

fun new stuff...

I've decided that I really need to blog more often because once I finally get a blog up I always have so many pictures! But I'm also guessing that no one is sad about new pictures of EmJ! :o) Here she is just playing - these balls are some of her absolute favorite things to play with right now.
Just this morning EmJ was playing with this bowl and putting it in front of her face like this. I was laughing pretty hard so she just kept it up - she loves to make people laugh!
It's been crazy hot here lately - so needless to say, we've been swimming lots! EmJ loves the water and can't seem to get enough of it. When we're in the big pool she's either in this boat floatie or with us. She just relaxes and as her daddy says "kicks it" in the boat.
Here she is in the kid pool. She's a big fan of splashing! :o)
I pretty much took this picture cause we got a new rug! EmJ's cute too though...

Here's a crawling picture - as promised. She's EVERYWHERE!
And yes... she is slowly but surely figuring out walking! She loves to walk with this Bingo Dog (once I put batteries in him he'll bark and play bingo as she pushes him). She hasn't taken steps on her own yet - still a bit timid. We'll keep you posted! I wish she could hang out with Ireland, Chloe, and Camdyn more - they'd sure love to teach her some walking tricks! We miss you guys!
EmJ is learning to feed herself with a spoon - it's messy, but she loves it!
She's pretty great...
EmJ got this hat from Corrie and Leigh right after she was born. Now that it fits, she loves it! The other night we were about to go for a walk and she put it on and left it on for most of the walk. Too stinkin' cute!

everyday fabulous life...

Life is pretty much grand right now... I'm done teaching for the summer and so I just get to hang out with EmJ all the time - LOVE IT! (well, most of the time) :o) EmJ is just growing, growing, growing... she's doing lots of fun stuff too - I think there's something new everyday! She knows lots of her body parts including ears, nose, hair, mouth, tongue, stinky feet, hands, etc. She also has a growing vocabulary (words she can say and understand) - including dada, mama, nana, papa, Janae (sounds like nae-nae), hi (and specifically hi dada or hi mama or hi anyone!), kitty (sounds like ditty), bye-bye and even more I'm sure I'm forgetting. She amazes us each day and we just love her more and more!

EmJ's favorite thing to do right now is to cruise - I think she walks along the couch and chair all day long! She's stinkin' cute!

Here's a picture of her funny army crawl I've been meaning to post. She did that for a long while, but for the past week or so she's moved onto the all fours crawl and gets around SO fast! She loves it... and needless to say, we bought baby gates!

As you can see, EmJ definitely already likes to try to do some things herself. Every time I see this picture I think she must be thinking, "I can do it myself, Mom!" It's probably just because she loves shoes... ah geez, it's begun!

She is such a little ham...

"Oh hey, I didn't know you were looking at me!" But oh, wait - yes she did! She loves the camera! Hee hee!

We had a very fun Father's Day this week - and obviously, EmJ LOVES her Daddy!

happy first birthday!!!

That's right... EmJ is now ONE!!!!!

She had a very fun birthday... here are a few pictures to show off her fabulous day!

Jeff and I wanted to get her something fun for her birthday - we decided on this piano. It's pretty great - she can learn and play music and have fun all in one! Mostly she just bangs the keys... she's super!

We had a fun birthday party for EmJ (on her actual birthday!) at my parent's house. There were lots of fun people who love EmJ there... we all had a great time. Opening presents was pretty cute - EmJ surprised me by actually staying pretty interested the whole time!

After we opened presents, it was time to get ready for cake! We stripped EmJ down and even did a little "naked baby dance!" EmJ's best friend (Chloe)'s Papaw was there and sang the song for us - thanks Steve!

The cake was awesome! EmJ had her own little cake that was so fantastic (thanks Sarah)! At first EmJ wasn't too sure what to do, but once she realized this was something to eat, she dug in!

As you can see, eventually EmJ's hands were messy - so she just stuck her face right in the cake! It was HILARIOUS!

Obviously, she likes cake...

...and being the center of attention!!! :o)

EmJ's first birthday was a hit! She had a super day filled with lots of fun and lots of love!