First Day of School!

Pre-school that is! Emma started pre-school yesterday at Little Hands Academy. She goes Tues/Thurs mornings from 8-11. She goes with Burke, a little boy that her babysitter, Miss Gwen, also keeps. She didn't have a lot to say about her first day, except for that they sang songs, Burke was her "only friend there", and they played on the playground and had to "line up when it was time to go inside". She's growing up so fast! :-)

Jax is Here!

My sister Leah, husband Zeb and big brother, Kai, introduced the newest addition to their family today. Jax Bricker Hood was born at 1:16 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. He looks a little like his big brother and has the cutest dimples!

We asked Emma to give Jax a kiss on the forehead and she said "No, I have pretties (lip gloss) on, and you can't kiss a baby with pretties on!"

Tent on a Rainy Day

Today was a rainy day for the most part of the day, so we were stuck playing inside. Mimi made Emma these 2 pieces of material that fit together over a card table to make a "princess castle" tent.

So we set it up in the living room, Emma brought all of her dolls and some of her books into it, along with a flashlight, and set up camp for about an hour.

Picnic at the Park

Today Emma and I took our lunch to the park. After eating, she played on the playground. Being the extremely cautious child that she is (we have NO idea where that comes from!), she was very timid about climbing down some steps without me standing there to hold her hands. Slowly we practiced doing this over and over, and finally I got her to take the steps on her own. I have captured it in the video below. She felt SO proud and brave when she finally did it by herself!

Here are a few more pics of Emma on the playground:

Jumping off the last step!

Climbing the Ladder

Face of Concentration

Hanging from the ladder

Dress Up!

This morning Emma got out her dress up stuff and put on some high heels, a straw hat and her purse with her pj's. Then she got her dolls together and pushed them around the house in the stroller.

Mimi's Visit

Mimi came last night so that she could watch Emma today while Jamey and I went to work (I had a really exciting in-service to attend today! Can you catch the sarcasm in that?) When I got home, they were both in her bedroom, Emma piling dolls and animals onto her bed and Mimi sitting on the edge of the bed. Emma said they were on an airplane (the bed) going to see the Backyardigans. Last night they did same thing only the bed was a spaceship going to "summerland" (don't know exactly what that is, just a place Emma made up). She loves to "pretend" as she calls it, and dictates what everyone does and says in her pretend world. What an imagination she has!

Cheer Camp Day 2

When I picked up Emma from Cheer Camp today, I walked in and the whole group was doing the dance that they were learning. I took a video of Emma doing the dance. Now I must say that Emma's version of the dance does not at all resemble the actual dance! (I had to zoom in all the way with my camera to film her, which meant that if I moved a millimeter with my hand the camera screen moved a foot, so sorry if you get sick trying to follow the video!)

After they finished the dance, they did a couple of cheers. Again, Emma's cheers looked nothing like everyone else's cheers. Lastly, they huddled together and sang the alma mater and fight song. This is where Emma was the star! (Bad mom that I am didn't have the camera out for this. Hey, I didn't know what they were doing in their huddle until it was too late.) But Emma sang both songs into the microphone, leading the way! (And no, I can't take credit for teaching her these songs. In fact, she taught me the songs! Her babysitter, Miss Gwen gets all the credit for that!)

Emma's Fears

Today was a busy day for Miss Emma. This morning she attended cheerleader camp up at the high school. I didn't stay and watch (because no other parents did and I didn't want to be the only one! :)), but I heard that she did great except for when Willie the Wildcat made an appearance. She freaked out and hid until they had a cheerleader pretend to beat him up and then made him leave...all for Emma's sake! She's terrified of anything in costume! After cheer camp, we went to Schlitterbahn with my friend, Holly, and her daughter, Julia. Emma was scared of any and all slides and rides at Schlitterbahn. I MADE her (being the mean mom that I am) go on 2 intertube rides with me and also on a little water slide with me. She protested going on it, but I thought "hey, she might end up liking it and just not know it yet". However, at the end of each ride she told me "I will NEVER go on that ride again!" So she spent the majority of her day with her 'wings' on floating in the kiddie pool with about 1 foot of water. And of course, wanted me to "Watch!" every second of her floating. She did entertain me some, however, because when she would float on her back she would sing a song (a different song everytime she turned over to her back, of course!) What I learned? I should have filled up the kiddie pool in the backyard with 1 foot of water, put her 'wings' on her, and let her float for free instead of paying $70 for her to do the same thing at Schlitterbahn. Maybe next summer she'll make the trip worthwhile! :-)

Here's a picture of her and Julia:

Prayers Needed!

One of my best friends from high school, April, has been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and had to fly to NYC to have brain surgery a couple of weeks ago. She was able to fly home to Austin, however, the other day had a set back in her recovery. Follow this link to her blog to read up on her www.aprilhenrynyc.blogspot.com and please keep her and her family in her prayers!

Emma and her 'Mini Me'

My mom got Emma this really cute dress that came with a matching dress to put on a doll. She wore it to church this morning, and insisted upon dressing her doll also and taking it along to church. She, and the doll, looked so cute I had to take a couple of pictures!

Backyardigans Live!

Today my mom and I took Emma and my nephew Kai to see the Backyardigans Live at the Hobby Center. The kids loved it, dancing in front of their seats and singing the songs. It was worth having to sit through it to see them enjoying it so much!

Here's Emma and Kai standing in front of the advertisement at the Hobby Center:

Here they are dancing during the show:

Here's they are with me, waiting for the show to start:

Here's 'Noni' with her grandkids:

Summer Reading

Emma loves books! She can spend an hour reading to herself. If it is a book we have read a few times, she will go through the book on her own and tell the story outloud the best she can remember it. If it's a book we haven't read before, she will look at the pictures and completely make up her own story. It's so cute to watch and listen to her do this. She has such an imagination!

Today the house got really quiet for awhile and I found her in the chair reading some books. Here are some pics of her doing this.

Visit With Melissa and Brodie

Yesterday we were in College Station at my parents, and my high school friend, Melissa and her little boy Brodie (who turns one next week!) drove down from Waco to hang out with us. This was my first time to meet Brodie (bad friend, I know!) and he is so cute and sweet! Melissa hadn't seen Emma in over a year and half either, so she was a little different than Melissa remembered her to say the least! We had a great time catching up with each other, took the kids to Chick-Fil-A (a ZOO!!!) for lunch, and swam in the backyard. We miss you Melissa, Brodie and Brent and wish we lived closer and could hang out more often!

Okay, so I know the picture is really bad! Try getting a 1 and 3 year old to look at the camera at the same time! My excuse for the way I look? The sun was in my face and I was laughing at my mom trying to get the kids to look! :)

You can at least see the kids faces in this one! :)

HELLO BLOG WORLD!!!

I've been reading friend's blogs for the last couple of years, and always think to myself while I'm reading them how nice it would be to do that and have our life documented through it (I haven't been the best at filling out the baby book!) Then I tell myself that there's no way I have the time to do a blog and forget about it. Well today I was surfing through some blogs and Jamey walked by and said "Why don't you do one of those?" I know he was joking, but I was like "I should!" So here's my attempt at blogging. We'll have to see how up to date I can keep it. I promise to try! And those of you exprienced bloggers out there...if you have any suggestions to make my blogging life easier and more creative, all suggestions are welcome! :)