My Little Chef

Emme Claire got a play kitchen for her 1st birthday (can't believe that was almost a year ago!) and she loves it! She loves playing with her dishes and play food so much! And she really loves playing tea party. She is always bringing me, her Daddy, her Nonnie a cup of "tea" and refilling it for us over and over again. It's so cute!
Back at Christmas we gave her a couple of wooden Melissa & Doug food sets. The cookie sheet set and the cutting foods set. She could spend an hour playing with them. Here she is cutting her food up. She cuts it and I put it back together and it goes on and on like that. That's what Mommys are for right?! :)

First time hunting eggs!

Back on April 3rd we were over at my husband's parents house visiting (that's Emme's Grammy and PawPaw). I decided Emme Claire needed to try out hunting Easter eggs. Last year she was not walking yet for her 1st Easter so she didn't get to hunt any eggs. This year she is almost 2 so egg hunting will be great fun! Emme had a really enjoyed hunting eggs and probably wished that we had hid more of them for her.

My baby is growing up.

Well, yesterday I did it. I enrolled Emme Claire in preschool. Yep, preschool. Not daycare, not Mother's Day Out but real preschool. It's called Paddington British and it's in The Woodlands where we spend a large portion of our time these days (and it looks like we will be spending even more time in TX now). Since this school year is not far from being over she will start school in the middle of August when school starts back up. She will be in the 2 yr to 2.5 yr old class, it's called Little Lambs. I had a choice of sending her 5 days a week or Mon-Wed-Fri or Tue-Thu. I chose Tuesday and Thursday because it works best with our busy schedule. We do a lot of traveling on the weekends and those days will allow us to still go places from Thursday afternoon to Monday. And it will help us to not miss school as much. Of course since it's preschool she is allowed to miss but I'm going to try not to have her miss very often. She will be going 2 days a week from 9am to noon, so that is just 6 hours a week. They have an optional Lunch Bunch that is from noon to 3pm that I might take advantage of sometimes when I have things I need to do. During Lunch Bunch they eat, take a nap and have playtime. But mainly I just want her to attend from 9 to 12 because that is when they learn everything. And the teachers at her preschool are actual teachers. I'm so excited. I know she is going to learn so much and she is going to have lots of fun with the other children. The classes are very small, usually 7 or 8 children. Oh and the children have to wear uniforms. I can't wait to see her cute little self in a uniform! :) The school is offering Summer Camp programs for a 2 week period in June that I'm thinking about enrolling her in. Her camp class would be called Beach Buddies and they will learn all about ocean life. But back to preschool... I'm nervous about sending her simply because she has always just been with me and never stayed anywhere like that before. She's never even had a babysitter before. We just take her everywhere with us or once in a while we have one of her grandmothers watch her for us. So I'm going to have some anxiety from being without her. However I don't think it will bother her at all. She loves people and I mean everyone! I don't think she will have any trouble adjusting to Mommy leaving her. I know this will be good for her. I want to give her every educational advantage that I can and this school is supposed to be the best around here. Another thing I like about it is it's gated. So people have to use a call box to tell who they are and why they are there before they can enter the property. It's on 3 acres and has multiple buildings. They are cute buildings like something out of a storybook. They have 3 outdoor playgrounds, each is for a different age group with age appropriate playground equipment. And for rainy days they have a nice indoor playground. I guess the only time Emme will get to play is on days when she stays with the lunch bunch. They have an art room, music room, library, plus all the different class rooms. I'm really excited about it now. But when August comes I'll probably be panicing and Boo Hooing! lol

Here are some pics of my little sweetie from this first week in April.



She loves BUBBLES!!!


Building a tower of blocks is fun!


"Ta Da!" she says.


It's really fun to knock it over too! "Crash!" she says.


Building it back up again.

More Spring Pics at Biedenharn

Time for some more of the fantastic pics taken by Kimberly McDaniel. You can see more of these pics a couple posts ago. These were taken at Biedenharn Museum & Gardens in Monroe, LA on March 10th. Emme Claire was 22 1/2 months old.



















































At the very end of the shoot the photographer shot this pic of Emme Claire and I. I don't have makeup on and wasn't planning on being in any of the pics but I really love this pic of us. :)

Eight Great Years!

My husband and I recently (March 28th) had our 8th Anniversary. We have experienced so much together over these last 8 years plus. Had lots of good times, been through some hard times, lost some dear loved ones, moved several times, made new friends, made so many wonderful memories, created a very special little girl together. I'm so blessed to have a husband who is my best friend and whom I can talk to about anything. Also love that he goes shopping with me, goes on family vacations with me and EC (lots of them!) and he enjoys it, goes out to dinner with me, goes to the movies with me, goes grocery shopping for me, pumps my gas, joins me to take our daughter Emme Claire to experience fun new things like going to Sesame Street Live, The Grinch broadway show, Houston Zoo and the list goes on and on. We do everything together and I wouldn't have it any other way! He is my partner in life and I love him so! Almost 2 years ago we had the most precious little girl that we both adore and she will definitely grow up knowing she is loved! He is a great husband and father. I love our life together. We spend A LOT of time traveling around which means we are always busy and have a long To Do List and sometimes those things do not get done BUT I would much rather have us be together and have him in mine and Emme's lives on a regular basis than to have him traveling alone and us not seeing him very often. I need my husband and Emme needs her Daddy. So for now some of the To Do List things will have to remain undone while we spend time together as a family. :)

Here are my anniversary flowers.


Brian took me out to one of my favorite steak restaurants for dinner that night and of course I didn't take any pics of us but I did take some of Emme Claire. haha! Isn't she cute all dressed up?!


I love these sweet shoes! Poor thing still has bruises on her legs from falling in a small hole in Aunt Dean's yard a few weeks ago.


Brian and I love this little girl to the moon and back! :)