Welcome Samantha!

At 2:12 am Tuesday March 24th our family welcomed Samantha into this world and our family. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long.

Emma seems to be excited (so far). She tells people, "My baby!" We are hoping that is a good sign. Time will tell.

Les told me about the baby pictures they did in the hospital. From what he told me the pictures weren't all that great. So I did a little photo session of my own. Here are my favorites.

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma

Two years ago Les and I welcomed Emma into our family. We were happy to have her with us.

Now I look at her and think of how luck I have been to see her grow in so many ways. Emma you are such a light in mommy and daddy's life. We love you very much.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma's Birthday Party (also potty training update)

Emma doesn't actually turn 2 until next Monday. However, starting Thursday Les is supposed to be gone for 6 days for conferences on his research. That means he won't be here for Emma's birthday or the weekend before. Also, I am due the weekend after Emma's birthday and I really didn't want to be hauled to the hospital right before or even in the middle of her party. So for those reasons we decided that we needed to throw her party before Les leaves. Yesterday was the day. The weather was great and we had a lot of people come to support us. We would like to thank all of those people for coming.

The party went great as far as I could tell. We ate dinner, opened presents, had dessert, and Les made crafts with the kids. Also because the weather was great the kids got to go outside and run around. There of course was still snow so they got into this big snow ball fight. Here are some pictures from the big day.

Here is Emma's cake!

I think I did a pretty good job on the decorating for my first real attempt.

Les' family

Melanie's family

Blowing out the candle!

Emma in her Cinderella Dress!

Potty Training Update: It is day 8 and I think we have made a lot of progress. Emma is going #1 in the potty more often than not. Even when we went to the store! We are working on #2 now. One tip I would give to parents yet to experience this "joyful" time is to find something that your child really likes or enjoys and then use it to help modivate your child. For Emma it is certain dresses. I was pulling out her 24 month clothing and she saw this cute dress with butterflies. From the moment her eyes spotted it she wanted it on and had no intention of taking it off. However, when she had an accident in it we had to take it off to clean it. She cried for over an hour. It did teach her that if she wants to wear the dress she needs to make sure she does not have an accident in it.

Potty Training Day Two

So today started out much better than yesterday. I think part of the problem was that she didn't take a nap. In fact, she fell asleep at about a quarter to 8 and slept until after 9 this morning. She was in such a good mood when she got up. Our trips to the potty were happy ones. At about 11 she went #1 in the potty. We were so excited! Emma got a sucker for her efforts. She even seemed pleased about what had happened. However, when daddy came home from his appointment at the VA she suddenly didn't want to go anymore. After that it was hit and miss on when she would be willing to sit on the potty. She went #1 one more time but not on the potty. As I have been writing this she was acting funny so I asked her if she wanted to go sit on the potty. She said yes so I put her on it. She had started #2 in her underware and stopped it as soon as I put her on the potty. I haven't been able to get her to continue. I am not sure what to do. I don't want potty time to be a punishment but I don't want her to think that going in her underware is the way to go. I'll be praying about this being the right time to be taking this course.

Potty Training Day One

This has been one of the longest days I've ever had. To start it off I looked out the window to see that what had been grass yesterday was covered in several inches of snow. Once Emma awoke we placed her in her new training underware. She was not happy that there wasn't a diaper on as well. Every half an hour for 5 to 10 minutes we put her on the potty. It is amazing what you don't get done when you run a schedule like that. For all our effort she went #1 twice and #2 once. All three were not into the potty. By about five this evening she'd had enough. At the mention of her sitting on her potty she would shout NO and run away. I knew potty training would be hard but it pulls at my heart to have her struggling and afraid. I could use any tips that you have to share. Pray for us.
Oh as for the snow it is still coming down. Les spent about two hours clearing our driveway as well as driveways for four of our neighbors. By the time he finished he was soaked and our driveway was covered again. Oh well. We need all the moisture we can get.

Emma and "the princess"

On Friday night we went to an open house for Les' cousin Meagan. I think we all had a good time. I forgot my camera at home so there are no pictures. The title of this post sums up the night. I truly think that Emma thought of Meagan as a real "princess." For a while she watched every move Meagan made. She even acted a little jealous when Meagan danced with her dad. Les tried to distract her by dancing with her during the song but she just pointed at Meagan the entire time. At one point Meagan got her make up touched up for some pictures. Emma sat right next to her to watch everything she did. So Meagan put some on her as well. She looked so pleased to be included. In fact, after she have some lipstick on she kissed Les on the cheek. He was so pleased that he refused to wipe the lipstick off.

When it was time for catching the bouquet Les' uncle Bob took Emma over to be with all the other single girls. I thought for sure that with her behind all the other girls that she wouldn't even come close to the bouquet. I was wrong. It sailed right over their heads and landed in front of Emma. She just reached out and picked them up. She held onto them as if they were a lifeline. I asked her this morning if Meagan gave her those flowers and she noded yes.

After seeing everyone else dance Emma pulled Les out to dance. Everytime he tried to come back to sit down she would pull him back out. One song that was played was So This Is Love from Cinderella. Once she heard it she knew what it was and asked for it over and over. She didn't care for any other song but that one.

So even though I didn't take any pictures while we were there I did take pictures this morning. I was trying to distract Emma from the fact that we were making her wear a dress. So I asked her if she would like me to take a picture of her with the bouquet. She told me yes and ran to stand where I told her to. She did a great job of posing for the picture. After a few she started to move around. She even would look off in a different direction. She is going to be good at getting her picture taken. Here is what we did.

Emma demonstrating how she held her hands to catch the bouquet

The look on Emma's face when she came up with the bouquet