Emily's 4 Year Pictures

I have a CD with well over 20 pictures, but these are a few of my favorites. A close family friend does photography now and we asked her to do Emily's pictures since I am now back in Oregon. We spent about an hour at the park taking tons of pictures. I am sure she had tons of fun chasing Emily all over the park trying to get her to stand still for a picture! It was fun and I am thrilled with how they turned out. I think outdoor pictures are so much better than typical studio pictures.

A Day at the Beach

I just loved these pictures
Had to take a picture of us together!
She discovered how to let her feet sink into the wet sand!
We finally got a non rainy and semi warm day to go to the beach last Saturday. Emily loved it. I was attempting to keep her dry by keeping her shoes and socks on...but that lasted only about 20 minutes until I realized it was a lost cause!

My Big Girl

A day at Regatta Park...right on the lake. It was fun to take her there for the first time...it was my favorite park when I was young. Fun to sit back and watch her play and remember how much fun I had playing there...


Getting the mail with papa in the pouring rain!!

Her first Day of Preschool!



Emily had so much fun at school today. The teacher's assistant took her hand and introduced her to all of the high school students and the preschool students. The teacher said she did great today, but was very reserved. I told her not to worry, that would all change by next week! I love the high school preschool...it is such a great experience for the kids and the high school students. I took 3 years of child psychology in high school(which is the program for high school students to study the development of babies and children, and then they get to plan lessons, crafts and snacks for the preschool children.) It is interesting to be the parent dropping of the child now!! Emily goes Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's every week from 8:30am-11:30am. Early mornings means early bedtimes...which I love! I will take pictures of her in class soon...didn't want to take too many pictures today while she was adjusting to everything. More pictures to come of the actual preschool next week!

2009 in Review

January
First trip to Shipshewana, IN. Loved the waterpark!! Has named every pool and large bathtub a waterpark now!

Feruary
First pair of subglasses!

March
First tri-city blackout while I was at work. Luckily, uncle Rob and aunt Jen kept her occupied!

April

Easter and the March for Babies...Emily walked 3 out of 4 miles...I was so proud of her.

May

After 2 years of being stubborn, she was finally potty trained on my birthday! And we took our last trip to Chicago for Mother's Day weekend.

June
Uncle Rob bought the kids a slip n' slide so they could have some fun outside and cool off!

July

Visit from nana and papa!!!

August
Emmy and I finally got our own apartment!

September
Frequent trips to Meijer resulted in many pony rides!

October
Nice weather and living within 1/2 mile of the park, we would walk to the park on my days off and spend many hours there!

November
Reading to nana over the phone!

December


A month of many changes for us: Emily's 4th birthday, moving back to Oregon and Christmas at nana and papas in the morning, and then great grandma and great grandpa's house in the afternoon where she had tons of fun playing with her 3rd cousin.
This year has been challenging in many aspects, but it has been a great learning experience. That which does not kill us makes us stronger so they say. I am hoping that is true! I know the future holds many more challenges for me, but I am ready to embrace them and grow from them. I am so blessed to have Emily in my life. Without her, I am not sure if I would have made it through some of the challenges in my life thus far. She keeps me going and makes me want to better myself. It still amazes me that such a tiny person could make a grown adult melt. Goodbye 2009, hello 2010...let my new journey in life begin.

Quite Content!

Playing in papa's wheelchair

Emmy's new nightly tradition: sitting with papa and watching cartoons!

Christmas morning!

Emily's new dollhouse she got from nana and papa for her birthday! Furniture followed for Christmas!

It has been an interesting transition around here, but we are all adapting rather smoothly I think. With the limited amount of jobs over here right now, I am praying that my unemployment comes through, which has been an uphill battle thus far. It has been great catching up with my friends here in Oregon, but missing a few of my friends back in Michigan. I am heading over to Salem for New Years to catch up with some friends and have fun. Leaving little miss Emily with her nana and papa for the evening! Looking forward to Sunday when I get to catch up with another great friend that I haven't seen in over 2 years! In the mean time, I am so grateful that my parents are able to help me out right now. Without them, I don't know what I would do.

Back in Oregon

Just wanted to make a quick post since it has been forever and a day since I have bothered to get online! I love having a blackberry where I can access Facebook and Myspace from it, but it doesn't let me post blogs from it...oh well!

Emily and I are officially back in Oregon. We arrived Tuesday night around 9pm PST. We were delayed over 2 hours in South Bend, IN, which in turn caused me to be late for my connecting flight by 15 minutes. Luckily, when we landed in Chicago, I turned on my phone, looked up my flight number and seen that my next flight had been delayed. Big sigh of relief as I also found out that my next flight was in the same terminal I flew in to, so I didn't have to walk over a mile to get to my next gate. However...when I arrived at my next gate, they were already boarding. Thinking for a minute that this was just so freaking awesome, I then arrived to the counter to let them know I was there. When the lady informed me that the flight was full and I would have to get on standby, I about freaked! Since I was not there 30 minutes prior to boarding, they gave away my seats...AGH. Luckily, there were 2 seats and miss and I got on the plane. We arrived at PHX 4 long hours later and had some issues with seating there...but eventually made it to PDX. Emily did so well the entire day. By the time we arrived in PDX, we had been at airports or on planes for 12 hours and only encountered one rude person...not too bad!

Readjusting to being back home and going to start the job search next week. This week I am going to focus on getting settled, getting Emily adjusted and catching up with friends. I don't think that Emily realizes we are staying here because she still talks about seeing her uncle and cousins, but hopefully with time, she will adjust. She will be going to school the first week of January, so that will be fun!

Making Progress

Just a quick update while I have a few moments on the computer before jetting off to meet a few friends...
I have officially booked our airline tickets back to Oregon. We have decided that it would just be easier to put all of my stuff into storage back here and fly home for now. And then a good friend of mine and I will be driving out here with a truck and trailer next June to get my stuff. With it being December and roads might not be ideal for driving once I hit the mountains, to put my mom's fears of me crashing somewhere in Wyoming, I am just flying home! We will be flying out on the 22nd. Have a late birthday celebration for Emmy and be there in time for Christmas...which I am completely excited for because my mom got her this amazing dollhouse with all of the furniture! My dad is putting it together next week, so when we get home, Emmy just has to uncover it and she will have her dollhouse for her late birthday!!
In the mean time, I am packing and trying to spend as much time with my friends here in Michigan before I leave. Luckily, I don't have that much stuff to pack...sadly enough it is mostly toys, books and my kitchen stuff!! I am giving my car to a friend because my parents purchased a car back in Oregon for me...which I will be repaying them for. But my car here in Michigan isn't that great and wouldn't make it back to Oregon I don't think! The joys of being a poor single mom!!
Oh, and a random thought I have to share...I will admit, a friend of mine in high school got me hooked on listening to Tom Petty...so not my era, but I love him! Any ways, I was listening to a Chicago radio station the other day and a song came on that I hadn't heard before, which is not uncommon! But, when the chorus came on, I recognized the lyrics...it was Tom Petty's song "Free Falling". And not only did this artist remake it, but it is now a rap song!!! Ok, I like rap...some of it. But you NEVER turn a Tom Petty song into a rap song...it is just so taboo!
And while finally watching the movie Cars with Emily for the first time the other day, I have learned a new line and I am going to start using it whenever possible..."I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park!" Completely random, but so very funny! Living in tornado country right now I have come to realize that when you hear of things being destroyed by a tornado, it is ALWAYS a trailer park...I have not the slightest idea as to why it is, but maybe the trailers give off some signal to the tornado or something!! (That was sarcasm by the way!)