So one of my hobbies includes making cards! I could spend hours and hours just making cards and giving them away to friends and family. And here are some of my recent cards that I have made.
I apologize in advance for the poor quality of photos since they were taken with our video camera (our point-and-shoot camera has been dead for about 4 months now)
Halloween Cards
General Birthday Cards
General Cards
Thats all for Arts and Crafts today. I will put more of my creations up on the blog in the future too!
So I updated the blog - I know I'm a slacker. But this cute little girl makes up for it right!?
Read on for more updates and new pictures of Miss Emily!
We love Fiesta here in Santa Barbara - it's like a party for five days! Good food, good shows and lots and lots of confetti!
We took Emily to her first Rodeo and she kept saying she wanted to ride the horses. I also took her outside to see the Giant Brahma Bull - she loved it and wanted to take it home with her! she also got to wear her new boots, or "cow Boots" as she likes to call them! (Thanks Auntie Deena for the boots!)
Then on Saturday we decided to have our own Pancake Breakfast and catch the Children's Parade downtown. Emily got to dress up in her special fiesta dress that Great grandpa got for her in Spain last year. She said she like the costumes but not the drums. Maybe next year we will get a group together and join the parade! it's never to late to plan early.
After the parade Emily was beat so we took her to my folks place and she took a much needed nap (and I got to make some cards!) We then decided for dinner that night to go to the Mercado del Norte and let Emily experience some carnival rides. She LOVED it!!! and yes we paid $7 for a stupid pony ride - what a rip off! for three minutes of riding - but so worth the smiles Emily had on "Billy" the pony.
Recently, my folks, Emily and I drove to Henderson, NV to visit my brother's family and get the cousins together. Both Emily and Makenna had a blast with eachother despite the HEAT! 118 Degress of dry heat.
One day we went to a local kiddie water park. It was 113 at 9 am! the girls liked it for the most part, Emily was a bit unsure and by the time her cheeks were bright pink we decided it was time to seek out some air conditioning and lunch.
Later that night we dressed the girls up in their matching outfits and headed to Chevy's Fresh Mex for dinner. Makenna got to wear the sombrero because we were celebrating her birthday and Emily got her first icecream cone. Afterwards we took the girls to Build-a-Bear and they got to pick out a friend and outfit and name it and the works. Emily picked out a sparkly snow leopard and named it Mia. If you know anything about my girl it's that she names all her animals and babies "Mia" I have no idea why or even where she picked up the name but it makes it easy to remember!
We took the girls back to my brother's house and opened presents and let the girls play!
On Sunday when we left, we had brunch at the Cheesecake Factory and their French Toast was to die for! so yummy!
We took the girls on a carousel ride too!
We had a blast finger painting with pudding recently! We actually didn't tell Emily that it was pudding and you could eat it! Marc couldn't handle all the messy pudding and actually disappeared into the house! But our girl loved it and got a bath afterwards of course!
So one afternoon my mom called me up at work and told me to make sure I get to her house as soon as I get off work.
We were taking Emily on Lil' Toot the little yellow harbor tug boat for a ride! and then to the park for some fun.
My folks had gotten Emily the Little Toot book and little toy boat and decided to take her on the real thing as well for a 10 minute ride.
What Fun we had!
One summer day we visited the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum with some friends of ours (Marc's old classmates from Laguna Blanca) and checked out their Butterflies Alive exhibit with the kiddos.
We had a blast! there were butterflies everywhere and it was truely a magical experience. Next year we are definitely going back.
They have an enclosed space where there are lovely planting all around and water features. And everyone gets educated on the rules before entering "Don't touch the butterflies" "Don't touch their food", "Don't step on the butterflies" and "Don't take them home with you" etc...
Emily did super and was just content to sit and watch them land on flowers and flutter by. She also got a little possessive over the Identification Charts they have where you can look and find the different kinds of butterflies. One little orange butterfly thought Emily's bow looked like a flower and landed on top of her head - check the pictures below!
There was one really cool Luna Moth that they had in there also - rare since they are nocturnal and we were there in the afternoon.
Ok, back to the blog ( I apologize to all my readers - all 2 of you!) What can I say life gets busy with a toddler in the house!
Here are some updated pictures and a video for your viewing pleasure...
Here is a recent video of Emily singing "Ring around the Rosie" for the first time - I think it took me like 4 minutes tops to teach this one to her (Sorry for the poor quality of video also, our camera's sensor is crapping out)
And for your viewing pleasure some Jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium --- coolies!
I have something important to tell you all - and it concerns the topic of the POTTY!
Miss Emily has had a handful of potty books for some time now that I keep in our downstairs bathroom - she loves these books by the way and reads them on a daily basis. We just want her to start getting used to the idea of the potty and what goes on in the bathroom so we read them a lot and I will take her into the bathroom with me and talk to her about it when we are in there.
So a few weekends ago when my mom and I were at Babies-r-us I decided to pick up a little Potty chair for Miss Emily and a new Elmo Potty book that has sounds since she is in luuuuuv with Elmo.
I did do a bit of research on potty chairs and decided to go with the Bjorn brand that is pretty basic with a bowl that lifts out for easy dumping and cleaning.
I brought the new potty home that evening and though to myself "Hmmm while I run the bathwater why don't I put Emily on her new Potty and start her getting used to the idea of sitting on it" and I didn't expect any results right away.
So I start the bathwater and Emily sits on the potty while Marc and I talk to her - and low and behold she produces her first gift - a poopy!
Oh Joy! Elation! Marc was impressed by the size, I was just impressed that she did anything! so we clapped and praised her and told her how good she was - I told Marc to watch her while I ran off to get some wipes to wipe her. Well he must have been so impressed he forgot to watch her closely and she just about got a hold of her poopy with her hands! Thank goodness I walked in just then!
Then Marc got grossed out and Mom had to dump the poopy in the toilet and Emily got to flush it away and say "Bye Bye Poopy" while it went down the toilet. And then Mom had to clean the Bowl (Marc was still grossed out! - Men!)
We were so proud of her, that we called Meemaw and told her the news! (She thought I was joking!) then we called JoJo and told her the news too.
So we have had the potty now for a while and Emily loves to sit on it, and read on it and play with it. She also likes to take one of her baby dolls that has a diaper on it and she will take the diaper off and put the baby on the potty - ok it kind of a small baby doll so it fits in the bowl. If you turn the baby upside down she will right it too!
The other night I decided to have her sit on her potty again while we were filling the tub and low and behold she tinkled! More praise and clapping! and me cleaning the potty bowl. "Bye Bye Tinkles" she said as we flushed it down.
Miss Emily is definitly a smart girl and knows what to do with her potty - maybe Potty Training won't be so bad!
We arn't forcing anything and still have a long way to go but it's a start!
