Emmerson 16 Months

On the 14th, Emmerson was 16 months old.  She has quite the personality and temper.  She is so animated and loves being silly and getting in on the action.  For a few weeks now she has been throwing some bad temper tantrums that can last for quite a while and there is nothing I can do to make her stop... unless it is giving her what she is throwing the tantrum about, of course :)  She has been a wonderful sleeper and still loves her blankets and her bottle, although the morning one is pretty much done.  Hopefully she will start drinking milk better out of a sippy cup.  She is saying a few words.  If you ask her a question she will either shake her head no or say "uhhhhhhhhhh... yeah!" She says "bo" for bowl, "dada" for Daddy, "mo" for more (while signing), "wa" for water, "co" for cold, "cheese", "tinky" for stinky, and still "ba" for ball, "do" for dog, and "hot".  Even if she can't say it, she communicates very well what she is trying to say.  She loves the bathroom and runs to it anytime she hears the door open.  She loves brushing her teeth and lately she has been wanting to sit on the potty.  She has also been coming to me and telling me she is "tinky".  Here are some things Emmerson enjoys these days:
reading books
going on walks
going down slides
watching movies (for a little bit)
climbing on chairs
"coloring" with Ollie

This is her "cheese" face. 

We love you sweet Baby Girl!

Ollie Boy

Oliver has been learning so much lately.  He still loves letters and is now trying to write them.  He is actually doing really well with a fair amount of them.  He has also been into coloring and painting.  A couple weeks ago he had his first experience at the movie theatre and loved it!  We saw Despicable Me 2 (and then saw it again at the drive-in movie) and he has been acting like a minion ever since :) Here are a couple sweet things he has said lately:

"Mommy you look so pretty cute".

"Mommy you did a good job driving".

"She is my baby". -talking about Emmerson

Ollie loves Emmerson and is really good with her until she starts getting in his business, we are working on that! He has been very emotional but is normally his sweet self.  We are wondering if it is going to be the "terrible threes" because he didn't have the "terrible twos"?  We are just trying to be consistent and loving :)  He is understanding consequences and we are starting to give him chores.  We will see how that goes :)  He is still really shy around others but will pop out of his shell after a while.  We have had a fun summer but he can't wait to start going to his Uncle Drew's football games.

coloring his space ship fort

it got moved downstairs :)

they can play so well together

We love you Buddy and always will!

Summer Recap

We had a wonderful summer filled with busyness and lazy days.  Here are some of the fun day to day things that we remembered to take pictures of...

In July, Ben and Sherry got to stop by on the way to Andrew's parents from Virginia!  We got to meet baby Elliott for the first time!  She is so adorable and Emmie loved her...

The next day Andrew left for Haiti with the High School Youth Group from church.  While he was there, the kids and I stayed at my parents.  We had fun but missed Andrew.  In Haiti, they built a new playground, showed them how to use the clean water filters they brought, and taught VBS at a couple orphanages.  He loved it...

In August, Andrew took Oliver camping in the back yard.  We had a camp fire and roasted s'mores until bedtime.  Ollie loved it and they slept until 8 the next morning...

Even though Andrew worked long hours this summer, he did a great job spending time with us...

One evening we had some girls over for dinner.  We had so much fun chatting and playing games...

Last weekend, on my birthday, we celebrated some August birthdays.  Brock's, Andrew's, and mine.  Brock brought his girlfriend, Alyssa, home and we had fun getting to know her.  We just hung out at my parents and had delicious food...

On Wednesday was Andrew's 30th birthday.  It was his first day of school and first night of youth group but we fit a little celebration in there...

Our summer went way too fast but I am ready for some more fall weather!  Love that my kiddos are still little so we don't have to start school :)

Emmerson 14 Months

This little girl is 14 months today...

Do you notice her shoes in these pictures?  This is what she does lately.  Bringing me shoes to put on her!  It is so cute how much she loves her shoes :)  She has also been bringing me her favorite books to read.  She loves going outside, slides, her blankets, animals (which she is not scared of ), getting into everything, pushing the STOP button while Ollie is watching a movie, picking tomatoes, and anything her brother is playing with.  She also is very good about putting things back when we ask her to.  She is still pretty dramatic and can throw a good tantrum.  She usually gets over it pretty quickly though.  She is very good at letting us know what she wants and if you ask her a question she will shake her head yes or no, it's so funny.  She does play well by herself and doesn't seem to be scared of anything.
She has been saying "do" for dog and sometimes other things.  She has said "ba" for ball a couple of times and "ha" for hot.  She also makes an "ah" sound when she drops something and wants it.  She likes to jabber and is usually trying to tell me something.
She still usually takes 2 naps a day but sometimes 1 longer nap.  She still loves her bottle before bed and when she wakes up.
She is climbing everywhere and learned how to climb Ollie's ladder to his bunk bed!  We decided it might be best to take the ladder away and move Ollie back down. We put his train set up on the bunk so Emmie can't mess it up and it seems to be working well.
We love her kisses and her smiles, especially her scrunched up nose smile.  She isn't super cuddly but we take what we can get.  We just got Ollie a new car seat so we turned her around in the one Ollie was using and she loves it.  She seems to have grown a lot taller this summer but is still in 12-18 months and is wearing size 3 shoes but not for much longer!  We love your fun sweet personality Emmie Girl and enjoy watching you learn new things.  We are so blessed to have you!

Wiese Weekend

This past weekend, we went up to Dad and Mom Wiese's for the weekend.  We have many August birthdays in the Wiese family so we celebrated a little.  Zach and the girls came down on Friday too.  We met at Red Robin so we could enjoy our birthday burgers.  They were delicious!

Saturday, while the men went disc golfing...

Ready to go!

Mom and I took the kids to the zoo.  We had a blast...

Ready to see the animals!

Enjoying the ride.

We were glad the elephants were still there!

Our little monkeys :)

Feeding the goats....

Cousins!

Lunch time!

They loved cooling off in the mister...

Train ride.

Mom and her grandkids.

They did a great job!

Ollie and Nancy, they had so much fun!

That evening we relaxed and watched Leverage.
After church on Sunday, we ate at Noodles & Co.  It was a first for Andrew and I and we loved it!  We had another relaxing afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather before heading home.
Thanks so much for everything Dad and Mom!  We loved spending time with you both :)