We are now officially ready for Summer!



ahhhh...the relaxing life...

Got to give her credit, she sure does know how to sleep in style.

Of course, the only thing missing is the water.

California Again

Yesterday I arrived home from another 4-day 3-night adventure to Long Beach, California. Although this trip lasted about as long as the last time, Emily's maturity obviously grew in the past 6 months, making this go around much more difficult for everyone.

Day 1- Noticed I left; but no worries, I would be home any moment.

Day 2- When she heard the front screen door open, she ran to the door, pushed the pizza delivery man out of the way, and ran outside to greet me. When she found that I wasn't there, she went back inside and back to her bedroom.

Day 3- She really started to miss me and was so excited when she saw my car in the driveway. Unfortunately, I didn't take my car and I wasn't home.

Day 4- I returned home and throughout the night she just wanted to be held and rocked. In desperation for sleep I finally laid her down on her bedroom floor next to me. She instantly cuddled up on her belly and after a few seconds lifted her arm out and put it around me.

If my heart wasn't already broken, it shattered at that very moment.

"The view I love the most..."

The finger prints, the toys thrown around...yes, the view I love the most is right here in my home.

The 3 "No's"

There are now 3 different "No's" heard in our house.

1st - "No". Simply put and depending on the situation, can be quite cute.
2nd - "No No!" Yep, you guessed it...she is serious now.
3rd - "No A-T-E!" Although I'm not quite sure what "A-T-E" means, she used it for the first time yesterday morning, and based on the fact that she repeated it several times each instance, I would assume that I was told "No Way! I refuse! Not over my dead body!"

At any rate, we still left the house on time and dressed; and the best part, everyone was still alive.

Broken Finger, Broken Hand, and One Broken Heart

Earlier today Emily tripped and skinned her finger on the driveway. After about 10 minutes of freaking out about her first bandaid being placed on her finger, we then proceeded to be dramatic about the woes of an empty stomach and a bummed hand. Dinner fixed the empty stomach. The bummed hand unfortunately took longer. I guess bandaids aren't always so magical.

Extreme Castle Makeover

It was a rough remodel; but luckily for us, our castle comes equipped with one very handy King.

Let the playing begin!

Emily Proof

For Christmas Richard and I wanted to purchase Emily her own little castle. After looking at how much houses and castles cost these days we opted to downsize our wishes to something more manageable - cardboard.

I had imagined in my mind how cute and wonderful this castle was going to look. It was going to have painted bricks, curtains, and even a personal emblem above the door just for her (of what I had no clue...but it was going to involve my Cricut and it was going to be cute). So $14.00 later I started on my project to paint and create the most perfect castle a Princess could ever wish for. I spent several hours painting brick after brick and only decided after the 500th brick that there just wasn't enough time. Her castle would just have to wait until after Christmas.

Fast forward to this past weekend and sadly the curtains still remain undone, a single thought hasn't been made as to her emblem, and not even one brick has been painted. Nope, the castle existed only as a pile of cardboard in the office.

That is until Sunday (as I was spring cleaning) I had reality hit me. How do I even know that Emily will even like my magnificent castle? So I decided to pull it out, set it up, and wait to see if she would bite.

My wait finally came to an end Monday evening as I was making dinner and Emily was playing with her castle. I couldn't help but think "Yay! She loves it." 2 minutes later I look over into the living room to find this.

Yeah, just in case you wanted to know...cardboard is obviously not "Emily Proof" and is therefore not recommended. As for us, we have learned our lesson and will be working towards something a bit more heftier and a bit more "Emily Proof". That is if there is such a thing out there.

__________________________________

Here's a couple of pictures of her with the castle after I propped it back up.



Wall of Emily



Oops! Caught red handed