Say Cheese!

I have been wanting to do this post for a week or so now but wanted to wait until Emma's grandparents received their photos first. We had a family photo shoot with Grace from EarlGray Images back in June. She is the same photographer who did photos for Emma's first birthday last year. It was fun to do them with her again and I look forward to it being a yearly tradition. We were worried that Emma might not cooperate and play shy but she was all smiles and giggles and she asked for "Miss Grace" so many times after that day. It was pretty cute. It was a beautiful afternoon and Grace took so many beautiful photos. I won't post them all here but will try and narrow them down to my absolute favorites.

Here is the amazing family that God has blessed me with. My cup runneth over!

 Grace took a photo just like this last year as well. Fun to see how Emma has grown and changed!

 Oh but she loves her Minne Mouse!

 My precious daughter. More thankful for her than words could ever express.

 How I love being her Mommy!

 This photo is my absolute favorite. It brings tears to my eyes every time. Emma adores her Daddy and the feeling is most definitely mutual.

 Such a perfect capture of Emma's personality.

 I am going to have this one made into a canvas print. I love it. My Chad leading and protecting his girls. The tree planted by the rivers of water (you can't see the river in this photo but Grace was actually on the other side of it taking the photo).

 She loves to swing!

All photos by Grace at EalrGray Images

www.earlgrayimages.com

Transformation

When Chad and I got married we talked about not staying in our house for too many years with the desire to move perhaps to an acreage. Almost 8 years later and we are still in the same house. For quite some time I was looking at other houses and longing to move and just didn't feel settled. Emma coming helped that very much but I still looked because now I want to get her out of the city to grow up in the country. I am not sure what happened but sometime in the last little while my heart has changed. We have talked about it alot and how it makes more sense to stay where we are for a while longer to pay down the mortgage and then hopefully be able to move to a house and area that we love and could be in for a long time and raise our family. So this spring we finally did some landscaping and I feel more settled and more like our home is finally becoming our home. We also plan on finishing the basement this year which would be wonderful and give Emma and I more room and options during our long cold winters.

The landscaping was alot of work but so worth it! Our backyard feels like a backyard now instead of just a grassy area and we enjoy being out in it. We still have more that we would like to do but will save it for next year perhaps and see what happens.

I took during and after photos of it all. Of course Chad did most of the grunt work (he worked so hard!) with me helping where I could and once the gardens were ready to plant it was time for me to do the grunt work. Emma loved helping and it was fun watching her get involved.

Building the raised garden beds...

 Best little surpervisor ever!

 Chad never ceases to suprise and impress me with what he knows and what he can do!

 We ripped up all the sod in the area where we wanted the gardens...

 and then Chad spent a long time salvaging as much of the dirt as he could.

 Looking good!

 Emma has her own little garden box.

 Watering the rocks. :)

 Helping mix the dirt

 Our beautiful little apple tree

 Emma's garden

 I also did a little fairy garden for Emma

 Look! Everything is actually growing! It has been fun to eat from the garden and I am looking forward to harvest time!

 So pretty now

 Look at all those apples! There are so many this year that some of the branches are hanging quite low. Apple pies! Applesauce! Apple butter! Yum!

"Minnie Minnie everywhere!"

She's two! So very hard to believe! This blog will be all Emma (with lots of photos) as I share with you her birthday week! She was so very excited as we kept telling her how many sleeps until her birthday and then how many sleeps until her party and she would ask us to sing Happy Birthday and we would go through the list of who would be coming to her party and she would talk about balloons and cake and blowing the candle out. So much excitement for a little one!

Her birthday was on June 10th. Chad was able to take the day off which we are hoping to make into an annual tradition so we can take the whole day and do something fun and maybe as Emma gets older it will work its way into a Daddy/daughter date day. She was so happy to have him home all day! We started the day by giving her a present (a dollhouse) which she loved and played with the rest of the day whenever she could. Then we took her to Discoveryland at Telus World of Science where she got to play in water and fly an airplane and walk on a piano and climb into a treehouse and all sorts of fun stuff. That was followed by lunch and a nap and then that night cake and more presents. Quite a full day and she loved every minute of it!

After that big exciting day we had a few days where I did lots of prep work for her party on Saturday. She absolutely loves Minnie Mouse and so the party theme this year was Minnie. So cute to hear her saying "Minnie Minnie everywhere!" She was so excited and was counting sleeps until her party. Thank goodness she went down easily for a nap that day and was happy and ready to go by the time people started coming. It turned out so well! The weather was perfect, the decorations turned out, lots of people came to show their love. Emma did so incredibly well. She was her usual sweet self and even (when prompted) stood up and signed and said "thank you" to everyone after she opened all her gifts. I was so proud of her and the way she carried herself and behaved and I loved watching her have fun and smile and laugh and give hugs and high fives and just be excited and so very happy.

Now that all of the birthday excitement is over we are settling in to enjoy the summer! Looking forward to long summer days spent playing outside. We also did some landscaping in the backyard (another blog with before and after photos coming!) and it feels like a backyard now and not just a square spot of grass. 

Hard to believe two years have come and gone since Emma came home. What a difference she has made in so many lives. I love to celebrate her!