a dance recital

Harper had her winter dance recital this past weekend.  She really surprised me with how much of the routine she knew since they only started learning this 3 classes ago.  We spent Friday evening at the dress rehearsal where I took the video since I was up in the front row.

She loved being able to wear makeup, although the mascara application totally weirded her out.  They switched up the costumes between what they gave us at the dress rehearsal and then what they gave us on Saturday at the real show, which is why she is wearing two different things.




That's her in the purple tutu almost in the exact center.


The finale... still in the middle wearing a purple tutu.


















And lastly the video from the dress rehearsal.

16 months old

Have I mentioned before how much I love this baby??  She seriously is the best!!  She is so funny and definitely the smartest baby I have ever met.

I really don't think much has changed from last month.  She eats a ton, drinks anything you give her.  She sleeps well and naps whenever we stop long enough for her to be able to.

She loves her binky, stuffed animals, and baby dolls.  She doesn't like people in her space and will not be forced into a hug.  She waves hi and bye and says "aye".  She still hates strangers, especially women.

She is still a peanut weighing only 19lbs. 2oz. as of last week.  She can wear such a variety of sizes at this point.  Some of her pants are still 6 month leggings, 12 month jeans, and some 18 month jammies.

We are seriously all so in love with this baby.  We just can't believe how smart she is.  She is able to understand so much, its bizarre.

Jim's input:
Spending one on one time with Emerson a week or two ago was so much fun. She just waddles around the house, keeping herself busy. It's funny to see her climb onto the couch and be so proud about it. She shits a ton and needs to stop taking off her shoes/socks every car ride. She is learning a lot and comprehends a lot of my statements.













This looks like she is yelling at Jim and I love it.  "Are you freaking kidding me Dad?!?"


Her peek-a-boo skills are really improving.














Jim finally threw the Mickey at her,  after using it to get her attention for the pictures.


Pointing to the bff that was on their way to take pictures with her....


And surprise surprise it isn't Harper this month...

the rest of the christmas tree hunt pictures

Flickr and I had it out today and I got the rest of the pictures to upload.  The first half of the post is HERE.

As you can see Emerson was still thrilled to be on this outing.






Once we got home the kids posed with the tree up on the roof.  We did this last year and the kids loved it so of course I had to.  Big Baby thought she was hot stuff up there like the big kids.

the hunt for our tree

On the Saturday right after Thanksgiving we pretty much ran to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our tree.  We were alone this year since the Butakis family had somewhere to be this day and we couldn't wait one extra minute to get our tree.  So we asked a stranger to take our picture and I was getting my camera set up for her and she insisted she had the same camera and knew how to use it.  Well, she was a lying liar who lies because the picture was crap.  Thank goodness for editing software so I could attempt to fix it.



Then it came time for Jim to actually saw the tree down and he realized he couldn't possibly get dirty so he ran back to the car to get a blanket to protect his delicate legs.  In the meantime the big kids did their thing dancing and running around and the baby, well she stood around crying because she is allergic to outings.  And I took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures.  There are plenty more of these pictures that I didn't even post.








We played Simon Says... the baby just pouted.






Right about now Brady swallowed his gum forcefully and was all dramatic about it.








The baby finally figured out how to play along.








This is where things went slightly downhill.  They asked if they could throw snowballs at each other and I said yes.  Except I hadn't really touched the snow to realize it was more like ice.  So basically they pelted each other with ice shards.




Yeah, that's the ice splattering all over her face.
















Finally Jim got back from the car so we attempted another quick family picture.


















Yup, still crying...






I don't know where the rest of the pictures from this set are and I'm too lazy to get up and go check my big computer to see if they all uploaded to Flickr. Maybe tomorrow I'll post the rest.