Emaline's Birthday Video

Emaline's 1st Birthday

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Emaline had her very 1st birthday party this past Saturday! It was a really great day that we got to share with all of our family and some of our friends. I think she really enjoyed all the FOOD! Man, this kid can eat. She was like a little garbage disposal, eating up everything she could get her hands on, including chocolate cake and ice cream. We basically had everything set up in the backyard and suffered minimal bug bites. All the gifts were great and she is enjoying them all one at a time for now. Her and Lt. Dan like to take rides in her new fancy 2 person wagon. Time certainly does fly.

Walking Dogs and Takin' Baths

Emaline has definitely become obsessed with those of the canine persuasion. This is her new thing. Every time we take the dog outside, she HAS to hold the leash. Now that she has gotten a little more steady on her feet, we've let her start taking Lt. Dan out too. All these pictures show Rupert since he is a little slower than the younger dogs.

That last picture shows her getting ready to take a dive on the sidewalk, she got her first bloody boo boo!! Some attention was needed:

Then I just threw this picture of her in the bath..."I'm still small enough to fit in the kitchen sink!"--at least Nana's sink.

Super Garage: The Countertop & Drywall

This is Josh in his "I'm a workin' man" pose. I told him he looks 10 years older with that cigarette hangin' outta his mouth. The garage is slowly, but surely getting to look like the masterpiece that Josh has stored in his head. The "super cabinets" are done and Joe and Josh decided to go with wood as the countertop vs. a formica or granite top, as originally planned. I think the more Josh thought about doing actual work on the countertop, the more it is going to get beat up...so wood would alway be easy to replace/fix. To make the width they need, 2 planks needed to be glued together and that can be seen below. Emaline and I watch anxiously to see what happens next...

Smilebox

I found this really great website called Smilebox where you can make free printable photo cards, scrapbook pages and slide shows (not everything is printable in the basic mode, but great for blogging and emailing). They've got a lot of cute designs/templates to work with and its a fun and different way to send your pictures electronically. I can't wait to use it to send out some Halloween greetings. The downside to the free version is that there are ads in the margin. In the meantime, check out the slide show I made using Emaline's baptism pictures.

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Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough pictures to fill up the whole slide show...but I'm sure you get the picture.

Emaline's Baptism

Emaline was baptized yesterday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Ellisville. She did really well during the service and Josh only took her out of the church once. All the family was there, unfortunately with the exception of Josh's dad due to him being out on the road. Conor Pitkin is her godfather and my sister, Kayleigh is her godmother. She received a great Choo Choo from Grandma & Grandpa, a beautiful cross and puzzle from Nana & Pepere, another beautiful necklace with her name engraved and the date from Conor & Trish, a cute t-shirt from Kayleigh and some ladybug earrings from Aunt Steph & Uncle Adham! We had a great day with everyone and hope they enjoyed themselves too! Here are some more snippets of the day:

Josh's Garage: The 3rd Episode

Well, the boys are slowly moving along. Josh had his friend Steve come over to move some outlets for him--which he did extremely fast! Now Josh has twice the power outlets and one to go inside one of his little cabinets to recharge tools. Joe came over Wednesday and Thursday of this past week and was dedicated to helping Josh further his dream. They installed insulation on the left side of the garage and put up drywall sheets. Then they ever so meticulously placed the large cabinet on the left back into the corner and mounted to the wall. So, I believe, all the cabinets are exactly where they need to be. Today, Josh painted the inside of them so they would have a "finished" look and not have natural plywood insides. The project is really coming along nicely and we can't wait to see it completely finished, but the way Josh is talking this will be an ongoing battle. Let's just hope he doesn't spend ALL his time in the garage.

Lt. Dan sure loves Emaline

I must say that this is a match made in heaven. Emaline is quickly learning how to torment (aka love) Lt. Dan and he is equally learning how to be patient with her. Thankfully 'ol LTD hasn't shown any signs of any resentment towards the child, so we're thinking he'll stay that way. At least through her toddler years...Here is a clip of the fun my babies constantly have:

As a side note, now when we tell Emaline to give the doggie hugs, she plops her little head right on his back and rubs--all on command! Next thing you know she'll be walking the dogs {hint for later post}!

My New Love: 30 Rock

Seeing as I'm completely avoiding mopping my floors right now...I thought I would share that Josh and I have rented the first season of 30 Rock from Netflix and we can't stop watching it. I know not everyone has my crazy sense of humor but these clips from the first season are worth watching. Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin really make the best out of Tina Fey's writing genius.






I know the clips are a little long...but, oh well this is nothing compared to the total amount of time you spend online, right?

Josh's Garage, still going...

And the race is on! To get these cabinets done. On Wednesday night Josh and Joe stayed up till around 2:30am trying to finish putting these monstrosities together. I actually think they are turning out really well and done quite nicely for two amateur cabinet makers. Josh has some great plans for building a shelf for his TV, getting a nice counter top and putting peg board on the side of cabinet closest to the door for easy access to things we need to pop out the door for. My favorite part of the night was asking Josh what he was going to put in them and his reply was, "I don't know, probably that stuff we have on those shelves over there".

Next week it will be time to build that little shelf to the right of those middle cabinets and buy a counter top. Good luck Josh and Joe, you're doing a great job!!

Josh's Garage, Pt. Deux

Well, the second day of fabricating cabinets was upon us last week. Joe came over and stole Josh away to Lowe's for 2 hours and finally decided on MDF as the material they bought for the doors. Considering that this material is not cheap, Joe noticed a whole stack of MDF that had some damage to it. Knowing that they were probably going to cut those sides off that had damage he asked if they would get it at a discounted price, and low and behold we have doors that were 75% off! Way to go Joe!! So after the boys transported all this home they started painting the doors a girls favorite color: gun metal gray. The following pictures portray Josh and Joe in their close woodworking bond.

Golf Anyone?

Tiger Woods? Michelle Wie? They don't have nothin' on Emaline Little! Pepere is already preparing his little protege for the big time. I guess now I really will have to start playing golf again. Anyone want to play? Call me.

Pepere even made her a little Emaline sized club to have her walk around with. I think I'll need a raise to pay for all her lessons...{hint, hint}.