What do you think...Christmas card picture?

Emma has started rebelling against clothes and diapers. As I try to enjoy all these toddler nuances...I really do hope this is just a stage!! Lately I'm lucky if I can get her and I dressed and out of the house by 11. I've realized if I tell her something very enticing as to where we are going, I can get her to somewhat cooperate. So today I told her we were going to get daddy's christmas gifts and "daddy" was all she needed to hear. She ran and got her boots on and went straight to the door. I couldn't resist taking a picture!

Earlier in the morning, naked of course, emma spotted a spider and brought me over to show and tell me (over and over again!). She disappeared for a second and came back with a wipe in hand and to my shock told me to "kill it, kill it". After I took the wipe, she stepped back a few feet to sit and watch. Once she realized that I wasn't going near it, she came back over, grabbed the wipe out of my hand and said, "I got it", like she was sick and tired of waiting for me to do it! With all the bravery she could muster up, she held out the wipe and took a few steps forward. But just like her mommy, she couldn't quite do it and we've decided to let daddy handle it when he gets home. She continues to keep me entertained everyday and also very aware of how much she watches what we say and do! I hope I haven't turned my daughter into the type of person that has to call her husband to come home from work to kill a spider or save her from a snake or lizard (same thing, right??)!

Check out my new ride!

Had to post pics of my new car...GMC Acadia! I love it so much...!!!
It has so many little things in it that are so great but the DVD player has changed my life. It was getting extremely difficult trying to keep emma entertained and drive at the same time, everytime she'd drop her doll or sippy cup...I found myself stretching in ways I never knew I could to get it for her while keeping my eyes on the road! Now I can hardly get her to say a word to me and so far the car is clear of books, toys, and cheerios! This may not be a good thing but for right now I am enjoying and loving my new found peace! As you can see in this pic, I got her to say "cheese" but she wouldn't take her eyes off the movie! Thanks Chris...I know this means that you're back to driving the toyota which you love so much!! Don't worry, you'll one day have that Ferrari you dream about!! Yeah right!

"Sick Day"

Chris decided that Friday he wanted to use one of his sick days left for this year and spend it at Disneyland. We were so excited to be going all together as a family and had heard and read about the Christmas attractions and decorations...so we were in it for the day and had a lot to get through. As I got emma up and told her that we were going to see Mickey, she started jumping on her bed saying "mickey, mickey...go, go!!" and I've never seen her so willling to be a "big girl" and lay down to get her diaper and clothes changed. Of course we headed right for Small World when we first got there (it's become tradition now) in fact we passed the huge tree on Main Street and I couldn't even get emma out of her stroller for a picture...she had one thing on her mind, MICKEY! I never thought I'd be the kind of mom to chase after disney characters, I've never had much of a love for cartoons, but when we finally saw Mickey...I went running with emma in hand. Emma got to wave and say bye-bye which is probably all she would have done anyways. Check out our pic w/ Goofy...she was so excited waiting in line talking about giving him a high-five, but when it came down to it...she was all talk!! There was no way her head was coming off my shoulder! A definite highlight...live reindeer!! Frontierland was turned into the West Pole with Santa and his deer, it was extremely hard pulling emma away from that. All the decorating was amazing, many of the rides were changed to go along with the holidays. The Haunted Mansion was all decked out with the theme of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the parade was complete with Santa, dancing gingerbreadmen and nutcrackers.

We also spent time over at Cal Adventure and Chris and I were able to go on Soarin Over California for the first time...which was very cool and emma was able to dance with Chip and Dale to live Christmas music, very entertaining!

We finished the day off with a churro...everytime we've gone to Disneyland, we smell churros all over the place but have never given into temptation. We conciously made the decision a few days ago that we'd be getting a few of those! These last few pictures are of emma stealing (literally!) my churro and she was one happy girl! She wasn't giving that up but with that face, she can have whatever she wants!! It was such a great day...I love my little family!

A Tribute to Mom...

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Oh Christmas Tree...

I think one of the greatest gifts of becoming a parent is being able to see things through a child's eye and appreciating those little things and fun holiday traditions all over again. We picked out our Christmas tree this weekend and I was really excited because I knew emma would appreciate it more than last year! And that she did! We had so much fun bundling up, looking through the trees, and then coming home to decorate. She had fun decorating herself with the lights and tinsel and kept saying, "cool, cool", but really enjoyed helping and watching the ornaments go up one by one although she is now enjoying taking any ornament she can reach off the tree one by one! Still today she is coming down the stairs scrunching up her nose and sniffing the tree...I'm glad she appreciates the scent of a Christmas tree as much as I do!

Emma and "Mr. Bear" waiting and watching for Chris to come up to the house with the tree...she was very excited and anxious!



Emma hanging her new ornament for this year...a rocking horse made from bells. This is definitely one tradition I hope to keep up. We hope everyone enjoys the pre-Christmas spirit!

It's a...

We are so excited to announce that we will be having another baby girl!! Speaking for both Chris and I, I can honestly say that we are both so happy for emma to have a little sister and a little friend to do all the girly things with. We hope they'll be best friends and really look to eachother. Our technician gave us a detailed ultrasound and everything checked out to be very healthy, which we are so grateful for. Apparently, our little baby girl likes to eat a lot...our tech mentioned that several times which I hope doesn't mean I'm having a big baby!! We couldn't be more happy...it was a great morning and I'm looking forward to getting out all the pink!!

Roses and Tea Parties

Not a bad weekend! USC beat UCLA 24-7, which of course means many things to a Trojan but one thing for sure it means is we're headed to the Rose Bowl on New Years Day against Illinois. We are of course excited and it always feels good to take down UCLA. Just don't get Chris started on the set up of the BCS bowl games!! We were able to watch the game at Jeff & Erin's and we celebrated with dinner out at Romano's...thanks Roy and Lora! They have 4 boys that absolutely spoil Emma with attention and she adores spending time with them. It's a great way to watch a game!

The majority of the rest of the weekend was spent playing tea party! Emma will come to us excitedly saying "party, party" while doing a little dance on her toes. She gets so excited and loves to pour the pretend tea and sprinkle the sugar and will even make the sound effects now. It has definitely motivated me to get her a little table sooner than later. She loves to get her daddy to play with her, he'll bring out all the puppets, dolls and animals to join in and is such a good sport about it. Although after reading this, he may become a little more opinionated about whether he'd like our baby to be a boy or girl! Emma is definitely a girly girl and Chris has been such a wonderful dad and has hung in there with all the dance parties, dolls and bunnies!

We go in tomorrow for an ultrasound to find out what we are having so we'll definitely be posting again real soon!