i(Phone) Spy: Month Ten - Emery

Ohhh, month 10-  what a crazy ride you were!  I think the pictures below sum our little lady up perfectly- crazy cute, crazy busy and just plain crazy.  We could not love her any more even if wanted to.  I am so thankful we get to be her parents!

Bossing her Daddy around.  She get it from her mama?

Underwhelmed by the frozen food section.  Wait til you start having to cook for yourself little one- we'll revisit this sentiment.

Just getting some Christmas shopping done.  NBD.

Really doesn't love Mondays.  Like at all.

Em's first school ornament.  See how tiny and hairless she was when she first started?!  Where is time going??

Puh-leeeeeease help me climb this?  I have been trying so so hard.

Just doing a little reading at Nonnie & Grampa's.

Obviously not a Monday.

Oh you want THIS seahorse?  Let's make a deal.  You feed me bananas tonight, and I'll let you hold it for 5 seconds.

Cousin bath time!  Photo courtesy of Aunt Tiffany.  I really love this picture.

Pre-work selfie with my boogs.  Necklaces are so funny!

Modeling her M&M swag from Grandma & Pawpaw's trip to Vegas.

That time a stomach bug brought Mama to her knees and Daddy dressed his daughter in a Thanksgiving onesie.  A few days before Christmas.

I can't remember what warranted this child being shirtless in the first place, but I can guarantee it staying that way had to do with me not wanting to make more laundry within a few hours of bedtime.

Christmas Eve.  Santa's forgotten elf wasn't so pumped about her seat.  More on this fiasco in her monthly update.

First encounter with cheese.  Way more pumped than her Mama is.

Hey Mom, ya see this?  I don't need your remote anymore.  I have my ooooown.

Just doing a little shopping.  Please note her leg kicked up on the stroller.  She rode like this for a solid 15 minutes.

What?  I shouldn't pull everything Nonnie has on these shelves off?  Then why did she put them here?

Houston's newest driver.  If you hear a Minnie Mouse horn, turn the other way.

This is a new face.  I can not explain to you how funny it is.

Turn my back for 2 seconds and homegirl has an ankle bracelet.  Better be the last one you have, toots.

I'm outta here.  See you kids next month!

Going Long in 2014

Let me just go ahead and put it out there that I did a terribly shameful job of photographically documenting New Years this year.  So why am I making it a blog post?  Because it was such a fantastically funny, good time that it would be sinful not to have it in my little diary here.  So there ya have it- I apologize for the lack of visual fun-ness.  I think I'll paint a clear enough picture for you to close your eyes and feel like you were there though.

Melanie and Jonathan were kind enough to open up their home to the crazy crew despite the fact that the last time they did it resulted in men on their roof and a pergola roof situation that has yet to be remedied.  Maybe they figured it was just good practice for wrangling 2 children?  Whatever it is, I'm glad they were up to the challenge.

The A&M bowl game was on, so the men posted up on the couch in the TV room to drink beer and grunt while we women gossiped, drank some killer punch Melanie made and played Cards Against Humanity.  If ever there was a group of people to play Cards of Humanity with- it was this one.  Hi. Lar. I. Ous.  I learned way more about Japanese obscenities than I ever could have dreamed of.

Speaking of obscenities, once the game was finally over and the men re-joined the party we took to making Cards of Humanity phrases into raps on one of Jen's iPhone apps.  Which is far more entertaining than it sounds.  How did the night end, you ask?  Ohhhh you know.  With one of the men, who shall remain nameless in the unlikely event any of them run for office, trying to long jump across the pool.  Yes, you read that correctly.  The attempt was a success only in that no bones were broken and no divorces came out of the event.  Hooray!

Yet again, my year started off surrounded by people I love and the kind of laughter that makes your abs hurt.  I think that's a sign of awesome things to come for 2014!  I hope that your year started out just as wonderfully.  Much thanks to everyone who celebrated with us and super thank you to Melanie & Jonathan for letting us invade your house.  OH and mad, mad props to Lynda & Melanie for being such fantastic pregnant revelers- in the third trimester, no less.  Avery & Patrick have the coolest mamas!

These two are just the cutest.  Em's staring in awe 1) because Jake is strikingly handsome and 2) because his pants are still on.

Two babies ringing in 2014.  How many for 2015?!

First year I've actually been sad to end.  2013 will always hold a special place in my heart because of this tiny angel.

Ryan & Jake playing with Emery's toys...

... while Emery plays with Jake's.  The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it?

I originally included this photo just to prove that adults were indeed present.  However, upon further investigation, how hilarious is Austin dancing by himself in the background?

Further proof that adults were present.

Baby's First Christmas

You all may be in 2014, but this blog is still in 2013.  I blame it on the fact that I'm an accountant and thus my brain is still in 2013.  Certainly not on the fact that I'm just consistently behind in blogging.  That would be crazy talk.

So, one month ago today was Christmas!  Can you believe it's been a whole month since you acquired all those new goodies?  I can't believe that it was my sweet angel's FIRST Christmas!  I remember a year ago collecting all kinds of baby items and trying to envision the little person that would one day fill them.  Here we are 365 (+31) days later and I can't believe that I ever didn't have every one of her little features memorized.  It's been a fantastic year and this Christmas was just the cherry on top.

I'll try to keep the words to a minimum here as I know you are all well-acquainted with the standard Martin family holiday schedule of events.   This year, we did Christmas round 1 on Christmas Eve at Ryan's parents' house.  Round 1 was dedicated to Kylie since she was with her Dad on the actual day.  We had such a great time watching her open gifts.  Her excitement was so contagious!  Very fittingly, she raked in enough beautiful items to fill a castle.  I believe she might have every my little pony item on the market.  I can't wait until next year when Em has more understanding of the events and we get to witness TWO Tasmanian devils ripping through presents at warp speed!

Maaaaaa- I see presents.... lemme at 'em!

Daddy getting in touch with his masculine side.  (Seriously- there's nothing more heart melting to me than watching Daddies play with their daughters.)

Mama/Aunt Amy with her faaaaavorite girls.  Someone must have been touching one of Kylie's presents side stage.

Kylie helping Emery open a present from her & Aunt Tiff.  Puffs!  Do they know this baby or what?

Hellllllloooooo Kitty!

I was feeding her puffs in a futile attempt to keep her from Baby-zillaing Kylie's presents.

Grandma, you are not moving fast enough here.  Let me show you how to rip it faster.

Prettiest my little pony ad I've ever seen.

Bath time book- the boogs loves this guy.  (Bath time, baaaath time- I need to geeeet in the tub- I go to bed with this in my head most nights.)

Sweet girl has a love of snow globes and princesses.  Perfect gift, or what?

If anyone is going to help teach the importance of oral hygiene, it's Barbie.  I heard she's never had a cavity.

Is that it?!

Bright and early on Christmas morning, Ryan, Emery, Lola & I headed back over to the Martins' house to do Christmas and, of course, devour some delicious biscuits and chocolate gravy.  Per usual, everyone was far too spoiled and we all had an amazing time!  Miss Em scored all kinds of presents that light up, make sounds and capture her attention.  She's a lucky, lucky little lady!  Thank you, thank you, thank you to Cousin Kylie, Aunt Tiff, Grandma & Pawpaw for such a wonderful Christmas- hugs & kisses!

Hey!  What's with all the pictures, woman??

Dad, not you too!  2 pictures at one time?  I can't handle it.

Come at me, bro.

True test of whether she likes something is how quickly it goes into her mouth.  This doll was about 0.05 seconds.

Lola playing quality inspector.

Whoooooooa!  Dad, do you even know how many puffs I could put in this thing?!

My most high maintenance present.  (Photo courtesy of Aunt Tiffany)

After getting our Martin Christmas on we played a little present Jenga and somehow miraculously got everything stuffed into our car to head up to my parents' house.  We, of course, had yet another incredible Christmas with them.  All of us scored far too many treasures and Miss Em improved even further on her toybox upgrade.  The most awesome present of all is one I'll blog about later, but I'll give you a picture sneak peak below.

Psssst - Aunt Julie.  I'm already all the way up here and you know I love the sound that hard plastic makes on this glass.  Little help here?

Uncle Matt is taking to adulthood like a champ.  Novelty head light and a remote control car.

Dad, I'm not really sure why you're messing around with that.  Clearly the real present is this tag.

As we try to do when we can, we spent the rest of the weekend up in Conroe just relaxing and playing with Miss Em.  There's nothing more to say than it was the perfect wrap-up to an utterly incredible Christmas.  Thank you Mom, Dad, Julie & Matt for making it that way!  We love you all.

When babies attack. 

Sneak peak of my favorite Christmas gift.  Coming soon to a blog near you.  (Spoiler alert: it's this blog.)