Happy Birthday, Emma!

Today is Emma’s 2nd birthday.  Mark and I are both amazed at how quickly the first two years have passed.  It’s gone too quickly!!  To celebrate Emma’s big day, we started with decorating the house with streamers and balloons (Emma LOVES balloons!) so when she got up this morning, she was greeted by the festive decorations.  She promptly gathered three balloons and gave one to Mark, on to me, and kept one for herself.  It was quite funny because if Mark or I put our balloon down for a second, she would quickly retrieve it…bring it back to us and say “Mommy’s/Daddy’s balloon” depending on who it belonged to.  After getting ready for the day, we moved on to preparing for her big birthday party with family and friends.  We ended up having 18 people celebrating with us…it was quite a crowd.  We had a lunchtime cook-out which was lots of fun and then moved onto opening gifts.  Here is a picture of her birthday cupcake and one of Emma with her favorite gift….a tricycle from her Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Success!!!

This week, we crossed another milestone with Emma.  We FINALLY got rid of the pacifier once and for all.  My goal was to have it gone by the time she turned two, but we hadn’t been successful until this week.  What did we do…we took it away “cold turkey” (which, I have to admit, was not an easy thing to make myself do).  The first day was very difficult!  Emma fussed and cried for 30-45 minutes the first day.  She kept saying over and over “paci”…”paci”.   By the second day, things went much smoother and she only asked for it once.  Then, by the third day…she went to sleep with no problem.  What a great feeling of success to meet my goal by her second birthday!!  Now, onto the next hurdle….potty training. 

 

A Girls’ Day Out

Yesterday, I headed back to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg with two of my closest friends Jen and Beth.  (I know…I just returned from a weekend in that area, but this is the only time that worked out for all of us.)  We left around 8:00 in the morning and headed north to the gorgeous Smokey Mountains.  It was a beautiful day and we had a blast talking and laughing together!  On our way through the mountains, we stopped at a picnic area to put our feet in a mountain stream and enjoy the amazing scenery.  It was so refreshing!  Needless to say, I didn’t venture too far into the stream since I didn’t want to risk losing my balance and falling on the rocks.  Even so…I had a wonderful time with two great friends and a gorgeous day in the mountains!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wagner Family Get Together

This past weekend, we headed up to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a long weekend getaway with the Wagner Family.  Mark’s parents, his sisters and their families and our family gathered in a cabin to spend some time together. 

As you can see, the cabin had lots of space and gave us each room to spread out, yet still be together in one building.  That was very nice!  The only major challenge of the weekend was dealing with different schedules fo the children.  There were four of them (three under the age of two) and they were all on slightly different sleep and eating schedules.  It made the art of sleeping and meal planning quite interesting!!!

On Saturday, we all headed to the Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg.  Having recently visited the Georgia Aquarium, Mark and I both found this one to be slightly underwhelming.  It is a nice aquarium, but doesn’t hold a candle to the Georgia Aquarium.  All in all, we had a great time together as a family looking at all of the fish and sea life.  It was fun to share this experience with the extended family!

Emma got to go inside the Beta Fish exhibit to see what it was like to be in a Beta egg.

Mark and Emma checked out the four-eyed fish.  (This ended up being my favorite exhibit!)  These fish have bulging eyes that protrude above the surface of the water.  This allows them to see above AND below the surface of the water at the same time.  Isn’t that amazing??!!??

Emma was checking out the fish in a large tank.  I love the reflection that is captured in this picture!

 

Happy Memorial Day!

Last year we went to the Dacula Memorial Day Parade for the first time and decided that we would make this an annual Wagner Family tradition.  So…this morning, we packed up and headed down to Dacula Road to enjoy this year’s parade.  It was a beautiful morning and we had a great time watching all of the floats, cars, and horses go by.  Emma really seemed to enjoy the parade and actually sat contentedly through the entire parade (almost an hour and a half!!!).  Here are some pictures from our celebration:

This year’s parade started with one of our local firetrucks with sirens blaring and all.  Amazingly…Emma didn’t seem to mind the noise as it passed by!

Emma watched most of the parade perched by Mark’s side.  She got a great view of everything!

Here is a picture of our favorite float from this year’s parade.  I was amazed that all the people in the float stood so still while going down the parade route!  It was an impressive float!

Emma loved watching the parade!  She made friends with two other little girls and enjoyed helping them eat their pretzels.

Happy Mother’s Day!

What a great weekend this has been!  Mark and Emma have truly spoiled me all weekend long and it has been WONDERFUL!  Yesterday, Mark insisted that I go take some time for myself and go get a pedicure and manicure which is something I had desperately wanted since the warm weather started this Spring.  It was so nice to sit and be pampered without having to worry about housework and taking care of Emma.  What a GREAT gift!  Then, as if that wasn’t enough…today I was greeted with a beautiful bunch of flowers, a sweet card, and breakfast (that I didn’t have to cook).  What a fun way to start the day!!  The fun continued as we headed out to church and I was surprised with my choice of a doughnut on my way to the church (for those of you who know me well…you know this is one of my favorite treats!).  We enjoyed a great church service and then headed out to lunch after church so I wouldn’t have to cook at all today.  Isn’t that GREAT?!!?  Tonight we are taking my mom out for a Mother’s Day dinner (which of course I’ll enjoy too).  So, as you can see…it has been a wonderful weekend!  I am so thankful to be a mom of our sweet little girl and it has been a fun weekend to celebrate all that I do as a mom.

For all those moms out there…I hope you too have had a great weekend and have been thanked for all you do!  Happy Mother’s Day!

Emma and Amy on Mother’s Day

Strawberry Time!

The weather was gorgeous this morning, so Mark, Emma and I headed out to the local strawberry field to pick our first round of strawberries.  I had heard that there were tons of ripe berries and they weren’t kidding.  Everywhere we looked were big, beautiful strawberries!  Emma had a great time eating strawberries while I picked them and moving the pink flag (the one that marks which row in which to pick) from place to place.  At one point, I looked over at her an she was coated in strawberry juice from her chin to her feet.  It was quite impressive!

Here’s are two pictures of Emma with our strawberries after we got home.  She couldn’t resist eating yet another strawberry!

Ready for Summer!

We just bought Emma’s swimsuit for the upcoming season of swimming and I thought I should try it on her to make sure it fit before I took the tag off of it.  She absolutely loved her suit and didn’t want any part of taking it off.  So, she spent the better part of an hour running around the house playing with her toys while dressed in her swimsuit.  It was quite entertaining!

I personally love the “sock look” with the suit!!

I would say she is definitely ready for summer!

Spring Break Trip #2 - Georgia Aquarium

Today, we took our second local Spring Break trip to the Georgia Aquarium.  I have wanted to visit the aquarium since it opened over a year ago.  When I lived in Virginia, one of the yearly highlights was the 3rd grade field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium, so I was very excited to see what the Georgia Aquarium had in store.  Luckily, Mark was able to take today off so he could join Emma and I on this adventure which made the day even better.  All I can say is “WOW!!!”…the Georgia Aquarium is quite an incredible place.  It is a smaller aquarium than others I’ve been to, but the displays were amazing and quite impressive.  Emma LOVED looking at all the different sea animals.  We all had a GREAT time!  Here are some pictures from today’s adventure:

 

Emma checking out the stingrays at the first touch tank.  She loved watching them swim by!

Look at that Loggerhead Turtle!  Isn’t he amazing??  He and Emma looked at eachother eye to eye for quite some time.  It was really cool!

For some reason, Emma decide to twirl and dance in front of the tropical fish in the Coral Reef Tank.  It was quite entertaining to watch!

 

Mark and Emma were checking out the sharks in the amazing tunnel tank.  As you walk through this tunnel, you see all kinds of sharks, stingrays, and fish swimming over your head.  It was incredible!

Here is a picture that Mark took at the entrance to the whale shark exhibit.  That isn’t a picture or a poster behind the “Ocean Voyager” sign.  That is a REAL whale shark swimming in a tank.   WOW!!!

It was a wonderful day and I am so glad that we decided to go to the aquarium!  If you live in the area and get a chance, I highly reccommend that you go for a visit.  It is worth every penny that you pay for the admission!

Spring Break Trip #1 - Zoo Atlanta

Instead of going on a big trip for Spring Break this year, we decided to stay home and enjoy some local attractions.  We started today with a visit to Zoo Atlanta.  I’ve wanted to visit the zoo for quite some time now, so I was very excited.  My sister, Joyce agreed to come with Emma and I (Mark had to work) on our zoo adventure.  When we arrived at the zoo, I was surprised by the size of the crowd.  I guess I expected most families to travel out of town for Spring Break, but boy was I wrong.  It was an incredibly large crowd that joined us at the zoo for the day!  In spite of the crowd, we had a wonderful time!  Emma really enjoyed watching the meerkats play (they are quite funny little creatures) and was intrigued by the gorillas.  When it was lunchtime, we had to find a spot on the ground to eat which actually turned out to be fun.  Nothing like an improptu picnic!  We ended our time at the children’s playground at the zoo.  Emma LOVED climbing up to the top and going down the slide.  She must have done this 10+ times on her own.  I was amazed at her independence!!  All in all, it was a great trip and a wonderful way to spend one day of Spring Break!

Emma had been staring at the gorillas for quite sometime before Joyce took this picture.  If you look at the top right of the picture, you’ll see the mama gorilla and her two little ones that captured Emma’s attention.

Emma enjoyed her lunch among the crowd.  I was amazed how many people were at the zoo!

Here is the newest member of the panda group at Zoo Atlanta.  Emma (and her mom) really enjoyed watching this little one munch on a bunch of bamboo!