Emma Grace is 19 Months Old!

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Amber Foster Smith

Emma Grace is growing up fast and sure is opinionated! I saw this adorable fabric while picking up a couple of things at JoAnn’s the other week and as soon as I pulled it out and said “awww” she grabbed it and squealed so loud! She refused to let it go and then she hugged it for about 10 minutes straight. Soooo I couldn’t help but grab it right up and write it off as a monthly photo fabric that will soon be turned into a new crib sheet for little missy!

Follow Emma Grace’s Photo Project Here!

Letters To Emma Grace

19 Months Old

Hey there beautiful! That is what I tell you every morning when I come to scoop you out of your crib because you are the most beautiful little girl that ever lived! I may be biased because I’m your Mommy but those little blue eyes are just the icing on the top of the cupcake! 🙂

You are so independent and you have to do everything yourself but for some reason this month you have started to loosen up a little. You actually want to hold my hand and you now love cuddling. Yes, it sounds crazy considering ever since you were born you would rather be left alone. You now come running to me and give me BIG hugs and refuse to let go.

You stumble over a toy and decide that you need me to hold you to make it better. It’s probably not the best thing in the world to do but I buy into your dramatic productions and squeeze you tight and give you a dozen kisses until you decide that you are okay to go back and play. I can’t help it, I feel like I have a years worth of cuddling to make up for. Those sweet kisses and hugs remind me of why I am so proud to be your Mommy. I know that they will not last forever and I want to enjoy them while they last!

You are a HAM! You laugh at the most random things get a kick out of the littlest things. Bubbles…funny! Squeeky shoes…HILARIOUS! Who knows but those little giggles make everyone around you laugh!

You love shoes!! I bought you these little sparkly shoes at Target because after you found them you refused to let them go. Yepp when you find something you like you realllly feel the need to keep it. One morning you wanted to come and play in the workshop with me and I told you only if put on some shoes. You crawled right up the stairs and brought these little sparkle shoes back down. How can you say no to a toddler with her big brothers old jammies on, a bow in her hair and sparkle shoes who just wants to play in the workshop? I’m weak…I can’t say no!

I think it is safe to say you have an obsession with shoes. You like to try on all of my shoes out of my closet! You also LOVE Daddy’s shoes. You grab them every day while he is gone at work and wear them around the house while you cry out for him. Your Daddy is your hero and you always run to greet him at the front door when he comes home every day. Your face lights up when you see him. It is the sweetest thing!One afternoon as we are walking out to the car I asked you if you wanted to go see Daddy at work. All of the sudden you ran back inside as fast as you could. By the time I caught you, you had grabbed a Sun Drop and were running back toward the car screaming DAAADAAAA!! You held on to it the entire way to work and would only let go of it when you handed it to Daddy! You love him so much!

You love playing with your toys as well as everything that DOESN’T belong to you! One morning you took a paper bag and tore it down the side and then sat inside of it. Once you realized that if you scooted all the way to the back you could use it as a chair you were THRILLED with yourself! You brought all of your baby dolls over to sit in your chair with you. You laughed and giggled to yourself for at least 10 minutes. I don’t think you could get over the fact that you made something out of your bag!

You have also turned into a daredevil acrobat! You love to climb on EVERYTHING. You have figured out how to climb up on the shelves inside the shower by pulling yourself up on the handle but you still can’t figure out how to get back down. Same thing happened here. Yepp you thought it would be fun to prop yourself up between the couch and the coffee table. No worries the man of your dreams came to save you while Mommy laughed uncontrollably and took your picture. Don’t worry you weren’t ever in any danger, you were only a foot off the ground!

We had our first real snow this past month and you were so excited! Brother played with all of his friends while you quietly ran around the yard exploring all of the places the snow was hiding. You may have eaten a couple of pieces of mulch and dirt but I am happy to report you seem to have lived through it!

We had some problems with you sleeping through the night last month. You would randomly wake up in the middle of the night and there would be nothing wrong, you just wanted to be held! Oh and the only acceptable way to be held is in my bed, on my chest, with your arms and legs wrapped around me and my blankets covering you up. Oh I loved it…the first night…then you could never get comfy enough to fall asleep so you just sat there moving around forever. By the third night it got really old! You did enjoy sleeping on my pillows some of the nights so I made you your very own little pillow, except now you try to use everything in the house as a pillow…including bubble wrap!

In some ways you are EXACTLY like your brother. When he was about your age he had dozens of tiny cars that he would align in a perfect row. When he got older he would even arrange them by color. By the time he was two he had it down to a science and there were perfect little lines of dozens of teeny color coded cars all over our house! While cooking dinner the other week I turned around and was greeted by what I fear is the start of color coded perfect straight lines of teeny tiny cars.

You still like to sleep late most days, which I LOVE! But on the days Daddy opens I have to wake you up so we can take Jakie to school. It amazes me how the second I open your door you sit straight up and are ready to go! Jake is a morning person like Daddy and you love to sleep in just like me, but it takes Jake and I forever to actually fully wake up where you and Daddy need about a half a second to be fully alert. I come in the morning and you always ask for Dada and Brah to see who is still home. If I say we are going to take Jakie to school you hop down and grab your slippers and a jacket and run for the stairs. I’m pretty sure the carpool people think I’m a slacker Mom since we both usually show up in sweatpants…but I actually put shoes on. 🙂

Emma Grace you LOVE to eat! Even though you can’t say it you point to your teeth and pretty much demand to eat THAT second! Then once I open the refrigerator door you like to stand there and check out everything to see what is the most appetizing. Needless to say if you had it your way you would eat chocolate syrup, yogurt and cheese all day. Oh and just for the record you have never had chocolate syrup so I don’t know how you could possibly know how good it really is! 😉

Actually I take it back you would eat waffles all day! You wake up in the morning point to your teeth and scream wawwffullls! You pretty much think they are the best things that ever happened to this earth and on special occasions I say why not!

I love you!

Momma

Emma Grace is 18 Months Old!

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Amber Foster Smith

A little late posting this month but just as cute as ever in her Valentine’s Day outfit!

Follow Emma Grace’s Photo Project Here!

Letters To Emma Grace

18 Months Old

You are my little princess! Although I swore before you were born you would be the little girl dressed up in a tutu while playing in the garage with her Daddy. Well guess what…you are just that a sassy, tough little lady! Your Papa gave you a tiara for Christmas and you enjoy wearing it all the time. Although you are quite funny when you throw a temper tantrum while you wear your tiara! Unfortunately you have gotten to that age where you know exactly what you want but because you can’t get your point across to us you get very frustrated! I learned from your dramatic big brother very well to let you just throw your little tantrum. As long as you aren’t somewhere or doing something that can hurt yourself I just let you go. Although you are quite funny when you stop for a moment and look around to make sure someone is paying attention!

Your hair is finally long enough for pig tails! At first Daddy thought you looked very silly but I think you look adorable! It’s still not quite long enough to be able to pull all the way back so in the mean time little baby bows work perfect! Oh and your blankey is still your best friend! There is no way you will take a nap or go to bed at night without it. The only thing that I don’t understand is that you shove as much of your blankey as you possibly can in your mouth and chew on it while you fall asleep. But I don’t think you ever let go of it while you sleep so by the time you wake up it is soggy and NASTY! Everyone may have laughed at me when I bought you two back up blankets but boy am I sure glad I did!

We went bowling this month with Ahma and Papa while Jakie went to a birthday party at the lanes and you had a fun time! You were amazed at everything going on. More than anything though you had the best time pushing the balls all around on the rack. You are a very easily amused child!

Everyone has been sick this month! I started off with some sniffly crud and ended up giving it to all of you. You are completely pitiful when you are sick. Your nose would not stop running. After being sick and tired of hearing the two of us screaming and crying every time I went to use the bulb syringe on your nose, Daddy taught you how to blow your own nose! It was amazing! When you feel your nose running you hurry to the bathroom where you tear off two squares of potty paper, blow your nose and then throw the paper away! Even your doctor said he has seen four-year olds who struggle to blow their nose. Good job baby girl! You are so smart!

Although with your big brother’s history with colds settling into his lungs very quickly your doctor recommended to put you on albuterol breathing treatments as needed for a week. It was so sad! I’m sorry sweet girl but you were wheezing and we just had to do it! At first you were completely against it but then Jake showed you how he takes a treatment and then you were a little more willing. After the first two or three times you realized that you felt better after taking it and then you BEGGED me to give you a treatment. You would bring me the box with your nebulizer, sit down in your rocker and try to strap on your mask by yourself. I was so happy once you got better because seeing your sweet little self attached to the nebulizer broke my heart. Your brother has spent so many years struggling to get his asthma under control strapped to that nebulizer I just pray that you don’t have to go through the same thing!

Speaking of your big brother…he is still your hero! You ask for him and Daddy every morning when you wake up and are devastated when they aren’t there. A couple of times this month I even heard you say Jakie! You are trying and doing so good with your words!

Every week you love to try to “help” me fold laundry. You are such a great helper because you pick up each individual piece and shake, shake, shake until you are sure all the wrinkles are out! Except all those pieces you pick up are the ones out of the pile I’ve already folded. At least you try!

You still love to read! You will read Olivia and Pinkalicious to yourself over and over every day but will never sit still for me to read them to you. Your new favorite book is Pinkalicious and the Pinktastic Zoo Day because there are balloons in it shaped like bears. You point to them every time and try to say balloons over and over again! Who knows but it is pretty cute! You also like to try to read any mail I leave on the kitchen table while you eat lunch. This particular day you were enjoying the JoAnn’s sale flyer!

We went to the doctor for your 18 month check up and you are growing up so fast! You were 22 lbs 10 ozs (26%) 31.5″ long (46%) and your big old head is 18.75″ (78%)!

Overall you are one healthy, too smart for your own good little girl! In order to keep you out of some of the kitchen cabinets I took rubber bands and put them around the door knobs. Well now that you are older I tend to forget to put them back sometimes but you run through the kitchen every morning and put the rubber bands back around the knobs. You have NO idea that they are actually to keep you out! You are also my little branding genius! You recognize the Sun Drop logo and scream “DAAAADAAAA!” every time you see it even if we are in the middle of the grocery store! You also recognize the logo for Daddy’s restaurant and scream his name again when you see it on his chef jackets or even on the side of the building when we pull up to see him. You have started to recognize that certain things in our house belong to certain people. Cars, trucks and Legos belong in Jake’s room while anything that looks like a cut of fabric belongs in Mommy’s studio and well ALL socks belong to Daddy and go in his bottom drawer. Sorry Daddy if you find some socks that don’t belong to you!

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the little girl you are starting to become. It’s hard to believe we are half way to the 2 year mark. The thought of you growing up brings tears to my eyes. I don’t want you to grow up. I want to bottle up your crazy toddler energy and keep it forever. But then I think of all the memories that are yet to come and the idea of watching you grow as a person makes me so proud to be your Mommy.

I love you!

Momma

Emma Grace is 17 Months Old!

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Amber Foster Smith

Follow Emma Grace’s Photo Project Here!

As always I have to include some outtakes for your enjoyment! Well it’s more like I just can’t delete all the other photos that didn’t make the final cut! 🙂

Since we shoot our monthly photos outside and it has been a little on the chilly side we decided to sport our new kitty cat hat from Gram and Papa Chuck for Christmas!

Isn’t it cute?

Oh, the distracting snack of the month was raisins! Emma Grace is a sucker for those tasty little guys!

I may be biased but I think I have one ADORABLE little girl!

Who just may enjoy stealing tape and paint out of the workshop! Hey little lady bring that back here!

Letters To Emma Grace

17 Months Old

This month as been a month of so much growth and learning. You have found a new love of music which makes me such a happy Mommy! You see music has always been a big part of my life. Your Ahma even used to yell at me because she was a firm believer that there was no singing at the kitchen table! Psst don’t tell her but sometimes when Daddy is at work and it is just you, me and Jakie for dinner we will turn on music…and there just may be a little bit of singing involved! A couple of months ago you found your brother’s piano in his closet and played with it on occasion. Then recently you proudly stole it out of his closet and found a new home for it in the corner of the kitchen. Every morning you go and play on it. You know how to turn it off and on, pick out a beat to dance to and even increase or decrease the tempo (your brother’s favorite thing to do!). But sometimes you just like to play each key to hear all the different notes. I can’t wait to teach you how to sing! We always have music on in the house and in the car. You love having dance parties in the kitchen with me. This month you got the opportunity to show off all of your moves at Grandpa Lowell’s Christmas party! You go girl!

In the beginning of the month we had so much fun marching in our local Christmas parade! For some funny reason you were under the impression that the parade was for you and you waved at everyone as you passed them by…my favorite part…you also blew kisses to them all too! You are too funny! Before the parade started you and Jakie and Kyson had so much fun playing in the giant piles of leaves in the park! You weren’t quite sure what to do with all of them!

Speaking of your favorite toys you are still obsessed with your brothers old camera! You insist on wearing it around the house around your neck all day long. You even look through the viewfinder at things and then giggle to yourself. If I could only figure out what was going through that little head of yours! Your vocabulary is expanding every day (even though Daddy claims he never hears any of it!) You can say mama, dada, mow (more), mih (milk) ahma, papa, brada (brother), zak (Auntie is still unhappy that you can say your cousin’s name and not hers! Don’t worry Auntie we are working VERY hard on it!), sock, and we are working on shoe and shirt. Although shirt needs a lot of work…at the moment it kind of sounds like a bad word!!! The other funny thing, you see when you were about six months old I tried to teach you sign language so you could communicate with us. You would always get so frustrated when we couldn’t figure out what you wanted. Well I can officially say that at 17 months old you now know sign language. I stopped using it months ago and then all the sudden over the past couple weeks you decided to start using “more” “all done” and “drink.” Congrats baby girl! You can now communicate with me not only with voice but your hands too! 🙂

In your spare time you enjoy reading a good book. Your two favorites this month are Franklin (which you only read the last page and it’s always upside down!) and Olivia. Thank goodness Santa brought you some new books to read! Although you only like to read laying down in the kitchen or in your bedroom. I wish you would let me hold you to read to you. Jake and I used to read for hours together! Until then I’ll just keep reading aloud to myself while you play with your toys! Your brother is an amazing reader and I hope you grow up to be a good reader too. Mommy has never been a good reader. Just ask Ahma and Auntie. They have lots of jokes about Mommy’s reading interests!

You have also found out how much fun it is to cook! Whenever Mommy is in the kitchen you get out your bowls, pots, pans and spatulas to help cook too. You also want to make sure that everyone is able to have a taste of your creations as well! Num num!

Whenever anything is in the oven you like to sit on the floor in front of the oven to watch it. Sweet pea I hate to tell you the oven is not a TV and the chicken isn’t going to do anything exciting. Maybe it’s from watching too many cupcakes rise? Oops! Maybe Momma should cut back on the baking!

Have I mentioned yet again this month how much you love your brother??? I still can’t believe I caught this little moment with my phone. I turned around and couldn’t believe that you were actually giving him kisses and a hug! I wish I had been able to get my camera faster because I would have taken this photo and blown it up all over the house!

You like to help brother with projects. This month you helped him screw some parts of his photo frame he made at Home Depot’s Kids Workshop. You also made all of the other adults nervous by holding on the screwdrivers and hammers while you flung them around in the air! It’s okay, they just didn’t know you had been using a hammer and screwdriver since you were born. It’s not their fault! 🙂

You are also a good sport when your brother decides he wants to decorate you for Christmas. I can’t believe you actually let him hang all of these on your pants! The best part…you were sad when I took them off so you could have your nap.

You and Daddy always like to get some fun play time in too! For some reason your Daddy thought you needed a ride in a bucket! You also love to go running into the workshop and swipe things off of the painting shelf like you saw in the outtakes from this month!!

Your smiles are priceless. Those dimples are going to get you into a lot of trouble or out of a lot of trouble one day, however you want to look at it.

I just love to look into those pretty blue eyes of yours. It’s crazy because I wish I could see the world the way you do. As adults we often forget the little joys in life and take them for granted. With you around you show me to take joy in the little things! I love that about you. Mommy is trying to do better at slowing down and taking time enjoy new things. You see, you love unrolling all the toilet paper in the house and I’ve thought about it many times but I may have been a little bet jealous that Sparkle got to try it out before I could! I can’t describe the feeling I get when you come running to me to give me a big kiss and a hug. You are an amazing one of a kind little girl!

I love you!

Momma

Emma Grace Is 16 Months Old!

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Amber Foster Smith

Follow Emma Grace’s Photo Project Here!

As always I have to include some outtakes! This month we took our photos right after the arrival of Sparkle the Elf and Emma Grace was very excited about her new book! Although with a short attention span we busted out the plastic ornaments pretty quick to keep her entertained!

Be prepared for a photo bomb this month! Except you will have to excuse the fact that I think every photo is from my iPhone!

Letters To Emma Grace

16 Months Old

Miss Emma Grace this month has been so busy and so much fun! Your day to day routine is still pretty much the same as it has been for the last couple months. You wake up at around 9:30 or 10 (which your Mommy LOVES!) and we hang out for a couple of hours playing before you take about a 3 hour nap and then its more fun play time and after dinner you are tucked in sound asleep by 8:30. You still LOVE to sleep and you know what? That is fine by me! Mommy likes her sleep too! You even sleep just like me on your tummy with your legs pulled up underneath you. You still only really like to sleep in your own crib but lately you have taken a couple of good naps at Ahma and Papa’s like a champ!

Emma Grace 16 Months Old copyright jRoxDesigns 2012

You will never sleep in the car so when you do it is usually because you have skipped your nap! Your brother on the other hand will pass after 10 minutes in the car even in the middle of the day!

I love to watch you sleep! You are so sweet and quiet I can’t help but want to smother you with kisses! When you are awake you are full of energy! While Mommy works downstairs you are usually running laps around the kitchen with your stroller and whatever you can find to put in it. In the last month you have also become a big fan of purses and bags! If it has a handle you HAVE to carry it and place as many things in the bag as you can find. I believe you have 4 bags on the handles of your stroller right now filled with everything from books, to receipts, to painters tape and even a couple of hair bows and maybe a sock or two! (Oh and you so learned how to say “ssssooock” yesterday!)

You are a very curious little girl and you want to know how everything works. You will typically only take a second or two to observe something before you quickly rush right into getting your hands dirty. When we get ready in the morning I usually let you get down and play around our bedroom while I get dressed. By the time I’ve gotten dressed and made the bed it will typically take me another 10 minutes to clean up everything you have taken out! Whether its my shoes out of the closet or all of Daddy’s socks out of his drawer or even every last piece of my make up. I don’t mind though because it means you are exploring and learning all sorts of new things!

You love to help! The past month you have really started to show an interest in helping and following directions from Mommy. You love to throw things in the trash, pick up your own toys, shut doors and put things away! Your Daddy also taught you how to blow your nose which is too funny! You will actually go to the bathroom rip off a square of tissue blow your nose and then throw the tissue away in the trash. Girl! You crack me up! You also love to hold things for me and give them big hugs (which is really cute except for the people at Home Depot look at me weird when a toddler is hugging spray paint and paint chips!) Did I mention you will finally give out kisses and big squeezy hugs to us when we ask?! It melts my heart! You have never been one to cuddle so to sweet little kiss or a BIG hug makes me sooo happy!

Oh and just like always you are a crazy eater! Your favorites are lasagna, chill, tortellini, eggs, dinny blinnies, cheese and of course cereal as you can see from your favorite spot at Ahma’s house! This is the face you made at her when you realized she had a plate of cookies. Did I mention with the holidays you have had way too many cookies than any toddler should ever have? Ah, it’s okay to spoil you on occasion but just don’t get used to it okay? Oh and milk! Oh my gosh you LOVE milk! I specifically had to ask the pediatrician how much milk is too much for a kiddo your age…because if I let you…you would drink a gallon of milk a day!

I know this next month is going to go by so fast with everything going on. I wish I could slow down time and be able to savor every last second of life with you and Jakie but I know I can’t. So until Mommy can figure it out I’m just going to keep loving every second I can with you!

I LOVE YOU!
Momma

A Thankful Week and Celebrating Our 100th Post with a Top 10 Recap!!

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Amber Foster Smith

I have had the best week full of wonderful blessings and making great memories with my family. We had an amazing Thanksgiving and filled our bellies to the brim with all sorts of delicious goodies! I did a bit of shopping last night with my sister and we had such a great time together. While driving home listening to Christmas music in the wee hours of the morning I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I truly am. I have the most amazing family and friends that support me through everything I do. I have a husband who adores me and two children that are perfect in every way. I have a roof over my head and am blessed to have enough money in my pocket to buy a few new toys for my kids for Christmas. I am so lucky to have the life that I have. I just wanted to tell all of you, my wonderful readers how thankful I am for you. I started this blog as a creative outlet and it has become so much more. I have made so many new friends and learned so much along the way. So today I wanted to share a big milestone for the blog…OUR 100th POST! How exciting is that? I thought we could all celebrate today by taking a look back at my most popular posts along with my personal favorites!

One of my most popular posts is Emma Grace’s Weekly Photo Project which is one project I am so proud of. For all the hours and time that I’ve spent editing photos and preparing each shoot it is by far my most rewarding project!

Emma Grace’s Nursery reveal was also a very popular post including my personal favorite, the French Provencal Dresser makeover!

After being sick of my old worn out kitchen rug I gave it a fun facelift with a bit of creativity with the help of some paint!

An afternoon, a quart of chalkboard paint and waiting what seemed like forever and we have an awesome new space to jot notes and play tic-tac-toe!

My post about my journey to get my first tattoo has been my most viewed post and I received so much feedback I actually decided to offer custom designs in my Etsy shop!

I celebrated Hyperemesis Gravidarum Awareness Day by sharing my own personal journey with HG. It was by far my most difficult post to write but since I wrote about my story I have had several women who are suffering or have survived HG reach out to me. Their stories of strength and encouragement made it worth finally telling my story.

I have learned so much about photography over the past year and I was excited to share with you all some amazing pictures that I took at a friend’s wedding. That post along with the photos I shared from the very first wedding I was asked to shoot are some of my most popular posts!

I know everyone loves a pallet makeover and we had a great time turning an old pallet into a vintage soda sign for hubby’s birthday!

Hungry? We sure were when we made these AMAZING stuffed burgers filled with several cheeses, crisp bacon and sautéed onions! YUMMY!

Our free Fall Bucket List printable was a big success! For the rest of November I will be sharing with you how many things we were able to cross off!

I hope you have enjoyed my special 100th post recap of my favorite and most popular posts so far! Thank you for all of your support along the way and don’t ever be afraid to leave a little comment for me. I love hearing from you! If you want to keep up with what I’m up to outside the blog stop by and follow me!