Halloween festivities!

The weather stayed nice for us this fall! We took full advantage with extra trips to the zoo and plenty of playtime outside! The zoo set up a little maze for the kids. Emily had a blast running through it! She actually enjoyed posing by the pumpkins too-cheeseball! I love it!

"This way Mommy!"

The week of Halloween Emily had a few parties to go to. Such the busy girl! We never had a big special costume picked out, we figured she had enough dress up clothes to pick out something fun. Good thing too-she picked out a new costume every event we went to! Being the girl that she is, she couldn't be caught in the same costume twice!

First, we had a party at daycare. Right before we left, she decided to be a ballerina. Kinda threw this one together-totally not ready for that one! But, it worked, and she was quite the ham!

Still posing for pictures when we got home.

Silly girl!

I love that smile!!!

We went to the first Friday party in uptown Westerville. Cinderella was the outfit of choice here! Yummy cupcakes from Schneider's bakery.

The next day we went to Genoa Township's Halloween party. It's always so much fun. We got to see the firetrucks, play games, and get lots of candy!! :)

Emily (Snow White this time!) and Saylor.

Saylor playing in the maze.

Finally then it was the big night! Despite being Snow White earlier this day, Emily opted for Tinkerbell to actually trick or treat in. Saylor, Grammy and Papa came over to go trick or treating with us. Our friends Dawn and Andy were in town for the night too.

It did not take long to get in the hang of things-they were soon running from house to house!! They were so fun to watch!!! Seeing the excitement they had, and how much fun they were having-amazing!! Made me feel like a kid again!

"Come on Saylor-keep up!"

No looking back!

Digging in!!

What a week of fun!!!!!

Fun stuff

We go to the zoo a lot, if you couldn't tell. Emily has been into posing for pictures lately (finally!).

Me-through the eyes of Emily :)

Aaron through Emily's eyes. I think we might have to ask Santa for a kiddie camera for Emily!

Here it is: The first time Emily ever wrote her name by herself...just over 3 years old.
OK, so the 'M' looks like an 'O' and you kinda have to imagine parts of the 'Y', but still! She was asking Aaron what letters to put to spell her name, and that's what she wrote! We were pretty impressed. Hence the picture of the magna doodle :)

Emily is a pretty die-hard Buckeye fan!! I've gotta figure out how to get my video of her singing the fight song on here....

So stinkin' cute, my little Buckeye. I love her!
I was just noticing-she's got the same cheesy grin/squinty eyes that I do a few pictures up!!

Emily and Barbie

Emily had gotten a Barbie for her birthday from Aunt Kristie and Uncle Todd. Her first Barbie! I think I was just as excited as Emily was! I watched her set Barbie up next to her to watch TV with her. It was too cute!!

Emily's 3rd birthday!!!

I can't believe that Emily just turned three!!!! Amazing how fast time goes. It's just crazy to me to think about all that has happened since she's been born. I mean-she lived in 3 states before she even turned 2!! Jeesh! Despite all the craziness that we've been through since she's been born, she's always been such a joy.
Everyday she makes me laugh more and more-she's a really funny girl!! Not quite any interest in potty training yet, which sometimes drives me crazy. However, I'd rather wait 'til she wants to than clean up messes all the time! She loves to dress up-complete with jewelry, shoes and accessories. She also loves to take care of her doll babies. She is such a good little mama to them. She loves to sing and dance. Usually when she's dressed up like a princess, she refers to Aaron as her Prince-which I think might be one of the sweetest things ever! She also like to dance with her Prince-ahhh, Daddy's little girl!! She can talk forever too (I don't know where she got that from!). It's been fun as she has been able to tell us about her day. We've learned lots about the kids at daycare!! :) I could go on and on!
I feel so blessed to have such a healthy, vibrant, energetic, loving, feisty, creative, perceptive, smart, funny, kindhearted, beautiful little girl!

We had my family and Aaron's mom in town for Emily's birthday. Just some family, cake and presents :)

This is a set of princess shoes....look how excited!! Such a girl!!!

Happy Birthday Emily!!! I love you bunches and bunches!!

We love the zoo!

We've been trying to take full advantage of our zoo membership. It is a nice way for even just Emily and I to spend the afternoon. What's nice is that since we're members, we don't feel like we have to stay all day or see everything to get our money's worth. Here's some pictures from one of the afternoon's that we spent at the zoo. Which-by the way-is now ranked the #1 zoo in america!!! Yeah Columbus Zoo!!!!

Emily stopping for a picture!

Cheese!!

The tiger was up close this day!

I couldn't get Emily to stand in front of him :)

She's still a big fan of the merry-go-round.

I can't get over the pure joy she has when she rides it!

Later that night, I went to Shadowbox with Crystal for her birthday-happy birthday Crystal! I can't believe we've been friends for over 20 years!!!! Yikes!

More Fun

Emily looking at the party catalog to see what kind of birthday party she wants. Oh, so serious!

Our favorite daily activity-dress up!

Modeling her new Tinkerbell dress-so stinkin' adorable!

Emily taking pictures of me

She is so much fun!!! Such a girlie-girl!!

We spent some time playing in the rain recently.

She thought it was pretty cool to be playing out in the rain!