Parties, Pumpkins and then some...

We've been busy! My BF Fran had her annual kids Halloween party- it was fun to see all the adorable costumes! Emerson is a flower this year.

Will and Griffin, the cutest little monster.
Oh my...

I'm pretty sure this is the first picture of the 3 cousins we've taken. After 6+ months, I think it's about time! We'll keep trying...

Then last Sunday we took the kids to a pumpkin patch. A good shot of the "bump" (if you enlarge it I guess...) and Emerson's pumpkin jacket and outfit she got from her Grandma and Grandpa Wood.

My God she looks like such a big girl in this picture. What happened?!?!

Going on our hay ride around the patch.

She wasn't quite ready for the pony ride- maybe next year.

A bit out of order but 2 weekends ago Amber and Jonathan had Will's 4th birthday party at a park. It was a bit chilly but the kids sure didn't mind. Okay, Emerson did a little bit...

From left- Morgan Cross, William Ely, Will, Ashley Brown, Miss Emerson, Ava Bollinger, Quinton Cross and Evan Brown.

She "found" a pumpkin in the "woods." (Read: Amber hid some pumpkins in some trees.)

Will told Amber he wanted a "miata" for his birthday- she wondered why he would want such a girly car. He explained to her, "the thing you hit and treasure comes out!" Ahhhh...

Mmmmm, cupcakes for breakfast!

We got out the princess tent at our house and Ryan climbed in. I told him he looked like Alice in Wonderland. There are a lot of moments we have that I say, if I'd have told you 10 years ago when we started dating that you'd be (fill in the blank), would you have believed me? Him hanging out in a princess tent was one of those occasions! What a good dad. Here's to this baby being a boy... ;)

She likes to give Elmo her binky.

Going in for a smooch with Griffin.
Ah, Guitar Hero. Let's be honest- it's more for him than it is for her...

Glad to see our Jell-O shot cups are getting some good use these days. She has these hair barrettes that she just dumps in one and then another and then stacks and re-stacks them. I swear she sat and played like this for half an hour the other night.
She has this new cheesy fake smile she does when we get the camera out. It's pretty funny. Have a good weekend!

Emerson's 2 Year Pictures

My friend Corey (McDole) Brown and I got together for lunch and started talking about her new photography business and me wanting pictures of Emerson. I'm always the one taking the pictures so I don't have any good pictures of Emerson and me and I wanted a good one before my face gets fat. So last Wednesday we went to Unity Village on a beautiful morning and got some AMAZING shots. I am so pleased with these pictures- I've never had professional pictures taken of her outside and these are so different than studio shots. Her website is http://www.coreybrownphoto.com/ and I HIGHLY recommend her! Enjoy!

This one is my absolute favorite...

Hodge Podge

Emerson likes to just randomly yell these days. It's still in the cute phase, I'm sure that'll change after Baby Wood comes. She was excited about something the other day after a shower and she was telling me all about it. Aww, to such a sweet face. We were playing peek a boo.



My 20 week belly shot. I'm not ready to show the bare belly yet... Too soon...

And an artsy shot of Phoebes.

Last night Emerson and I were hanging out on the couch and she started saying "bayou" which is Emerson speak for spider. She kept saying it and looking past me so I finally asked Ryan, is there a spider behind me? Sure enough, there was- it was crawling up the wall. Good girl! We told Emerson it went bye bye. :)

Emerson has learned all the names for people in my family but the way she says them is hilarious. Jonathan is "Dong" (Jon), Amber is "Aming", Will is the best pronounciation but it's more like "Weeeeeeill", Griffin is still just "baby". She'll go through our families randomly and start saying "Hel-lo (long pause) Mama. Hel-lo (long pause) Dada. Hel-lo (long pause) Keess (Chris)" and so on and so forth. When she can't think of anyone else she just looks at you and starts laughing. She is so fun these days.

Oh, and the other night she went over to Will and plugged his nose and said "Pee-eww." I taught her that one...

I bought her a potty chair just to start the very, very early stages of potty training. I figure I'll just set it in the bathroom and see what happens. We'll see. Wish us luck!!!!

10 fingers, 10 toes. We're off to a good start...

We had our ultrasound on Friday and everything looks great. I watched Oprah last week and ever since then I've been convinced that my baby has "mermaid syndrome" so to see two separate legs was a relief...
We got some pretty good pictures and seeing how much the baby has grown (we had a very early ultrasound to determine the due date) made me really excited to meet the little guy (or gal...) His (or her) legs were tucked up under his (or her) belly so it made not finding out pretty easy.
I'm 20 weeks today and feeling great, loving this second trimester honeymoon. Sleep is tougher to come by since I'm already getting up once a night to go to the bathroom but if that's my biggest problem, I'll take it!!!
Enjoy!!!

She'll like these odds someday...

The Hoyts came in town so we had a wild and crazy get together. The ratio was 6-1, boys to Emerson. She'll appreciate it someday!

Emerson and Carter checking out the door stopper thing.
Oooh, Ryan'll kill me for this one... (Those are buckeyes around her neck...)
Elijah Zimmerman checking out Will and Carter.

Ah, the whole group. Elijah, Will and Griffin, Carter, Emerson and Tristan and Tyler, the latter not necessarily in that order... ;)


Watching the Iowa game.
It looks nice enough now...
...but then she tried to force feed him.
Uncle Matt got the older kids jumping on the bed. Thanks a lot Uncle Matt!!

Playing the ukelele for Grandma and Grandpa Wood.