Christmas Letter 2014

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

1 Corinthians 2:9

We hope this letter finds you and your family well. We are blessed to call you friends and family. Thank you for your love, support, and friendship.

Emery: At the end of February, our little Emery Annabelle turned two! We enjoyed dinner and cupcakes with a few friends and family. She can spell her name, recite our address and mommy's phone number, and sing a lot of songs. She loves playing pretend and making us laugh! 

This summer, Emery started going to daycare at an in-home daycare of a family friend, Mrs. Diana. Emery loves playing with her friends: a three-year-old girl and twin one-year-old boys. The girls do preschool together and all of them walk to the playground every day. Emery has learned memory verses, songs and poems, letter sounds, and Bible stories. She can also count to 10 in French and Spanish. She is thriving! 

When she's at home, Emery likes to build puzzles (which include princesses, puppy dogs, farm scenes, and Minnie & Daisy), pretends she is a doctor, makes us dinner in her play kitchen, and creates imaginative adventures with her princess & superhero dolls. She also reads a lot of books and enjoys trips to the library.

This summer we went to the pool and enjoyed walks to the local playgrounds. There are two main playgrounds near our house, which Emery refers to as either the "purple slides" or the "blue slides." A truly fun day is when we have time to do both. On July 4^th, we went to the National Zoo. Emery loved seeing all of the animals, particularly the elephants, lions, and pandas. In the evening, we saw fireworks in downtown Fairfax, and she thought they were very colorful and fun (and loud!). In July, Emery attended her first professional sporting event, a very warm and sticky Washington Nationals baseball game. This fall, we took trips to the pumpkin patch, to the Smithsonian museums in downtown D.C., and went on walks at Burke Lake Park. She often likes to RUN when we're outside, and she even ran a whole lap around the high school track with cheerleaders. Some day soon, she'll be ready to run with her daddy.

Tiffanie: Tiffanie started the year looking forward to the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. We watched a lot of figure skating and skiing, and possibly managed to understand the sport of curling. In March, Tiffanie went on a weekend getaway to a cold Lake Michigan beach with some college friends while Blake and Emery enjoyed a daddy-daughter weekend together. And in June, Tiffanie went to San Diego to attend the wedding of a college friend. After two years working from home while caring for Emery, Tiffanie returned to working in the office part-time this summer. 

In August, Tiffanie began her 10th and final year coaching West Springfield cheerleading. This season, the former JV coach took over as the head coach, and Tiffanie joined her on varsity as her assistant. However, about halfway through the season, Tiffanie was needed on the JV team to finish out the year. It was fitting to have spent time coaching all three teams (9 seasons on freshman, a 1/2 season on each varsity and JV). Tiffanie will now have more time to spend with her sweeties. Also, as soon as the cheer season ended, Tiffanie returned to work full-time, and Emery extended her time at Mrs. Diana's from four to five days a week. 

Blake: Blake continues to work for the Pathway to the Baccalaureate program at NOVA, advising students and teaching courses. Blake teaches a student development course at NOVA where students explore learning and adulthood as they try to set a foundation for the rest of their college program. His class includes career counseling, and topics like learning styles, test anxiety, financial planning, diversity, and résumé writing. Outside of class, he also coordinates a large scholarship program and leads workshops on a variety of topics. 

In October, Blake traveled to Minneapolis to speak at a conference on academic advising and parenting. He loves Minnesota in the fall and enjoyed running on the Stone Arch Bridge. He got to see some friends from college and took a tour of the ever-expanding Mall of America.

In November, Blake ran a half-marathon in Annapolis, MD. The girls enjoyed cheering him on, and he enjoyed running in 25 degree weather! Then we spent Thanksgiving at home with Tiffanie's folks, and Blake cooked the whole meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, sausage dressing, gravy, cornbread, and homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls. It was all so delicious! The following week, we tried our hand at pumpkin waffles, and those were wonderful as well.

We are looking forward to being off of work for two weeks for Christmas break and celebrating Christmas together. 

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O Little Town of Bethlehem... the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Love, Blake, Tiffanie, & Emery

halloween - 10.31.14

last year after halloween, i found two costumes for 90% off clearance. but that meant that we had to choose between the two -- so today we put them both on!

emery settled on being a ladybug for our church's trunk or treat event tonight.

 

Emery got a rainbow painted on her hand.

when the bouncy house was deflated, emery sat on it and said, but we can't jump on it!

...so we took her outside to the other bouncy house and she refused to come back out!!

two and a half years old - 8.27.2014

emery annabelle is two and a half years old! it's hard to believe!

we've had a lot of changes take place this spring and summer. starting in july, i (tiffanie) went back to working in the office after two years of working from home. emery now goes to day care four days a week at an in-home day care with a family/church friend. she LOVES going to Ms. Diana's house and begs to go. she spends time with two sisters ages 3 and 5 (also church friends) and twin (now) one year old boys. emery gets to play on a playground, learn and color, and socialize with other kids - instead of staring at the back of mommy's laptop while i worked at home. it's sad for mommy, but it's working out much better than anticipated.

this spring, emery's hair finally started growing longer, and the headbands weren't keeping her hair out of her eyes. so we tried clipping the hair to the side with a clip or a bow, but it didn't stay put. more recently, we started putting the top of her hair in a ponytail holder, and she's even sported her first set of pigtails, which she called "pink tails."

she likes to sing and she makes up songs and changes lyrics to songs she knows. they don't always make a lot of sense and sometimes they're just gibberish (do-dee-do), but it sure is cute. she also likes it when blake makes up silly songs about any and everything.

she knows upper case letters and can identify most of the lower case letters too (sometimes mixes up t and f, but seems to do fine with b, which i find surprising). verbally, she substitutes an "f" sound for "sp" words, creating things like "fider," "farkle," and "frinkler." she also continues to replace "l" with "y," creating things like "yook, over there" and "yet's go."

we've been amazed at her ability to not only verbally spell her name, but to place letter magnets together to spell her name. she can also spell fox, and sometimes mom and dad. she asks about lots of new words and wants to know what they mean.

emery understands the basic pattern of counting, though sometimes she skips certain numbers or says twenty-eight, twenty-nine, twenty-ten (and would be more likely to say "forty-ten" than "fifty"). but generally, she can count to near fifty (with guidance) if she can keep her attention focused on counting for that long. sometimes we count in the car while we're driving, but it usually ends up being: 37, 38, 39, ooh, look a bird! she can also count by tens to 100 (but leaves out sixty), and can count backwards from 10.

a few weeks ago, i told her that our street had a name (wind fall road). i told her every street has a name, like emery has a name. what's our street's name? "emery fall road." haha. and last week, she learned our house number, so now she actually knows our address.

just like her daddy, emery likes to run. she ran a whole lap (400m) around the track at WS this week. she wanted to keep going, but mommy couldn't keep up.

we started potty training early in the spring. however, initially, my attempts just made her frustrated and she refused. we took a break for a while, and a little more recently, she's exhibited more of an interest to try again, though we have yet to be successful. she just doesn't seem to be physically ready or able - even if she (and we!) wants to be. we'll keep working on it.

this summer, she has begun to show more emotion and opinions. and of course when she's tired, these exaggerate even further. at times, she will burst into tears easily if she doesn't get her way. she'll even pretend to burst into tears. i guess this is what being 2.5 is all about.

this summer we took emery to the pool a few times. she did a great job in the toddler pool. one day she said: "i want to go to the pool so i can swim like a monkey in a tree." hahaha.

emery has a floor puzzle (2' by 3') with 24 pieces. we've done the puzzle A LOT of times, and now she can do it all on her own. she can do many of her puzzles/games/coloring on her own, but she also likes to remind us that we can play with her.

we love the little girl our baby has grown into. she has personality and character and beauty. she likes to laugh and make us laugh.

 she put the purse on her shoulder and said: "i'm the babysitter!" it's so fun that she's starting to play make-believe too.

Two Years Old - 02.27.14

our sweet emery annabelle is two years old today! all day, i've asked her: "how old are you?" and she answered: "i one!" and so i said, "no..." and held up two fingers. she said: "i two!" at one point, she kept going: "i three! i four! i five! i six! i seven! i eight! i seven!" 

emery has started to recognize when things are and aren't a certain way. when she eats, she'll hold up one hand, "this hand messy," and the other hand, "this hand not messy." this week, i grabbed her slippers and quickly said, "let's put on your shoes." she corrected me, "that not shoes. that slippers! green slippers!" 

this month, emery started using "you" correctly. "mommy, you color blue crayon." and then yesterday and today, she used "your" correctly: "daddy, your com-peter hah a circle." (dell logo). 

she still doesn't quite get how to use "me": "mommy, i help you!" (means mommy, i want you to help me) and "hold you" and "sit by you" when she wants me to hold her and sit by her. i think those are cute.
 
she has picked up some funny phrases like, "i hah idea" (i have [an] idea), "don't worry," "oh no, wha happeh?" (oh no, what happened?) she also likes to end phrases with "you know?" and play a sort of I-Spy game by saying: "dooo yoooou see a kitty cat out the window?" 

she gets some phrases mixed up or over-generalizes them, such as "we not watch mickey mouse anywhere," when she means "anymore." or she see a lot of something and says there are "too many" bowls, instead of "so many."

today we were looking at flash cards she got for her birthday. she recites numbers past 12 in a random order, but doesn't really identify them visually. so i was showing her that FOUR-teen, SIX-teen, SEVEN-teen, etc., all have the number in the name. we looked at fourteen, then turned to the next card and she said: FIVE-fourteen. ok, that one is a tricky one!

we love this girl. she's such a sweetie and a fun kid. when we got her up this morning, blake and i sang Happy Birthday to her and she laughed hysterically. apparently, singing a duet is really funny. i just love that sweet little happy face!

this girl is all about the accessories. blake's mom made her emery-sized bracelets that fit great and a pretty matching necklace. 

we got a new filing cabinet which affected our photo area, but made for some fun "peeky-boo."

twenty-three months - 01.27.2014

there is only one more month until emery annabelle is two years old! it's hard to believe it's been almost two years since this little sweetie made us parents. we're so blessed by her everyday!

emery often surprises us by spotting a shape or the shape of a letter or number. she noticed that the corners of the church sanctuary look like triangles, the ceiling tiles are squares, and the lights are circles. last week, she put wide blocks on top of skinny blocks and said: mommy, i made a "P"! she picked up the strap of blake's bag and - besides hanging it on her shoulder like a purse, of course - she held it up with two hands and said: "look mommy, i made a 7!" then held it straight up and down, and said: "i made a 1!"

emery knows all the letters and the numbers up to at least 12. most of the time when she's counting quickly, she'll still say: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10. so we try to jump in and shout SEVEN! and of course that has become a funny game. when she gets it right, she counts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 yay! 7!

emery speaks in fairly complete sentences. this afternoon, after a brief trip upstairs, she gave me our agenda: "wah yeh hee-an, go dawn sears, eat go-geh cah-cuh, wah bickey mou!" (wash [our] hands, go downstairs, eat goldfish crackers, watch Mickey Mouse).

we bought a small potty that she's tried a few times, though she hasn't actually successfully "used" it. she talks about it sometimes, so i let her try, but she (and i) are not ready for full time training.

emery still only has 12 teeth, but we think she's getting at least one or more of the four incisors that have yet to come in, and perhaps the molars are coming too. in the last couple of weeks, she's started to put her hands in her mouth frequently and her sleep has been disrupted.

she loves to color, and i've noticed she's started to color individual objects in the pictures more intentionally. certainly not in the lines, of course, but scribble the cloud, scribble the tree, scribble the flower, etc.

she definitely colors better with her right hand, but i think she often eats with her left hand.

toddlers are repetitive. ever since we were in texas and my brother's friend, jon, asked her what color her eyes were, emery loves to talk about eye color. every.single.day. "mommy hah brow eyes, daddy hah bee-you eyes, ah-wee hah bee-you eyes, unca por cha hah brow eyes, ma-ga hah bee-you eyes, pa-pa hah brow eyes" (mommy has brown eyes, daddy has blue eyes, emery has blue eyes, uncle pork chop [brandon] has brown eyes, gramma has blue eyes, grandpa has brown eyes.) every.single.day.

 i said: emery, can you smile? maybe we need to practice more in the mirror!

emery's hair is growing in slowly. we're starting to see a bit of wave in the body of her hair, but it seems that the longer it gets in the back, the less organized the curl gets. yes, i said, "curl" singular. there's only one.