Christmas Letter 2016

"I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Please bend down and listen as I pray. Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways." 

Psalm 17:6-7

Anniversaries: Our 2016 recap actually begins right before New Year's Eve with a party to celebrate Tiffanie's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It was a fun night of memories, photographs, and music from the 1960s. In January, we celebrated 9 years of marriage. 10 is right around the corner.

Birthday: At the end of February, Emery turned 4 years old. We took her and her friend, Mary Helen, to see Disney Live - a magic show with all the Disney characters. They enjoyed the show! 

Emery's likes: Emery received the movie Frozen on DVD for Christmas last year and has been over the moon for the movie, the soundtrack, and all her Elsa, Anna, and Olaf dolls, coloring books, stuffed animals, shirts, and other gear. Emery and Tiffanie can both sing the soundtrack word-for-word as we play it in the car all the time. She still loves to pretend and dress up. She loves calendars (unless you flip the page early!), details, rules (enforcing more than following, of course). She's also really great at sharing her treats and helping with chores (most of the time). 

Emery likes to go for walks/runs at the park and likes learning about nature. She made several visits to Hidden Pond Nature Center in Burke this year, learning about animals, plants, and insects. As a family, we also went exploring on trails in our neighborhood. 

Emery loves stories -- both the telling and being told -- and she likes hearing tales of when her parents were kids. Much like her daddy, she also likes making up creative stories and being silly. She has spent most of the fall trying to convince us her real name is Ariel (like the Little Mermaid).

School: This summer Emery began reading more confidently. She writes letters/words with increasing skill - a mix of upper and lowercase and her spacing is getting much better. At home, we also try to show her real-life applications with math. She had a few occasions where she decided to use her own money to purchase something, though she wanted to keep both the toy and the money. Don’t we all! 

Firsts this year: Emery got a haircut (which eliminated the curls, boo hoo!), started reading books by herself, went fishing in the Wyoming mountains, swam underwater, started sleeping in a twin bed, went to a wedding, went to the dentist, got her fingernails and toenails painted, learned to play checkers (learned how to lose gracefully at checkers), went bowling, and took a dance class (ballet and tap). (Recital video is posted here: https://vimeo.com/194178146)

Snow: We had only one snow storm early this year, but it was a big one: 22 inches! NOVA was closed for a total of 11 days (including weekends). It was almost too deep to sled, but we tried anyway. 

Marathon: Blake set a goal last year of getting in shape and running the DC Rock n' Roll marathon. He trained through the winter, and this March we went to DC to cheer him on! 

Wyoming: We visited the Johnsons in Wyoming this spring. The weather was perfect and we had a great trip. We went fishing in the Bighorn Mountains, to a bowling alley, and to an arcade; we also played in a tent, planted flowers, and painted. Emery loved Jo and Alan's dog, Jaxsyn (golden doodle) and her mom, Cadence (poodle). Blake got to go golfing with his dad and spent lots of time with his brother.

Buffalo run: In Wyoming, we joined the Johnson family at a 10k/5k event on the Durham Bison Ranch. Blake won the 10k (including a medal and a prize package of buffalo steaks), his dad ran the 5k, and Tiffanie & Emery walked/ran the 5k. Afterward, Emery got to feed horses and see herds of bison.

Trips: In August, Emery and Tiffanie toured DC landmarks with visiting friends, and we went to the National Zoo on the day after Thanksgiving.


Halloween: Emery wore three different costumes this year -- Strawberry Shortcake (from last year) at Ballet class, Mermaid at Trunk or Treat, and Doc McStuffins (from her dress-up clothes) for Trick-or-treating at home.

Work: Blake and Tiffanie continue to work at NOVA. Tiffanie's office moved back on campus from a temporary (three years!) location off campus. The new (old) building is both familiar and very updated - this time with a real office with a window. Blake recently got a promotion and is over a counseling/advising program on his campus. He teaches courses, advises students, and is on several college committees. 


Looking ahead: We're hoping for new things in 2017. We're looking forward to finishing some things and starting others. 

With much love, 
Blake, Tiffanie, and Emery

Halloween - October 30, 2016

This year Emery dressed as a mermaid!

Emery with her buddies, Madeline (cowgirl) and Mary Helen (princess).

Four and a half years old - 08.27.2016

Emery Annabelle is four and a half years old. She's been waiting for so long to add the "half." Last weekend, someone asked her how old she was and she said with a bit of a sad face, "I'm regular four."

Emery is doing a great job with reading. She's still a bit hesitant to sound out new words, but with books she's been read many times (and memorized), she will often read along. Emery has a great memory for story details, song lyrics, TV quotes, and words in a book. She often says things like: remember that time when we.... and she'll recall something we did a long time ago with very interesting, accurate details. She also gets frustrated when I don't immediately recall the moment she's describing. Her coloring has improved a lot. She used to scribble pretty indiscriminately, and now she's much more intentional with trying to color within the lines. She's working on writing letters and numbers and writes some better than others.

So far this year, Emery went bowling twice, watched Blake run a marathon, traveled to Wyoming where she and I walked a 5K, swam underwater, and toured Washington, D.C. monuments and museums. She also got a new twin size bed. In a few weeks, she'll take her first class: Ballet and Tap.

In Wyoming, Emery fell head over heels in love with Blake's folks' dog, Jaxsyn. Jaxsyn is a golden doodle and the two of them had tons of fun running and chasing and playing together. Emery still misses her everyday. Emery also got to go fishing in the Wyoming mountains.

We got Emery a magnetic calendar and a regular wall calendar, and she likes to keep track of the date and day of the week. Mrs. Diana discusses the date and the weather with the kids too. She recently asked for a watch. Emery appreciates order and figuring out patterns.

Emery can use the TV remote to get a DVD started or find a show on her list on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon. I only instructed her a few times and she got the hang of it. So far she still asks permission to turn on the TV and asks before she picks a show. Emery's favorite movie is Frozen. In the car, we often sing along to the Frozen soundtrack - I think I know the words better than for the albums I like. Emery also likes a funny little British show called Sarah & Duck, an Amazon show called Tumble Leaf, Curious George, and a Disney short film called Frozen Fever (about Elsa and Anna, of course).

Emery has been a little more adventurous trying new foods. She likes bell peppers, cucumbers, smoothies, and in Wyoming she ate buffalo meat. She laughed when I told her and she didn't believe me.

I started braiding her "pinktails" occasionally for church. Her hair is pretty long now, but still pretty fine. She likes having braids. She also likes putting bows in my hair, which I enjoy. Last Sunday she insisted on a certain bow that I didn't think matched her dress, so in order to agree to switch bows, I had to wear the one that didn't match. Yes, I walked into the church wearing a big blue bow in my hair (and maybe slipped it into my purse moments later).

Mrs. Diana's daughter got married this year, so not only did Emery attend a wedding for the first time, she got the behind-the-scenes look at all the prep work everyday. She got to see Becky's dress and invitations months before the wedding. Plus she got to help: she carefully removed straight pins while Mrs. Diana sewed Becky's veil. She also is convinced that she will one day get married, leave us, and move to Tennessee (like Becky.) She's very concerned with figuring out where she'll meet her future husband. Oh my.

We love our sweet, spunky girl!

It's a standing joke that my dad likes to give people a Speed Limit sign on their birthdays that are divisible by 5.

It's so fun to be uncooperative!

Fourth Birthday - 02.27.2016

Emery Annabelle is four! She's been asking every week since this fall: "Am I four today?"

This fall at Mrs. Diana's, Emery began learning short vowel sounds and blending, and she's able to sound out some 3 and 4 letter words. She recognizes several other words she's seen before, many she's spelled on an electronic spelling and story book she has.

A couple of weeks ago, we were shopping and Emery pulled me over to a display, saying "Books! I see books!" I didn't see any books, just batteries, headphones, electronics. So I tried to figure out where exactly she was looking, and I realized the sign above the display (mistakenly) read "Books." She was reading the word! She's still hesitant to try to sound out multiple words in a book, but once she gains more phonics tools and practice, we think she'll really take off with reading.

Most often, we find her "reading" books by reciting the story she's memorized from hearing us read to her (sometimes word for word). She has a pretty good auditory memory for movie lines and song lyrics - just like Blake, but unlike Tiffanie. She wants to act out shows and movies with her toys and says to me: You be Junior Asparagus, and I'll be Laura Carrot. Then she launches into lines from an episode of VeggieTales and I have no idea what lines come next (even if I've seen it lots of times.) This is frustrating to her. Blake can recite the lines back and forth with her. Sorry, kid!

At this point, I think her fine motor skills aren't quite as advanced as her cognitive skills. When I suggest she try to color in the lines, she tells me: "But I don't want to." She started learning to cut paper with scissors as well.

Emery can write her name pretty well, but the letters are usually pretty big and spaced out, and she often runs out of room (they go on the next line or other places on the page). She has started learning to write the lower case letters in her name, "e" and "r" are more obviously different than the upper case versions ("m" and "y" don't look a lot different). She can write other letters too. She wrote a card to her friend Mary Helen, and wrote MH's name plus "Love, Emery" on the inside.

This winter Emery has enjoyed several chances to sled in the snow, make snow angels, and throw snowballs. Also, a few weeks ago, Emery had her first dental check-up, and did very well.

Emery still loves stories and pretend play. We got her dress-up dresses for her birthday, and she loves wearing them, changing in to a different dress, and pretending to be (her version of) whoever that character is. For Christmas, Emery got a Candy Land game from Uncle Bryan and Aunt Sherry, and she has learned how to take turns and follow rules and wants to play over and over.

This fall, my folks bought us tickets to Disney on Ice and Emery loved seeing her favorite Disney characters and princesses skating and dancing and acting out their stories (most of which she's actually unaware of - she knows Rapunzel's name and face, but is unaware of her movie and story.) For Emery's birthday, we took her and her best friend, Mary Helen to Disney Live, a fairly similar show (without the ice) where they danced and acted out stories - this time with fun magic tricks (objects appearing from an empty box, making people disappear.) The girls had a blast.

We can't believe this big girl is already four. She's a delight. She's funny and sweet and a ton of fun! We're grateful for her!

Aunt Cindy crocheted her a mermaid tail!! She's over the moon excited!

Is it me, or does she look SO grown up in this picture?!

4th Birthday Party - 02.21.2016

For Emery's 4th birthday party, we decide to celebrate with her very best friend, Mary Helen. We invited Mary Helen over to play before we went to see Disney Live on stage at the Patriot Center. The girls had a ball. What a special day with a special friend!

sometimes intermission is way more fun that the actual show :)