Baby Food

Emma has been eating baby food for a couple of months now.  Our first sign that she was ready to start on baby food was the saddest look on her face whenever we would eat.  I can only relate this face to "puppy eyes" when a puppy sits by you begging for food.  Since she is a human though I like to call them her "baby eyes"  =)  We started her off on the typical firsts, rice and then oatmeal cereals.  She quickly disregarded those and I could tell that she desired a diet full of more tastes.  We had been talking about whether to give her store bought baby food or make it homemade and ultimately decided to go with homemade.  I quickly bought a couple of cookbooks and off we were making baby food! 

Our first venture into homeade food was carrots (which to this day I think are her favorite veggie!). 

I have continued making all kinds of new things for her to try (sweet potato, apples, bananas, papaya, pears, potatoes, and butternut squash).  So far she seems to enjoy everything.  Her favorite thing to do while eating though (and pretty much anytime it is offered to her) is drink water!  I'm not really sure why this is so exciting but she loves it.  She would rather drink out of a regular cup or a water bottle then a sippy cup.  Lately when I give her water in a sippy cup she just kind of lets it dribble out of her mouth and then smiles at me like she is saying "this is fun".

 

Emma has also begun the "wonderful" stage of teething! I bought some teething cookies which she has grown very fond of and will throw quite a little tantrum (tears rolling down her cheeks, screaming, etc.) if you attempted to take it away or even touch it while she is eating it.  They also make a mess!  By the time that I can take her cookie, her entire face, hands, and clothes are covered in it. 

 

And now just a few more pictures of our little love bug!

 

 

Although it appears that Emma is very gentle with cats, she only is this way with Aunt Cat and Uncle Bryan's little rascals (she still continues to pull out our cats fur!)

 Cuddle time with Daddy =)

A New Hobby

Blogging has seemed to become quite popular and although I thought it was confusing and difficult, it really isn't! It seems like a great way to keep family and friends updated on our lives (well, mostly Emma's life!). So here it goes, I'll try it and hopefully be able to keep up with it.

Our lives changed on March 11 of this year. Emma Merry was born and we became a family of 3. Now I know that all parents say they are the luckiest parents of all but I really think that we take that prize. Just look at her...





Here are some pictures of Emma with her family...

Silly Uncle Josh

Aunt Destiny

Uncle Jake

The Honer Side

The Dicob Side

Now onto to our "adopted" family as we like to call them...The Furfaros. When we decided to move down here we knew that it was going to be challenging to be so far from our families. After Emma was born it became even harder to be away. Luckily, we have a family down here who loves Emma like crazy! They have included us like we were their family and we will forever be grateful to them for that. Emma loves her "adopted" family.

Crazy Uncle Dave who seems to introduce to Emma to all kinds of new things!
You really have to keep an eye on him =)

Aunt Dawn, Aunt, Cat, and Aunt Ange (these are the ones that spoil her like crazy!)

Summer 09

The Summer has flown by and just when I thought that things were going to calm down as Fall approaches, we are back at a crazy schedule! But before we get into that, here is a little recap of our first summer as a family of 3!! Get cozy because this might take awhile =)
We started with our first visits to Rochester and to Beaver River to introduce Emma to all of her extended family. Each time we visit we are reminded of how much our family means to us and how much we truly miss them. Its always hard to say goodbye but we have been visiting more often now that Emma is here. A few pictures of Emma with her Grandparents...

The Dicobs

The Burkes

TheFredricksons

After meeting all of her family, Emma needed to meet her Godparents, Uncle Bob and Aunt Kaitie...

My Mom and Tim came down for a visit in July with my adorable nephew Kyler and cousin Dillon who was visiting from Oregon. It was a beautiful weekend and we spent a lot of our time by the pool relaxing. The boys went fishing one morning while my mom and I played with the kids. It is so nice that Emma and her cousin will be able to grow up together.

At the end of July we drove down to Myrtle Beach with some of our closest friends. It was a VERY long drive but we had a great time. It was nice to get away and spend some time with people that we don't get to see nearly enough. Emma loves the water so we knew that she would have a blast. Here are just a few of the tons of pictures that we took...








In August we were back in Rochester. My Dad and Beth host a pool volleyball tournament every year and we haven't been able to make it in a couple of years so we came. Its always a great day that ends in playing poker (and usually losing our money!). Emma and I were able to stay that following week and visit with family and friends...

Great Grandpa and Grandma Burke

Great Grandma Marcia

My Mom and Grandma drove us back the next weekend. We had so much fun just hanging out and Daddy was pretty happy to have his little girl back!

This past weekend, Amos had a bachelor party weekend to go to for our friend Vin who is getting married in November. He (we!) have been planning a weekend for the guys for a while now. They had a great time paint balling and camping and who knows what else (I didn't ask). While he was gone, my Mom, Destiny, and Kyler came down to stay with Emma and I . We had such a good time. A girls weekend (plus the little man) of relaxing, chatting, shopping, and even a visit to the Bronx Zoo. The zoo was great. It is unbelievable that such a large zoo that is so spread out is located in such an urban setting. Of course, Emma liked the ducks (who I'm sure have voluntarily made the zoo their home) the best. She thought they were great. Kyler loved them too!! the kids did great for such a long day and by the time we got home, we were ALL exhausted. Here are a few pictures...



The Summer has gone too quickly (like it always seems to do). Watching Emma grow and learn each day is amazing. She has truly blessed our lives and there is not a day that goes by that we don't know how lucky we are to have a happy healthy beautiful baby girl.