"Toey"

Grandma Joy and Aunt Tory came to visit last week, and they left today to go back home. We had a good visit, filled with lots of Emma and new things to explore. Since we have moved, Emma has been pretty much stuck with me and Steven, so anytime someone comes to visit, we are automatically chopped liver. The first couple days Emma spent lots of time with Grandma, and wanted Grandma to hold her and read her books. Then she switched, and decided that she liked Aunt Tory, or "Toey" as Emma says. Last night as I put her to bed, she just kept saying, "Toey. Toey. Toey." I think Emma may have found a new best friend. :) And Tory was very good with her, chasing her around, reading her books, playing hide-and-seek. What else could a girl want?

"I like Aunt Toey."

Emma and Grandma Joy

Playing night-night, with the doll Emma apparently named "Grace."

Reading a High-lights book.

New house: with stuff, and Emma

Sorry for not uploading these sooner. But here are a couple of pictures of our house with our stuff in it, just the downstairs. Emma is asleep now so I can't take any in there, and our room is not finished yet. And I included some of Emma, too. :) She was so cute today: She sometimes goes potty by herself, (not actually, just pretends) and knows enough to put her diaper in the trash can and sit on the potty. But today she also put her skirt and one shoe in the trash can. She walked out with only a shirt and one shoe on. Then later, I heard her get frustrated, and as she has been taught, she went all by herself to go sit on the step to calm down. But when she noticed I was watching, she decided to stand on her head. Also, she read to herself to night...a lot, out loud...and apparently the Dr. Suess book she was reading was hilarious, because she couldn't stop laughing at it. She was just plain old adorable this afternoon. I love those times. :)

Living room from front door

Living room from stairs

Emma loves playing with her blocks Grampy Loha! And she is fabulous at cleaning them up, too!

She looks too old here, with her backpack on...she is not even 2!

Covered up in lots of blankets, playing nite nite while Mom cleans her room.

Dining room, yay!

Office space, yay!

New house: Empty

We have had a busy week. We got our stuff one week ago today, and have been unpacking and getting settled while Steven's parents came for a visit. Oh, and getting faster internet! The pictures I am posting today are from before we got our stuff...I will post finished ones later, after I clean up. :) There are a LOT of pictures. Before we got our stuff, we thought the house looked nice, but wondered how our stuff would fit. Once our stuff got in we felt like the house seemed bigger because our stuff actually fit and it wasn't too crowded. It is nice to have so much space. 

Emma holding a (new) plunger while watching Toy Story in the hotel.

Living room taken from front door.

Living room taken from opposite corner. 

Entering from the front door, stairs on right, kitchen on left, dining room at back.

Kitchen.

Dining room.

Dining room/office area.

Laundry room taken from hallway.

Laundry room taken from opposite corner.

Back patio

View from back patio

Master bedroom as you enter.

Master from opposite corner.

View from master bedroom.

Emma keeping busy while we chill out in an empty house.

Pepper scoping things out.

Sunset from master.

Emma taking a Sunday afternoon nap in Grandma's lap.

Trying to cook in this kitchen will be interesting.

Keeping cool in her pool.

Relaxing after a busy day.

Daddy's garage.

One of those days

Well we finally get out of this hotel room tomorrow morning! Today was a rough day...Emma was pretty fussy all day for some reason...until we had Boston Market for dinner that is. We found one on our GPS and we may have had it two days Ina row. It was delicious and besides the marshmallows she stole off of my sweet potato casserole, it was much healthier than what she ate for lunch: Doritos dipped in sour cream. (I had tried to feed her taco salad.) She had two naps and didn't want to eat anything I offered her...I think she is as tired as we are (and Pepper) of being in this hotel room. Anyway, I do have some pictures of her, you know, playing with the plungers we bought for the new house, but I will have to wait to upload them until we get Internet Thursday afternoon. I will also hopefully have pictures of our house! Until then we will be offline. 

Daddy's work

Today housing hosted a Fire Prevention thing in the park for kids to come see the fire trucks and stuff. Steven 'volunteered' to help with it, so we tagged a long to see Daddy work. Since Steven worked at the school in TX, Emma never really saw a fire station or a fire truck up close. We told her Daddy drove a fire truck, but apparently she didn't understand. When we got to the station, she liked it until we got into the stalls...where all the trucks are. She refused to walk around by herself and hung on to me for dear life. He tried to put her in a truck, but she did NOT like it. The actual thing at the park was fun, although Emma mostly ate the snacks the housing lady brought and watched everything from the safety of my lap. Everything fire related is scary to Emma, including Daddy with his gear on.

Sparky was scary, too

Daddy in his gear

Helping a little boy put on his gear

Emma's face when we walked near a fire truck.

Daddy helping a little boy spray water

Pepper was 'the fire dog' and got lots of attention, everyone loved on her. :)

Playing with chalk

I bought Emma some sidewalk chalk, thinking it would be a good activity to kill some time outside while we are still here. Silly me, I forgot that sidewalk chalk and a toddler really don't mix. If she doesn't try to eat it, she sits right in the middle of my drawings getting chalk all over her clothes...also while holding it all and getting it on her shirt. She really did very little drawing. She also tried to throw the chalk in the bushes. Oh well. Maybe next year.

I also got her a kitty notebook to draw in, so she doesn't draw in my notebook.

"Talking" to Daddy on the phone while he is at work

Holding the chalk

Actually drawing

Sitting in the middle of my drawing

Running around with it

This is what the basketball court is made of

I may have set her up so I could watch the US Men's Soccer game.

One more week

We only have one week left in this room!!! I realized last night that Steven works next Wednesday and Thursday...the day we get the keys AND the day we get our stuff and have to move out of the hotel  room. So we changed our plans a little bit. We are going to pack up the car Tuesday night, all check out Wednesday morning and take Steven to work. At 9:30 Emma and I will go to our new house and get the keys, unpack, and get some food. We will stay there that night, and the next morning the movers will deliver our things. We will pick Steven up from work Friday morning and start unpacking like crazy. Also, Emma and I are going to take him to work this weekend, so this (right now) is the LAST shift we will be in the hotel room stuck with no car! YAY! If only you knew how excited I was when I realized that. :)
Anyway, until then, we are keeping busy, finding new things to do. And for those keeping track, we found Emma's dolly and she (Emma) didn't get up until 7:40 this morning. 

Taking Daddy's lacrosse balls out to play.

Trying on Daddy's hat.

A new game: hanging monkey on the fridge