Everything Eltz!

I'm sure all of you have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for Emmy's ONE year blog post! (JK....but here we are!) I cannot believe one year has already passed since our beautiful girl came into the world. All this week I have been thinking back to our first days together as a little family, it is bizarre to see how much she has grown and how far we have come as a family in the past 365 days. I can literally picture the moment they placed her in my arms, it feels like yesterday! We were so scared that we were going to do everything wrong in the beginning but we have survived our first year of parenthood and have loved watching Emmy turn into the sweet, charismatic, independent, cheerful, and adventurous one year old that she is today!

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Twelve Months

Not only is this her one year blog post but I also have to fill you in on what this past month has been like for sweet Emmy. She has grown up quite a bit this month!

She has started saying thank you and signing for "more." She is learning how to share at daycare and it warms my heart when I see her give one of her friends a toy that she was playing with. :)

Her vocabulary has gotten expansive this month! (Not really...but when the month before she was only saying Dada, quadrupling her number of words is a big deal! She now says ball, bath, bottle, bye bye, and dog. It is so cute. Whenever she is sitting in her high chair and hears Tucker bark outside she perks up and says "DOG!"

We FINALLY got rid of her little baby bath tub so she could sit up in the tub by herself. She loves it. She often times gets upset with me when it is time for her to get out...

Nathan was so sweet to put up a baby swing on our back porch. She really enjoys sitting out there with him while he grills or plays with Tucker.

She is blowing kisses! The best she can--it is pretty adorable.

She loves her friends at daycare. I love watching them interact with each other!

And last but not least...she took her first steps at daycare! And has never done it again. She gets SO close when I try to hold something out for her to walk towards, and then she sits down and crawls to get it. She is being a little stubborn--which is perfectly Emerson! She will get there in no time I'm sure.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this month:

Today Nathan and I both took off work to celebrate with our girl. It was so nice to have a full day to spend with our little family! Emerson slept until 9:45! We sang happy birthday to her when we came into her room, she seemed a little confused at first--wasn't really sure what all the hype was about!

We got her ready to go and then headed to have breakfast in Denton. We found a new little restaurant that has amazing pancakes! Emerson loves them so much that she stuck her entire hand into Nathan's as soon as they were delivered to the table. She's a mess!

With full tummies we made the trek to the Ft. Worth zoo! I guess it was a blessing that it's a pretty far drive because Emerson was able to take a little cat nap on the way there. She had an awesome time at the zoo! We saw all sorts of animals. Every animal is a dog according to her...which is hilarious and very cute. :) If only it had been just a little cooler. The heat still wipes her out.! We headed back to the car and as soon as we were loading up thunder started rumbling and it began to sprinkle. We, for once, had pretty nice timing!

She took another nap on the way home and then we got ready for her family birthday party. I'm glad they were able to spend time with her on her actual birthday. We had dinner, birthday cake, and she opened a few presents. She's a hoot! When we want her to actually rip into paper she sits there and stares at us like we're crazy. Finally, after a few minutes of watching us, she got the hang of it.

It was an AWESOME day. I can't believe our baby girl is a year old already.

Emerson, you mean more to us than you will EVER know. This past year has been the craziest and most amazing year of our lives. We are blessed to be your parents! Happy birthday sweet girl!

Emerson is 11 months old today! This will not be my most eloquent blog post over but that's because I'm writing it on my lunch break...which I have exactly nine minutes left of. We have had a great month and CAN'T believe that she will be ONE in a few short weeks!

This month Emerson:

Started standing up by herself! It happened the first time I picked her up from her new daycare. I think she saw the other little boys and decided she wanted to try too!

Says "Mama" and "Dada" The best is when she says it when she sees you first thing in the morning. :)

I started back to school and Emerson started at a new daycare closer to my work. We miss Nonnie but are grateful that Mrs. Marti is working out. It's nice to be able to take her with me on my drive to work. I just like having her there to jibber jabber back and forth with!