Here is our Lazy Sunday Morning as the Barrs’ Girls!

  

We decided to take advantage of a Saturday with nothing on the calendar.  We got up and headed to the zoo.  We were there at 9:45.  It was perfect.  It was a very overcast, cloudy, HUMID day.  So not many people were at the zoo. 
We went to daddy’s favorite spots first, elephants, bears, lions, etc.  Everything that was BIG Emma didn’t like it.  She was very scared and clingy at those points.  After a while, we headed over to the reptiles.  Emma LOVED the snakes.  She was hesitant at first, but then warmed up to them.  Travis and Emma didn’t want to leave the “Snake Pit”. 
I finally talked them into leaving and heading over to the Children’s Zoo.  I was actually kinda disappointed in it.  Emma didn’t care for it either. 
We then tootled around the zoo a bit more and then left.  At this point it was getting pretty crowded, so we knew it was time to go.  We had a great trip to the zoo.  To see more pictures of our zoo trip, click on Emma’s Photos, Zoo Trip.

 

For Emma’s party I want to have cupcakes.  I wanted to do a test run to see how much of a pain it would be to make dozens of cupcakes and decorate them.  Em and I went to the store.  She picked out strawberry cake and strawberry icing.  We came home and started cooking.  She was a great help.  I think her favorite part was breaking the eggs.

 
Placing the wrappers in the pan.

 
Mixing the batter.  Before the taste test!

 
Emma and Halie waiting for the cupcakes.

The final product.  Shelby and I decorated.  These are our favorite three.

We had a great Easter in the Barrs family.  I made blueberry muffins for the family.  Emma decided to be a good girl and sleep in until 8:30.  I went and woke her up, put her in our bed with a blueberry muffin and juice.  While she ate and watched TV, I curled her hair and got it ready for church.  Afterwards, I put her pretty new dress on her.  She was so cute.
After church we headed home to see what the Easter bunny brought.  He was so nice, he brought Emma, Darby and Daddy something.  They all enjoyed looking through their baskets of goodies.  Once we were finished with the baskets, we headed to the backyard for an easter egg hunt.  It was so much fun watching Emma get the eggs.  She would pick one up, open it, place it in her basket and then go to the next one.

Once we finished our Easter we headed over the Grandmother and Papa’s to have Easter with the family.  Morgan, Logan and Emma had their own Easter baskets and an egg hunt.  The egg hunt was color coded.  It is a good thing they all know their colors.  Emma did the same thing, hunt, open, place it in her basket.  It was so much fun.

It was a very long, but fun day.  I think Easter has become one of my favorite holidays!

**To see pictures, go to Emma’s Photos, Easter 2008.  There are also new pictures from Spring Break, 2nd Birthday, and Easter.  Enjoy!**

This past week was spring break!  Em and I were able to spend 9 straight days together.  I had forgotten how exhausting it was to take care of a toddler.  THANK YOU CANDACE for doing it everyday!  I have an awesome Mother in law!  I don’t know how she does it.

This week was pretty laid back.  We started the week with the construction of Emma’s new swing set/playscape.  She got this for her birthday from the Barrs, Neeny and her parents.  We knew she would love it.  Travis and Poppy spent all day Sunday building it.  It was well worth the time.  Each morning Em work up saying “Swing Time”, “Slide Time”.  I even tried telling her it was raining one day.  She looked out the window and said, “No rain, Swing time!”.  I was caught.  At least, Em can climb the ladder by herself.
After a day of playing on the swingset, we spend Monday afternoon and all day Wednesday at the Barrs.  Uncle Bruce, Aunt Vicki, Christina, Travis, Ryan and Randy came in for a visit.  Emma was so funny.  She loved playing with the “Boys”.  She and Randy followed each other around for awhile.  She also let Uncle Bruce and Aunt Vicki soothe her when she was upset.  It was a lot of fun watching Em interact with family she rarely sees.
On Tuesday, we had a playdate with Jenn, Reagan, Jen, Baby Pesek, Em and myself.  Reagan and Em played well together.  They were quite funny to watch.  I don’t get to see Emma interact with children her age very often, so it was fun.  Reagan and Em also enjoyed playing on the new swingset before the rain came.
Thursday and Friday, Emma and I ventured up to Lake Livingston for a couple of days away from the house.  Em had so much fun watching Darby and Cheney swim.  She also liked sitting down by the water and climbing the deck. I was exhausted after watching her.
We had a great break together.  We really enjoyed the Mommy-Daughter time together!

   

This year Emma got a TON of things that she LOVES from the Barrs and Nanny (Poppy, Neena, and Neenny).  Emma received her Easter Bunny gifts on Palm Sunday.  After church we headed to one of Emma’s favorite places to eat; Panera Bread.  Em and Neena are known here.  Everyone knows how much Emma loves her blue Yogee.  She even got an extra yogurt for free!!!
After eating, we were planning on going back to church for the Easter Egg hunt.  Unfortunately, Emma had other plans.  She decided that a tantrum and a nap were more important than hunting for some colored plastic eggs.  So Em went down for her nap. 
Once she woke up, she found her wonderful goodies from the Barrs’ Easter Bunny!  CHOCOLATE (We found out that Emma LOVES chocolate!), a fish swimsuit, a fish towel, flip-flops, sunglasses, a Dora Easter Book, a dolphin bag(Em calls it her purse.), money, and doodle markers.  From Neeny, she got a Emma size rabbit.  She got a lamb last year that she keeps at the Barrs’, so she has been carrying this one around calling it lamb.  We try telling her it is a rabbit, but she insists it is a lamb. 
Em LOVES everything she got.  THANKS POPPY, NEENA, and NEENY!

  

Em and Darby LOVE each other so much.  They do have their tiffs like all sisters, but they truely love one another!  Darby is a great big sister.

 

 

 

Today Emma turned 23 months old.  She is such a little bundle of energy.  She is constantly talking and moving around.  We are amazed at her vocabulary.  Yesterday she was eating an apple.  She turned to Travis and said, “Dada….want it?”.  I had never heard her say want it?  She is also at the fun stage where she repeats everything you say.  This is a fun, but scary thing.  We really have to watch our mouths because she will repeat everything. 
Emma lives life to the max everyday.  She is curious about anything and everything.  She loves to play with her babies.  Haley is one of her favorites.  She will push Haley around the house in the baby stroller or the shopping cart.  She also feeds her, changes her diaper, and rocks her.  Everything we do with Emma. 
She has become such a big girl.  Emma is such a blast right now, but i can’t believe how much she has done over the past 23 months.  It seemed like yesterday that she was born, crawling, eating solids, walking, etc.  Now she is a big girl that acts just like us.  It is so amazing.  I have a new outlook on life watching how amazing life truely is.

Emma’s Stats:
Weight – 25 3/4 pounds
Teeth – All but her two year molars
Clothes Size – 3T tops, 18-24 month pants
Shoes – 5 1/2
Hair – A TON of beautiful light brown hair
Eyes – Hazel

Tonight we decided to bite the bullet and mail the paci’s to the babies that didn’t have any.  I wrapped a box and Emma placed all of the paci’s in the box.  Of course, she had to have one last suck on every single one.  I then addressed the box.  Once daddy got home, we drove down to the mailbox and Emma placed them in the box and locked it.  This way she was responsible for the mailing of the paci’s. 
She just went to bed, so we will see how it is.  She cried (more like whining) for about 4 minutes, then started reading, now is whining again.  We will see how the night goes.  I’ll keep you posted!

 

This is Emma’s attempt to get her guns up.  This is for all of the Barrs and for Aunt Shelby!