President's Day at Nana's House

Molly had to work on President's Day, so Miss Emma spent the day with us. Here are some photos from our day together. She has a new picnic basket filled with play food. She is especially fond of the 4 potato chips!

Emma Coloring

This was the first time we gave Emma crayons. She worked a while marking on most of the pages. She then occupied herself for about 15 minutes taking them out of a plastic bag, putting them back in a plastic bag, taking them out of a plastic bag, putting them back in a plastic bag .............

Bobby, October 2008 Scrapbook Page

More Fun with Photoshop

This page was fun to do. I drew the frog and scanned it in, so I'm learning to incorporate my own drawings with my photographs. And yes, Molly does know that Emma chews on Sophie's dog toys.

Bobby, December 2008

Another Page for January

February Scrapbook Page

Emma stayed with Matty and me on Tuesday of this week. Emma had been sick the day before and Molly needed some help so she could meet some work obligations during her busy season. Emma wore us out! I took these pictures of her while she was strapped in to her highchair. You can really see how her hair is growing in this photo.

Too Busy to Blog...

Sorry, Emmy. I have been crazy busy with work since the new year started. A week in Denver and a week in Philly put me way behind on everything. I am headed to Denver again on Monday and returning on Friday. Since you have warned me that I can't come to stay after Bobby is born without a finished wallhanging -- this weekend is devoted to working on the stitching I need to complete.

Matty and I babysat for Emma all day on Tuesday. She wore us out. She is on the move every minute and testing boundaries constantly. We love her personality.

I really haven't done much in the way of projecting except working on more scrapbook pages for Emma. I bought some 8x8 scrapbooks for Bobby (don't worry all blue) and will start the same for him. Did you get your cameras?

Here are a couple of pages that I completed for Emma. I started at the present and worked backwards -- completing October 2007 this evening. I used an online tool to create part of the word collage on this scrapbook page. Check it out at this web site -- http://www.wordle.net/createhttp://www.wordle.net/create

I can't wait to meet Bobby, won't be long now. I'll book my flights this weekend.

I love Jim and Sarah's blog. Sarah is so talented and her sense of humor comes through in her video clips and postings. Dan and I are both big fans!

Sophie's Favorite Things

#1 - Snuggling with Daddy

#2 - Playing with squeaky toys #3 - Playing with squeaky toys in bed with Daddy

Babysitting Emma

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to spend the day with Emma. She has so much personality now. Here are some pictures from her visit on Saturday and other photographs of her "on the move" at our home in January. She is still enjoying the hand knit hats that I made her.

Emma Loves Cats!

Here is one of Emma's scrapbook pages I made for December showing one of the stuffed animal cats that we gave her. She loves them!

Christmas 2008

I have been so busy since Christmas that I am just now getting around to posting some of our Christmas pictures. Both Dan and I took the week before Christmas and the week after as vacation this year. Emily and Robert were home during the same time frame and we had a wonderful opportunity to visit and relax. Molly was supposed to be off work the majority of this same time window -- but, one of her largest clients had important due dates and she had to work some of the days.

Here is my favorite picture of Emily at Christmas. Her baby boy, Bobby, is due mid-March and she looks great!

We attempted to scale back this Christmas, as we all have so much. The babies, Emma and Bobby, were our primary focus. Here is a shot of Emma trying out the ride-on truck toy we bought for Bobby.

No one should worry about Emma. This year she was more into the opening of the presents and the wrapping paper and boxes than the presents! I wrapped all of Emma's presents in pink and Bobby's in blue this year to make it easy to pass them out. Her is Emma with some of her presents. One of Bobby's presents was his very first hand knit "Nana" designed hat. I can't wait to see him in it.
I treated myself to an upgrade of my Photoshop software and started printing out a scrapbook for Emma. My hopes are to create at least one page per month for all of my grandchildren. Here some of the October 2008 pages:

Emma Shopping

Emily gave Emma a shopping cart for her 1st birthday. It is one of her favorite toys. Now that she is walking, she can really move and "shop it up." Check out her style in this video clip.

Santa's Tiny Helper

Here is Emma in her little "Grinch" hat that I made for her. As you can see in the picture, she wasn't very happy. I wanted to get a picture of her in the hat in front of our tree. As soon as I put the hat on, she started fussing for her "Moobee" -- her word for movie. I guess she related putting on her hat to leaving for the ride home and watching her movies from her car seat. She is definitely a smart baby!

Christmas Tree

I spent most of the day today and part of yesterday decorating our Christmas tree. It took 2 different ladders and hundreds and hundreds of ornaments to finish this look. Check it out in these photos. I ran out of energy before I got the mantle and wreaths up. I'll have to finish these projects during the week.

Christmas Photo Shoot

Molly, Bjarne and Emma came over for dinner this evening. Molly brought Emma's Christmas dress so we could take some photos in front of our tree for their Christmas cards. We got some good ones -- surprising, cause she was on the move the entire time.

Emma Walking

Here is a video clip Molly took yesterday of Emma walking to Matt. She is holding tight to a stuffed animal kitty that I bought her yesterday. Emma loves Matt! She also loves our cat, Sammie. Every time she comes to our home, she looks for both the dog and cat. Molly and I took her shopping yesterday for her first pair of MaryJanes to wear with her Christmas dress. There is a toy store right next to the shoe store. Emma latched on to the cat and wouldn't give it up long enough for the clerk to scan it. We had to have them scan another. She spent the ride home giving the cat kisses and saying "meow."
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New Camcorder

Dan bought me a new Canon HF100 camcorder for Christmas. He gave it to me early so I can start recording Emma's first steps. I haven't quite figured out all the feature/functionality yet -- but, I took my first video this morning and was able to upload it to my laptop. I can't wait to get Emma walking. She progressed from 2-4 steps to walking across a room in just a week! Here is the wakeup call I gave to Dan and Sophie this morning....

Emma took her first unattended steps this week!

Emma took her first steps on her own on Thursday. She was so pleased with herself. Molly, Bjarne, and Emma stopped by after dinner last night for a quick visit. She showed us her new found skills. She is also blowing kisses now too, how cute! When she saw me last night, she got a big smile and crawled as fast as she could to me -- melted my heart! She knows my name, Nana, and calls Matt by name too (Maaa, no "t" on the end yet).

Completed design.... Bobby's Quilted Wallhanging

I still need to stitch around all the appliques, add sashing, quilt and bind -- but all the designing and placement is done.