yay for new cameras

we finally got our new camera! now we just need to learn the ins and outs of using it. i am hoping to learn how to use it in manual mode as well as automatic. here's a few of our first pics...

a few things

1. emma taylor has learned to go from lying down on her belly to sitting up all by herself

2. emma taylor has successfully pulled herself up on our coffee table and chairs after trying for about a month

3. for whatever reason, e.t. really likes the toilet and trys to get to it at any cost

4. if you close your eyes and make a scrunchy face at e.t. she will do it back to you

5. she also likes to stick out her tongue and wants you to also

6. apparently straws are the best and can make a great toy when out to eat

7. there has been a lack of posting and pictures this week due to laziness the fact that we got a camera and ordered a lense but it has yet to arrive in the mail

crawl as fast as you can

there are certain things that make emma taylor crawl as fast as she can. first is when she is headed down the hall and she sees me coming to get her. the second is when i get out the camera. she crawls as fast as she can towards me and these are the pictures i get...

cow

{ready for cow appreciation day!}

playdate

emma taylor asked her friend julia (and her mom) to come over to swim in her baby pool. they had lots of fun. julia had fun as long as emma taylor wasn't grabbing her face and endured emma taylor taking all her toys.

close ups

we are in the market for a new fancy camera to replace our old point and shoot. one of our friends  let us borrow one of theirs to try it out and we took full advantage of shooting the best subject we had. here's a few pics from the many that were taken.

baby pool

abby

just in case you were tired of only pictures of the baby...here's a picture of abby. i promise we still love her although her appearance on the blog is quite small now.

5/17/12

emma taylor's new little friend. he goes with her everywhere.

10 months

emma taylor is 10 months old...only 2 months from being a year! that just seems crazy to me. she still just scoots but can go pretty fast if there is something she really wants (like the dog or cat). she is starting to pull up on furniture but cannot seem to get one of her legs under her so she ends up just hanging there unsuccessful and fussy. i have had to put up the baby gate to block off the office because she no longer stays in her play area. she started eating finger foods well shortly after 9 months but has kind of reverted back by the end of this month. she would rather throw her food on the ground or feed the dog. she is learning the word "no" but has no regard for it when she really wants to do something. i think she is already testing us and i see quite a battle of wills coming in the future. she loves people and smiles at everyone!

 this has been the hardest "photo shoot" so far. she moved constantly and i am not sure i got even one smiling photo.

zoo

emma taylor seemed pretty entertained by the animals even though she is still pretty young. she would just laugh at some of the animals, and we took that as a sign that she really liked those specific animals. it proved kind of hard to get any pictures of emma taylor because she didn't want to turn away from them. i am looking forward to the zoo all year round!

mother's day

check out last year's mother's day. little emma taylor was still just growing, and now she isn't so little anymore. for mother's day this year glen (and emma taylor) got us a family membership to the zoo! glen knows i wanted it and decided this was the perfect opportunity to get it. so saturday afternoon we headed out to the zoo! on sunday i got to go to the mall and mill around all by myself. i got starbucks and relaxed. later that night glen made me dinner (grilled salmon, mashed potatos, & salad). i didn't help at all with dinner preparation. i got to sit on the couch and read instead. it was glorious. thanks glen for making my mother's day so awesome!

{the look on e.t.'s face proves she doesn't quite get the concept of mother's day}

room redo: dresser

we found a free dresser in our trash pile across the street! i decided to make it fun for our room redo but painting a pattern on it. my inspiration for the dresser came from the magic brush inc. and a step in the journey (both found via pinterest). i think it turned out great, but taping the pattern was a bit more complicated than i had originally thought.

so here's how i kept the pattern straight...i marked 3 lines. one in the dead center and then two more in the center of each half. then make 3 inch (or however steep you would like the rise to be) marks down each line plus the edges which makes 2 additional lines. then tape using the marks as a guide to each corner. one tip: use special painting tape ( i know they make some especially for this purpose) because this plain old tape bled. luckily it was not much so i just cleaned up a few edges after i removed the tape.

the next photo is what we had (in place of a dresser). back when we put in our hardwood floors our old dresser had slightly fell apart while we were moving it out of our room. it was given to us free so i had no qualms about getting rid of it. we weren't wanting to spend money on a nicer dresser because nothing in our room matched anyways. our solution was this cube storage. i figured that it would be a good option in the future to hold toys and whatnot in a common space. it now lives in our dining area and is just waiting to be filled with stuff!

the final product... i painted the picture frames that were previously on the dresser to match our window frame. wood frames just seemed to dull.

paint: knobs (valspar: dreamy caramel), chevron pattern (valspar: gravity), frames (clark & kensington: ruby red)

total price: less than $20 for paint and the dresser was free!

sunglasses

everyone who's anyone wears cool sunglasses.

matching

day trip to g-ville

emma taylor and i spent a day in greenville this week. i am so glad it is just a short drive which hopefully means emma taylor will get to see her cousins often. i am a bit jealous of their downtown complete with awesome park with fountains! plus they are within walking distance. emma taylor enjoyed playing with her cousins, riding in the stoller, and splashing in the fountains.