She's Smilin' Now

This is Ally's first smile caught on camera. She is really starting to show her personality a little more each day. If she would wake up more often then we would probably see a lot more smiles. She is such a happy baby when she is awake. I hope to work at getting a few more to put on. She doesn't really have her eyes open that wide here. She is beautiful when she smiles though. Her favorite place to smile is on the changing table of all places. That is where she seems to be her happiest. Go figure!

Like mother like daughter

Yesterday Mike and I were busy in our own projects during Ally's naptime and Emily's quiet time. And yes, this is another story about when my daughter was SUPPOSED to be having quiet time. Anyway, one of my mom's favorite stories about me was when I was about 2 years old and she put me down for a nap. When she came to check on me a while later I had taken a glass of water, wet the walls and furniture and then proceeded to plaster baby powder over the water. Unfortunately by the time she realized what I was doing it had all dried. Well, yesterday Emily did pretty much the same thing. She found powder and put it all over our bed and headboard. She was covered and so was pretty much everything else. Thankfully she didn't find any water but just powder. Still a huge mess to clean up though. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! I would have gotten pictures but at the time I didn't find it funny at all. It wasn't until later when I realized that I had done the same thing when I was her age that I was able to laugh.

Update on girls...

Below are new pictures of the girls. The one with Emily in a skirt was her going to a friends birthday party. It was her first party without mommy or daddy. She was very excited. She kept telling us that she was going to the party and mommy and daddy were going to stay here. She had a blast and I was told did very well. But the mom scraped off the blue frosting from her cupcake so she wouldn't get it on her cute clothes and I heard about it all night. I don't know why she bothered, Em had pizza all over her shirt from the dinner she served!
The other is of Em feeding Ally, something I try to do as it allows her to be involved and feel special. And the others are of our growing little one. She is wearing an outfit that was a favorite of mine when Em was her age, actually a tad bit older, Em was smaller. Ally is doing well though. Still very easy going except in her car seat. She isn't too thrilled with that. But her cry is cute and we don't get to hear it very often. She is really starting to smile more and get a personality.

Pictures of our girls....

And Daddy's working at home....

As most of you read below, Mike is now self employed and that means he is working at home a lot. Yesterday a client called while Em was having "quiet time",(yeah right), in our room. As Mike was talking on the phone a little girl got on the line and was asking him if he was going to come watch a movie with her. Believing it was the clients little girl, he didn't want to offend her so he kept up a lengthy conversation with the little girl, telling her he was really busy right now and couldn't come to her house. Finally she stopped talking long enough for Mike to ask his client if that was her little girl. To his surprise, she said no. It turns out Emily had grabbed our other phone and was talking his ear off and he didn't even know it was his own daughter! He was so embarrassed. He had talked to her for a good 3 minutes. I was folding laundry on the couch at the time he figured out it was Em so I jumped up and made a bee line for my room and sure enough, there was Em, sitting on our bed happily talking to daddy and his client on the phone. I was laughing so hard I couldn't do anything but take the phone and hang it up very quickly. I think we all have to get used to a business being in our home for a while!

New Day and Congratulations to Everyone!

This morning marks a new transition in the lives of Jamie and I. Most of heard, but today marks the 1st day in the start of my goal I made a few years ago to be self employed. I am working today as an insurance agent and now own my own business! So, I'm under a new name, of Farmers Insurance.

I'm really happy in getting a chance to do what I'm doing. Looking at my life and the transition reminds me of the transitions that everyone else has...

* Mom and Dad are purchasing a house
* Tricia and Brian are having another baby
* Jeremy and Amy are getting married

You could see the excitement in my eyes about what I'm doing but the juices flow through my body when I get a chance to think about everyone else. I'm so happy for everyone and it is so cool in getting to see everyone so thrilled in life when I hear the exciting stories of the development leading up to the closure of each event.

But there is one thing I've learned through my life, we are in it together in the good and bad times. This is one of those times where a lot of scary but exciting things are happening with everyone. So as I reflect on today... congratulations to everyone and I'm so incredibly happy for everyone. All for one... and one for all!!!