Talented Musician LeAnne Robinson

Hey everyone!  I recently just discovered an amazing singer/artist, my good friend, Lorilee's sister--LeAnne Robinson.  I just listened to all her songs on soundcloud and can't get enough.  She's pretty awesome.  I guarantee you'll love her, too.  Check out LeAnne on YouTube as well.

Project Life: Week of September 2-8

Our family was really lucky to visit our nation's capitol this past week, for virtually free.  We stayed with an old friend and cashed in on some free flyer miles.  (I actually packed our suitcases with food from home so we had to do minimal grocery shopping there.  Everyday, we ate our breakfast and dinner at home and we packed our lunches.)  Our friend was so nice to let us borrow a car to drive around, and didn't even let us pay for the gas.  We are so blessed!

We still can't believe we actually went to DC.  These past couple of years have been somewhat difficult for our little family, so this was a much needed family vacation, just the three of us--no births, no deaths, no marriages, no holidays--just for fun!   It was jam-packed with picture postcard monuments and landmarks, but sadly, we couldn't get to everything we wanted to see.  However, it was still a trip to remember!  (Joel and I were especially grateful to visit DC because we really like to be involved in politics, so it was nice to be nostalgic with the upcoming presidential election.)

Some random thoughts:
1. Traveling in DC with a toddler can be a real challenge, but she was a real trooper!
2. Joel and I got lost several times, even with GPS, ha ha.
3. We walked a lot...and chased Emmy a lot.
4. We left the house anywhere from 7-9am and got home everyday at around 4-5pm, and we still felt like we did so much.
5. Park and rides fill up by 8am.  General parking in DC was actually okay, thanks to a new system that you can feed your meter by cellphone.  Loved it.
6. Emma didn't want to eat or sleep the entire trip, except for the first day, she slept a lot.  She also inhaled the dumplings from Chinatown.
7. Thank goodness for "touch-and-feel" museums.  They saved us with Emmy's shorter attention span.
8. Rita's mango misty sure hit the spot on a hot day.
9. We also saw the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and a few other monuments, but forgot to take pictures!
10. We are glad to be home and are sure tuckered out!  Emmy and I also had to recover from the flu.  :(

So, here are a lot of pictures.  Enjoy!

Project Life: Week of August 26-September 1

Pool Time Last Friday

I forgot to post this on Friday.  After work, Joel, Emma and I went to the pool to relax and kick off the weekend.  We love doing this after Joel gets off work.  The water is still warm and we can enjoy some lovely family togetherness.

Oh, yeah...Did I mention we're raising a little criminal?  She's really into stealing license plates right now.

Project Life: Week of August 19-25

This past week was awesome.  We had some fun times.   Here are some highlights.

Emma started Kindermusik classes where they teach singing, dancing, instruments, and lots more.  Emma is the youngest one there, acted shy at first, but then was into everything (and everyone), of course.  She always seems to be marching to her own tune.  When other kids were playing with instruments, she wanted to dance, and when they were dancing with scarves, she's out with the instruments.  I realized she likes to be unique.

We made a play kitchen out of Emma's old carseat box.  Check out our previous post on that.  She loves it!

Emma receives speech therapy weekly and we have been meaning to get a picture of our therapist, Dawn.  She really cares about Emma and her growth.  Since Emma's started therapy, she's started to say all sorts of things, probably 10-20 words or so.  She also receives occupational therapy (feeding therapy) and will be evaluated by a physical therapist soon (for her tippy toe walking).  I will try and document that in a future post.

Also, we went to Hannah Park for the first time.  Playgroup members planned on going to the water park, but the water was not on, so we went to the beach.  Lots of seagulls were out.  Emma has gotten used to going to the beach and loves playing in the water and sand.  She occasionally still eats the sand.  Hopefully, she'll grow out of it.

Anyways, enjoy!

Emma's Play Kitchen

Awhile ago, Emma graduated from a rear-facing carseat to a forward-facing one.  Lucky for us, the box the carseat came in was full of unearthed possibilities.  It took us a while to decide what we wanted to make out of it, but we finally decided on a play kitchen.

Emma loves her new play kitchen!  She has already gotten hours of joy out of this simple old box.  I'm glad she's having so much fun and learning, too.  (Check out this short video of her playing.)

Project Life: Week of August 12-18

I have recently wanted to do better at two things: journaling and digital scrapbooking.  I feel like our lives are the same, and yet they are changing in so many ways, if that makes any sense.  While I feel like my life is the same routine every week, months go by and I am a new person, and so is Emma and Joel.  I would love to look back and see how we've grown, as individuals and as a family.  So, this the first week of what I'm calling "Project Life", or in other words, a weekly documentation of our family.

Chick-fil-A, Potty, and Porch Fun

This August has flown by.  It has been a hot month so far.  In the last couple of weeks, we've gone to the beach, playgrounds, library, and more (despite a stint of Emma being sick before)!  Emma and I have a lot of time together, but it's really fun when we get to hang out with dad after work and on the weekends.  Emma is totally in love with dad (and mom) and loves to be in on the action (anything we're doing).  At the beginning of the month, we supported Chick-fil-A for the owner's stance on traditional marriage.  (Not only that, but they serve some tasty chicken, which those who know me know it's one of my favorite foods.)  We've posted a picture of her "driving" while we waited in line.  (Don't worry, the car wasn't even moving.)

Another thing Emma has been working really hard at is using the potty.  This month it kind of just happened.  I noticed each time when Emma needed to go #2, she would come to me and either whine or tug on my pant leg.  At first, I thought she was being toddler-difficult, but then I realized that she was really letting me know she needed to use the potty!  Well, I'm pretty dense as a first-time mom, but we're learning and it has been so fun taking part in this process with Emma.  She has always been such a happy-natured kid, and this has been no exception.  Every time she goes, she claps for herself because we celebrate her using the potty.  Right now, she has been going on the big potty while I help hold her up, but eventually, we may have to get a smaller one or a step stool so she can go on her own.  We'll see how it goes, but 2 weeks of no poopy diapers has been great!

In the summer we love to BBQ and grill on our porch.  We have sort of rediscovered the "lazy days of summer" on the porch, if you will.  When Emma was a baby, I used to take her out on the porch and sing and talk with her.  We are doing that again because it has been so hot outside, we can't go on many walks during the day without sweating buckets.  This has been a great reprieve from the rays of the sun, and Emma enjoys playing with our (camping) gear we store outside (lighter, camping grill, chairs, cooler, and floaties and boxes).

Here's to many more sunny (shaded) summer days!  We love Florida.

Good 'Ole Southern Crab Boil

Joel and I have an affinity for seafood, especially shrimp, and as of late, crabs.  Our friend, John, was moving over the weekend to Gainesville (go gators!) to attend med school and we thought we'd have ourselves a good 'ole fashion crab boil to see him off.  We weren't sure how John would react to our said plans.  I mean, processing crabs isn't for the faint of heart, but he took it like a trooper.  (I guess, all of those practice dissections of the crayfish paid off for him.)  It was a blast!  First time for John and Joel to do it.  (Joel was a little scared of those crabbies...check out a video of it here.) Sad to see our friend go (and sad we didn't get a picture of him either).  We'll miss ya, John! 

Bon Appetit!

Back at Blogging After 3 1/2 Years

Lately, I have been feeling like I need a more comprehensive medium to post all the wonderful things that have been happening in our family.  I enjoy Facebook, but I don't feel like it is very chrono-friendly.  I want a way to be able to search and record and share all types of media, too, including videos.  My friend, Traci, told me that she likes to turn her blog into a book and print it every year.  I think that is a wonderful journaling idea.  (She was the main person who got me thinking about blogging again, and she challenged me to start mine up again a month or so ago.)  We started this blog nearly 3 1/2 years ago when Facebook was not that popular, but when it did become more popular, I dropped the blog so I didn't have to go between the two.  Now that there are all sorts of gadgets and widgets to connect Facebook, Pinterest, blogging, etc. I don't think that should be a problem.  I also like the freedom to display information in a unique and personal way.  My heart still lies in designing, so this really speaks to me.  I want to become better at photography and digital scrapbooking, and my hopes to record this learning process through a blog will be awesome.  I also want to be able to experiment with cooking and share recipes with family members and friends.  Every now and again, I get asked for recipes and since I keep everything on my computer, it is difficult to share them since I don't have physical recipe cards.  I mean, where do I post them? Facebook? Pinterest?  Do I email them? Cataloging them online would not only make them much more accessible, but easily searchable from anywhere.  I like this promise of organizing everything and recording our lives better.  I like the idea of being able to access and update from my iPhone.  So, after throwing around ideas in my mind and thinking if I should change platforms, I decided to stick with Blogger.  It has, after all, improved in the last 3 1/2 years.

So, here we are, the new and improved Christophers (since we have Emma now), back at blogging.  Yeah!  Can't wait...

Projects I want to use this blog for (but not limited to): 

1) Monthly Family Portraits

2) "Week In the Life" Digi Scrapbook Posts (this will be hard to keep up, but I'll try it)

3) Candid Photojournalism

4) Capturing Emma's Firsts

5) Recipes

6) Communicating with Family