Baptism and a Birthday

Our little angel was baptised on her Daddy's birthday with a lot of family and close friends to cheer her on. I felt like I needed to pull out the old wedding picture schedule afterward to organize all the pics. =)

Team Emmy

To make it even more special Emmy wore my and Laura's baptism gown, a necklace from her GiGi, a bib from Nana (her Great-Grandmother) and was wrapped in a blanket that MeMaw (her Great-Great-Grandmother) made. Four generations of women were watching over her. =) She was so good during the ceremony and even just took a nap during the rest of church. No crying at all!

The Vacek's

Emmy's Godparents Betsy and Collin

We followed the ceremony with a birthday/baptism party at Lupe's with more fajitas and enchiladas than anyone wants to ever eat. Blake and I have about three pounds of each left, so if anyone wants leftover Mexican, head on over! Emmy was SO worn out from all the partying that she came home and immediately took a three hour nap. This is officially the longest nap she's ever taken. Mom and dad took a nice one too...Blake IS getting pretty old. He needs his sleep =)

And now, the pics...

The Vacek's/Brewer's

The Sansom's

The East's

The Graesser's

Blake, dressed to match his birthday cake...

There were kids everywhere! Benjamin, Emmy, Caroline, Abby, Hannah, Ellie, and Brandon

We HAVE to take these for the wedding slideshow =)

Not bad for five kids ;)

Posing with RaRa and GiGi

We are so blessed to have so many people love our little girl and support her as she grows into a strong woman of faith. Thanks to everyone who came!

The Most Memorable Birthday Ever!

As many of you know, this Sunday is my birthday. Well Friday night Kristen, Emmy, Sean, Laura, Kathy, Tim and I go to The Cheescake Factory to partake in a birthday celebration (by the way, Friday was day one of my birthday week Kris, remember that...). Emmy loves (heavy sarcasm) going to restaurants and watching her parents eat. She adores it so much that we try to avoid doing it with her at all costs right now. But, this was special, and so we took a chance.

Emmy gets passed around the table allowing each of us time to enjoy some food. She requires regular standing and swaying sessions (Diva). I always feel particularly bad to hand over my kid to someone else and ask that they take care of her while I eat, but the fam likes doing it I think...or at least thats what they tell us. That's what grandparents are for I guess. Anyways, on Kathy's second turn, Kristen had left to go to the restroom. Suddenly, Kathy turns to me and says "I think I should grab the diaper bag and head to find Kristen." Me, being used to false alarms (Emmy is re-learning how to poop...switching to formula) say "No rush, probably a false alarm...she is an expert in the gas department." But, Kathy insists, so I grab the bag and give it to her.

She leaves and a few seconds later they are both back at the table. Please remember that we are in The Woodlands at an outdoor table at The Cheesecake Factory. Kristen grabs an empty chair and hastily begins preparations to change the little one. At first glance it looks as if this is not going to be a regular change. A little back story. Like I said before Emmy is re-learning how to poop and she is struggling. At one point this week she had not done the deed for 3+ days. Lets just say that this particular night not only did she re-focus her efforts, but she used all the storage she had from the week. See the picture of her happiness after delivering her load.

The pictures from the aftermath are below. I for one am glad we were seated outdoors. On the floor, on Kathy's foot, on the chair...thank you for sitting us outside Ms. Cheesecake Factory hostess! And I don't think that The Cheesecake Factory will mind that I permanently retired one of their cloth napkins that was wounded, rather killed, during the battle. I bet they would thank me for it if they only knew. Funny thing, despite the massive problem, Emmy herself and clothes were fairly clean (see pic). She is gifted in every way possible. This was definitely a birthday for the ages. As Tim said "You won't remember what you ate at Cheesecake for your 29th, but you will always remember what happened on your birthday." I would have to agree.

On a happy note, congrats are in order for Lance and Michelle. Little Kate arrived Friday evening. We are looking forward to meeting her one day in the near future. Look what the two of you have to look forward to!

Emmy Does the ABCs

In about 15 years (yes, she'll be a child prodigy) we'll be on the set of the still running American Idol because Emmy can already do a killer version of the ABC's or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (for some reason I never realized they were the same song until I sang them 500 times a day.) She usually will stop what she's doing, get her "big eyes" and start cooing if you sing it to her. Watch out Anoop (I don't watch it this season but for some reason I know there is someone named Anoop on it and I REALLY wanted to type Anoop =) because competition is coming!

Yes, More Pictures =)

So it's 45 degrees here in Houston today, so of course Mom decided to take our three month old pics in a sleeveless dress.It's not enitrely my fault, it was almost ninety two days ago =) The EmerBemmers just keeps taking too many cute shots to choose from.This picture habit is getting our of control!

(This is pretty much what I do all day, every day)

We also learned today that taking a three month old and two year olds picture together is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. One can't sit still and the other can't stay happy. At least we got one ok one...

Along with a few shall we call them "interesting" ones =)

And of course, we had to put in a few cute ones of The Abs. She's such a big girl now!

Rolling Right Along...Emmy is 3 Months Old!

"Mom, Dad, this could get out of hand at 10, 11 months...

That's right...pajama party in my bassinet. Cupcakes on me!"

Abby is 2!

Birthday #2 in March (after Pops, Tim, Dad) belongs to my now two year old (but I look like a four year old) niece Abby. For her second birthday, my sister and brother-in-law threw a party in the park in old town Katy. Emmy was able to catch up with, of course, the birthday girl Abby, her other cousin Addison and a friend, Kyla Bruns.


Her day started at church, hanging with her best friend, Caroline and falling asleep in daddy's arms as he listened to the morning's message. Home for a quick change, eat and off to Katy to celebrate the big day. I was able to assemble Abby's latest and greatest toy, a basketball goal fit for a toddler. Keith says she is already trying to make goals in the regular size goal, but does not quite have the strength. This goal should fit her fine as she learns the ins and outs of the game. And Aunt SuSu, I promise for Christmas, a miniature volleyball net and ball complete with knee and elbow pads. If she is going to learn volleyball from Susan Brewer, no doubt she will need all of that gear!

We arrived at thr park and were welcomed by many. Emmy makes a splash everywhere she goes. She's gorgeous. I still can't believe sometimes that I had such a large part in creating her. Well, sort of a large part. Well, a tiny bit I guess. She made the rounds with her cousins and friends and got to see her grandparents, Lannie and Boppa and even spend quality time with her Aunt ShuShu and great-grandmother Gan Gan.

She longed to take part in the big girl group, swinging (which she did with the aide of Aunt SuSu), sliding and running all over the place, but for now she focuses on holding her head up and hopefully soon...rolling over. Kristen says she has done it once, but un-documented, the majority of us will never know.

One funny thing. When we had Emmy, I knew that she would be over-powered by her cousin, Abby. I thought that when we got them together for holidays, and birthdays and all other get togethers that she would get beat up...sorry Megan. But watching Abby today, it was easy to see that she loves her cousin. Its interesting to watch. Its much like a big sister relationship Abby has with her "MiMi", as she likes to call Emmy. Darling really. When she gets near Emmy, she pats her gently (gently for Abby) and gives her kisses and shows true concern when Emmy starts crying. They have not been around each other all that much in the first three months of Emmy's life, but its truly remarkable to see the relationship that Abby has forged with her cousin. Although, I am sure that in the future she will still beat her up! Just wait until they fight over toys and their grand-parents and many other things...

Next weekend we celebrate the other three burthdays in March (Mom, Me and Keith). We are headed to Perry's for lunch. Should be fun...Kristen and I know what brunch at Perry's can be like with Emmy. Yep, drunk old women and screaming and akward conversation and nervous waiters and more screaming. We will let you know how it goes the second time around.

Llama Drama, Ags Lose, and Pops

Emmy had a big weekend last week. Mom is just a little late posting. We started off on Thursday with a big trip to the zoo!Caroline and Emmy jumped in the Tahoe and we drove all the way to the med center to get to the zoo to meet some of Betsy's friends in her mom's group. We started out with the giraffes and elephants, which Emmy was overall unimpressed with. She was WAY more interested in sucking her fist, which is pretty much all she does all day now. So we headed over to the children's zoo for some exciting goat petting (blah!) and to meet the other mommies.

In the kids zoo they have a bunch of basically farm animals for the kids to pet. We met up with the other kiddos and I took Emmy out of her stroller to get a closer look at the animals and see if maybe these were more interesting than her fist. Everything was fine through the donkey, minature ebu (huh?) and goats, but when we got to the llama all hell broke lose. Emmy does NOT like llamas. She started screaming hysterically. Maybe it's their luxurious eyelashes or lovely buck teeth, but something about them just doesn't settle with her. As soon as we stepped away the screaming stopped. Then I made her look at them again (just because I'm mean like that) and she started screaming again!!! Make a note of that: no llama rides at Emmy's bday parties. After a fe minutes of hysterical "Llama Trauma" Emmy decided to take a nap. So basically we drove all the way down to the zoo to spend five minutes looking at elephants, five minutes screaming at llamas, and an hour taking a nap. Oh well, at least we got a picture with an elephant butt!

On Saturday we headed out to Emmy's first Aggie event! The Rice/A&M baseball game at Minute Made. Whoop! Emmy got all Ag'd out in everything we could find with A&M on it (including the A&M hightops that Dejo bought threee years ago for Christmas to tell us we needed to have a baby). Emmy decided she needed to sing the National Anthem too, so if you heard some wailing accompaning the song, it was her. The child does not like to sit down. Boppa and Lanny got baby duty and Mom and Dad ate peanuts and watched the Ags lose... booo

Then on Sunday it was Pops birthday party! Emmy bought him a fun coffee maker. As an extra birthday present Dad got to play with Emmy as long as he wanted with no baby stealing! Happy Birthday Pops!

The Funny Frog

Emmy finally likes her bouncy chair. The thing is crazy with a bubbling waterfall, lights, a bobbly toucan, and a moving animals. She could care less about most of it except for one red tree frog that bobbles up and down. That tree frog is HILARIOUS!!!!

Never Say Never

Yesterday Betsy, Ann, and I decided that we just HAD to go to the outlet malls to look at the baby stores. So we piled Caroline and Emmy's car seats in the Tahoe and met Ann there. Now the Tahoe was supposed to be our "baby car" but it's really a crappy one. Especially since we opted for the cooler captains chair rather than the bench seat in the second row. We had to cram the two strollers in, push them forward, slam the trunk and hope they didn't fall out. Anything we bought had to be able to be crammed into a tiny hole or it wasn't coming home

So we all met up with our three strollers and cute babies and headed out shopping. It was Mommy central there because almost everyone there had a stoller. After a couple hours of shopping we decided that everyone was ready to eat. So I said, let's all just pile in the Tahoe and feed the babies and then we'll go eat. Brilliant idea except we had two carseats and two strollers. So I gave Ann and Betsy the front seats and I was going to climb in the back row and everything was going to be great. Well that was a fine idea except we also had two strollers and a wiggly screaming baby that doesn't make climbing over carseats into the back row exactly easy.

Long story short: I had Betsy shut me in the trunk while I sat Indian style in between the folded up back row seats and we just kind of left the strollers hanging out in the parking lot. One of them tried to make a run for in and Betsy had to jump out and get it out of the middle of the lane. I'm sure Ann and Betsy had some nice conversation while I pondered what exactly it felt like to get kidnapped. My butt fell asleep about five minutes in but besides that it was really kind of ok. I was glad someone didn't decide to come up and see why there was a person shut in the trunk of my car. They would've gotten a liiiitle surprise!

Conclusion: If you would've told me three months ago that I would have someone shut me in the trunk of my car to breastfeed my child in public I would've told you were crazy and then ran away. Guess you can never say never.

And no there are no pictures to accompany this post, but here's one of Emmy looking like a little snowboarder. Soo cute!

My lIttle Valentine!

Emmy has had a big Valentine's week! She started and ended it with her boyfriend Benjamin. Benjamin's parents are dear friends and we've already decided they are getting married. Ben was due a few weeks after Emmy but they had an in-womb meeting and Ben decided to get here a few weeks early and Emmy said she's go a little late so Ben could be a little older. It worked out and now they're too cute! Here's Ben already trying to put the moves on my daughter. It's the old "yawn and stretch move." Man they learn early! Blake's already got his eye on him. Today we were honored to be there as Ben was baptised.

Emmy also had a big 2 month photoshoot with Caroline. Betsy and I decided that we just NEEDED to have them take pictures together so we put them in their custom made Caroline's Closet tutu's (http://www.betsyandcollin.blogspot.com/) and took them to Portrait Innovations.

I went with the intention of just getting ONE package that cost $9.99 but you can see below, the pics were just WAY too cute to only get one. She cooperated SO well that I had to get a bunch! Open mouth smiles on camera only come along so often! Here are a few of my favorites. (there's a WHOLE lot more at the top of the blog) SO if anyone wants a picture I have 500 of them =)

For Valentines, Emmy was spoiled rotten. Watch out Benjamin, she's already got the bar set very high. Dejo and Leslie started it out with a Valentine's Princess Heart and Lannie and Boppa gav her a cute little purring Valentine's Lion. Valentine's scavenger hunts are a big tradition for the Sansom family. Mom always made them for us growing up and as a tradition, we'd wake up on Valentine's morning for a fun scavenger hunt with little treats. So my sister and I have made them for our boyfriends (now husbands) for years. This year Gigi and Pops gave her her first Princess scavenger hunt. She got a cute heart-butt outfit, a book, and an Elmo that kisses! Here's Emmy and Elmo looking kinda gansta... that's how Emmy rolls.

Then Emmy and I made her dad a "Spidey themed" Scavenger hunt. Emmy gave her Daddy an Ed Hardy watch with flaming skulls. Nothing says, I love you daddy like flaming skulls =)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day! Emmy says she loves you!

Moving Right Along...2 Months and Counting...

No Bumbo...No Fire...No Problem...

Emmy Bear is 2 Months Old!

Emmy Is SO Over It!

Aunt RaRa and I took Emmy on a quick trip to the mall today to run and pick up some pictures and go to two other stores. We were there literally less than an hour and a half. Emmy is not the biggest fan of the mall, like we said before, but I was HOPING we could make it in for a run-in-and-run-out trip. I was checking out and Emmy started fussing. Like a good Aunt, Laura rocked the stroller and tried to give Emmy her pacifier. She looked at her Aunt, couldn't even be bothered with spitting the pacifier all the way out, and just left it there in protest. She had been laughing and talking all day and this is what we got...

Is she my daughter or what!

Smiles...and a Surprise!

Kristen is bound and determined to capture Emmy smiling and cooing on camera. She tries and tries and tries...and had thus far been unsuccesful until earlier this week. Watching the first video, you will see what makes all the early morning feedings and screaming fits and dirty diapers all worth it. The first 30 seconds are adorable!

Then, of course, Daddy got a hold of the video camera. And in spectacular fashion, my little girl shared a little smile and a big surprise with the two of us. I guess she has taken on characteristics of her Daddy other than just his good looks. She certainly is special! REAL SPECIAL! The action happens towards the end of the clip.

I_N_D_I_A_N_S

This weekend Emmy ventured back to the reservation for her first trip "home" to Port Neches! Our new friend Kate is almost ready to make her big appearance and we had to go deliver the rocking chair to Michelle for her baby shower. Michelle is the pretty one in the pink in the middle (and Kate is in her belly.)

Emmy got to meet a lot of the Port Neches crew. Pops and Dad brought her back towards the end of the shower (so they didn't have to do "girl things") to meet everyone and Emmy promptly fell asleep. We finally took a picture with Aunt Betsy and Caroline since Mom and Betsy didn't actually look like complete and total poop this time! There was real makeup on!

Then we ventured back to Great Aunt Mary and Uncle Stan's house for a little (YUMMY) gumbo and to meet the rest of the Port Neches fam, cousins Tiffany, Lane, and Elise. Dijo and Leslie even brought Emmy her first valentine!

Also, in preparation for her future modeling career... Emmy would like to unveil... BLUE STEEL!!!! If you're wondering what the hell that means, rent Zoolander, then don't blame me for watching it... =)

We've also instituted naked play time. It's an Emmy favorite! It goes something like this...(1)throw the blanket on Emmy while you are standing up. It must cover Emmy's face. (2) Emmy squeals and kicks it until it's all the way off. (3) Repeat. For some reason this is MUCH more fun when you're naked!

Emmy also learned how to hold her rattle and shake it! With a few bonks to the head now and then...


The rest of the week we've been just kick-kick-kicking, blowing bubbles, and smiling (which I STILL cannot get on camera) Kick-Kick-Kicking makes you pretty tired after a while!


If at this point you're thinking, "Man, this child spends a lot of time on the floor by herself" we PROMISE that this her favorite place to be, besides of course the diaper changer on the pack and play...wierd child! Good thing she's SOOOOOOOOOOO cute!