Fall luncheon at Emma's Preschool

Emma was in her element at the fall luncheon. Give the girl a song to sing and dance to or teach her some signs to go with it and she is a happy lark. Of course Nana and Papa coming to see her sing just made all of her dreams come true. (Thane's too of course!) What a treat to have Nana and Papa to hold and to hug and to cheer for Emma with us. We love you!

Here is one of Emma's favorite little musical numbers:

To run 6 miles

..I admit sometimes I bribe my children into riding in the jogger. Often they are excited to get outside--just wiggle the baby handle on the door and Thane comes running. Emma, well, she is just a little harder to get out the door sometimes...once she's out we're just great!

Emma often likes to run a little bit with me, and also enjoys telling me to "run faster, mom, faster!"


self portrait

Recently I decided to get her excited again about being in the jogger by letting her take pictures during my run. (Pretzels, cheerios, and crackers can only get me about 4 miles...)


20 pictures later (and about 10 videos), this is what our three-year-old narrated of our run up by Daddy's school.

Ugly yellow teeth

Spence brought home some "treasures" from dental school.

We laughed so hard watching Thane and Emma keep the teeth in their mouths.
Our cheap thrills...

Happy Halloween!

Leaf impressions

I love fall.
I love the warmth of feeling in fall.
I love leaves because they remind me of the trees I climbed as a kid.
I love leaves because they remind me of the leaf piles we would run and jump into off the front porch, or bury each other and surprise an unsuspecting family member.
I love fall because I feel like baking and making homemade foods that bring smiles and comfort.
I love fall because I love any excuse to snuggle my family close and enjoy tiny pats on my back, scrunching hugs and big juicy kisses.


I love that I get to do a lot of the things I love with the people I love most.

Thane and Emma love gathering bouquets of leaves daily to do leaf impressions, color experiments, leaf stomping, picture taking, leaf tasting(yes--both children), and of course making a mess of the car, or the floor when the leaves crack into millions of tiny pieces.
Daily we find "the most beautiful leaves!" to bring inside and make something.

I wouldn't trade these today's for anything.

Sing your heart out.

Try, just try not to smile while you do.

Emmiliscious makes up songs all day long...
she also changes
words to songs we already "know."



I could eat her up!

Emma's First Day of Preschool

Catching raindrops on our way to school


Emma found her seat and started coloring.






Her first of many beautiful art pieces from school.
(She took this photo herself.)

She wasn't nervous just excited to get started.
She said, "I love you mom!"
"See you later!"
And she kept coloring.
I was the one who started to tear up as I left my baby girl.
Silly Mom.