Paul, Paul Jr and Zack, all ready for church in 1994. Paul was about 4.
Ellie's birth in 1999. Paul was 9 here and was very excited about the birth of his new sister.
At the Grand Canyon in 2008. All four of my sons on the rim. Paul was 18 here and had just graduated high school.
In December at our open house.
Paul at 21.
She was very happy with herself and did not understand why she couldn't get up yet. (She had just been put down for a nap).
We immediately lowered the mattress so she wouldn't fall out.
She is still a wonderful baby. The only time she ever fusses is when she is put down for a nap. She does not see the need for sleep at all and registers her complaints quite loudly.
She has mastered the art of sitting up without wobbling and she has mastered getting herself into a sitting position. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks and has moved a little bit. She will be crawling very soon.
Emma will also straighten her legs out like she is going to stand up while her hands are still on the floor. It is quite something to see.
She eats baby food three times a day and enjoys it very much. She takes 4 bottles every day and has learned this month to hold her own bottle.
If you hold out your hands to her, she will put her hands up so you will take her. Whenever I walk into the room, she will look at me and put her hands up for me to take her. I must say I enjoy that very much!
Emma says "dada" but I'm not convinced she understands who that is. Her dad is convinced she knows it's him. I've heard her say mama only once or twice, plus alot of other sounds.
Her hair is crazy! She did not lose any on the top so it constantly falls into her face unless we have it pulled back. 
Emma has learned so much this past month it just amazes me when I stop and think about it. I enjoy watching her learn and do new things; however, I already miss her being a little baby. It is truly bittersweet.
Emma has outgrown most of her clothes, and she has outgrown the little girl that was giving her hand me downs. I have been on a search for gently used clothes for her, so I could not pass up this deal. I went to the ThredUp site, searched every box in her size and picked one. I figured at the worst, I was out a buck; at best, I would get a box of clothes she could wear.
I got the box today and I LOVED every outfit in it! The clothes were all in great condition and so cute. Ellie and I squealed as we unpacked all the clothes. This deal was much better than I even hoped it would be.
Woo-Hoo!
This morning as I was on Facebook, one of my friends posted a link to a coupon for $1 off Mueller's pasta. She even mentioned that Food Lion had it on sale for $1, making the pasta free. Well, I printed out 12 coupons (there was no limit), went to Food Lion tonight and came home with 12 boxes of pasta for which I paid nothing.
"Sam". We're still working on getting the S the right way. I always find it amazing how children can write their letters perfectly backwards. Zack used to write whole sentences backwards.
A list of everyone in the family. I find it so cute how he spelled Emma Grace: "EMU GRS". He got it right phonetically.
"Mom", "Dad" and "Anna" were easy for him.
"Elle" and "Pol" were a bit harder. He is doing great in Kindergarten, sounding out simple words. He's very quick to understand concepts, much like Paul Jr. was. I love teaching Kindergarten- what fun Sam, Ben and I have each day.
She slid herself under the couch and thought she was big stuff.
She is just about crawling.
And is very proud of it.
Finally, last week I found a couch and a loveseat that I liked. I'm not usually a floral person, but this couch had the perfect colors for our home. I told Paul about it and he went and looked at it and didn't like it. Ok. I can wait. He also thought it was priced a little high at Good will. So that night he looked around on the Internet and the more he looked, the more he realized it was a good price.
On Monday, he told me to go back and call him if it was still there. It was and had been marked down $25, so he bought the couch and loveseat for us! It's a bit worn and needs a good cleaning, but I love it! The more I look at it in my house, the more I like it!
Gotta love Goodwill!!
