Happy 2nd birthday Emery!

Emery – Happy second birthday. I can honestly say that I don’t know where to begin with this note to you. Just like I did for Drew, I am writing you a happy birthday note looking back at all the good things that you have brought to our lives and thinking about all the good things to come. 

While Drew turned our world (Mommy and Daddy’s world) on it’s head, in part because of the amazing kid he is, but in part because we were first time parents and experiencing milestones for the first time with Drew, you too have turned our world upside down and inside out … And I wouldn’t change it for the world !!!

I knew things would be different for our family when you decided to crash Thanksgiving weekend 2 years ago, but I can honestly admit that I didn’t think you would change my life for the better and add to our family dynamic as much as you have. You are an absolutely incredible kid. I am amazed everyday how much you learn from watching you brother and the world around you. You talk in almost complete sentences, are almost potty trained, and are the most determined little girl I have ever met. There are times I need to remember that you are only two (not 3 or 4). 

I have to admit, I was a little lukewarm on having a little girl, but boy was I wrong. I’m still not so much into all of your shoe changes or some of the outfits your mommy puts you in (or you pick out), but I love your smiles, your infectious laugh, your whitty, even sassy personality, your determined stubbornness, and your great big hugs and welcome homes when I come home from work (best ever!!!!).

Emery, you one of the best things that has ever happened to be me and our family. I could not imagine our live’s without you and look forward to watching you continue to grow up.

Happy birthday fruit snack, oh wait, monkey! 😉 

Love you,

Dad

A few favorites from Emery’s second year….and a few notes from Mommy editor:

This evening (below) is a night i hope I will never forget.  Emery, per usual refused dinner.  This night was spaghetti and I know she likes spaghetti.  99% of the time, Emery would win the dinner battle and we’d cave and she would get away with hardly eating or getting a pjelly (peanut butter and jelly).  This night I wanted to win.  She cried forever.  Fits, tantrum, all of it.  I said, fine don’t eat.  I bathed her (still screaming) and held my ground.  2.5 hours after we started dinner (and past her bedtime), she looked at the spaghetti, gave me a shrug and clearly gave in.  She had three bowls.  Emery: 579  Mommy/Daddy: 1

 

Opening Day and Easter celebrating

I’m blogging backwards!  I’m committed to catching up and then my sometimes present OCD will re-arrange dates later so everything is accurately chronological.  😉  But anyway – last month we hit the road and headed “home” (yep Tim and I still call Cincy home when we travel there) for Opening Day weekend.  While home we were able to celebrate PaPa’s birthday and early Easter celebration at the Greulich’s house.

First stop – Mimi and PaPa’s house…

Hannah and Drew had a sleep over on Mimi’s awesome new bunk beds while Emery slept in the crib in the same room.  Somehow…it worked.  Here they all are in the morning having breakfast.

Hangin’ with PaPa on his actual birthday

Hmm….all I see is a beer tshirt and two kids with sun in their eyes.  Oh well, we tried.

On to Grammy and Grandpa’s house on this beautiful Sunday.  Lots of outdoor play time.

Drew and Emery’s super sweet cousins – Amelia, Sebastian and Lily!

Easter egg hunt

We changed into our Red’s t-shirts for our annual picture that I require each year (and I LOVE having these each year).  It was beautiful and sunny this day and the following day we knew it may rain so I’m glad I made the annoying call to snap a family picture.  🙂

And then of course – Opening Day!  We love to bring Mom Mom with us and she loves going as well.  This year our group included – Danny, Katie, Tom (Dad), Mom Mom and the two of us.  Though it rained a bit here and there, the temp was warm so it was not a big deal.  Many years have been far worse though we are due a sunny and 70s Opening Day next year.

I’ll end this post with one more fun one at Grammy and Grandpa’s house.  These two are crazy!  This is Murphy’s cage (Michael and Liz’s dog) that was in Carol and Jim’s room and they thought it was the funniest thing to climb in here and shut the door.  I have to admit…it was pretty funny.  It amused them far longer than I thought it would.

Mom Mom’s Nashville visit

We had an amazing extended visit with Mom Mom recently.  She came back to Nashville with us after Opening day and stayed for two weeks – until Easter.  It was so great! We had amazing food, a super clean house, no laundry ever waiting to be washed or folded and tons of fun moments with the kids.  But seriously let’s just start with the food.  I joked with Tim that I gained 5 pounds when she was here but it really wasn’t a joke.  I’ve never had that many good meals night after night and I clearly over ate.

Here she is one Sunday prepping dinner after baking a cake – and oh it wasn’t even noon yet when I took this picture.

The tulips were out at Cheekwood, so we went and walked around one day and tried to get some spring-like pictures.  Neither child was into it though.

Lots of evening stories were read….

One afternoon after school, we ran a few errands and gave Mom Mom a night off from cooking and hit up Chick Fil A.

In all seriousness, we had such a fabulous couple of weeks.  The kids loved having her here and we can’t wait to do it again in the future.  And next time, I’m definitely taking notes on the meals she cooked us!

 

Christmas fun

Adorable Christmas program for the kids school.  Emery had on stage performance as well…

…..but she chose to spend the evening on my lap and not with her class  ðŸ™‚

Oh my goodness, I love this one  this was right after his performance and he saw all the other kids in his class talking to Santa.  This is the first on Santas lap picture ever, that he agreed to.  Emery?  Not a chance!

Heading to Ohio!  We try and time our road trips to Cinci right after lunch to sneak in naps and it always works well.

Emery sleeps right away and then Drew sleeps a couple hours into the trip.  I merged thought it was hysterical to steal Drew’s “E”.

 

That sweet face

These two have SO much fun together.  I love their little cousin friendship.  

Celebrating Hannah and MiMi’s birthday

Christmas Eve

 

A little bit of MiMi time on Christmas morning before heading to Grammy and Grandpa’s house

Drew has the arm-hug-kiss-head move DOWN.  This is another sweet cousin friendship with Drew being the older cousin.  They bond over Disney junior shows and colored pencils.

Sweet as can be.

….and double trouble.  

Greulich cousins; December 2016

Mom Mom’s 90th birthday

We celebrated Mom Mom’s 90th birthday the day before Thanksgiving.  What a great night with all Mom Mom’s kids, grandchildren AND great grandchildren.

Baby Lily – 5(ish) weeks old

Mom Mom, Aunt Peggy, Carol and Sebastian, 6(ish) weeks old

Mom Mom and Sebastian

Emery and one of her doggies – this one is Murphy and really belongs to Uncle Michael and Aunt Liz

Amelia (coming up on 2 in February)

Drew, Mom Mom, Julie (3 years), Emery and Peggy Continue reading

Fall and Halloween fun

October was a super busy month for us.  Drew had soccer games on Saturdays, birthday parties most weekends, the kids’ school Fall Festival and of course Halloween.  We started the month with our annual pumpkin patch tradition with our great friends, the Browns.  We’ve gone to this pumpkin patch since Drew and Lexie were 1.

Top left; 2014.  Bottom left; 2015.  Top and bottom right; 2016.

Bonus this year – a fire truck was at the pumpkin patch!

Here is the one picture I took at the Gardner School Fall Festival.  This was Drew’s super awesome teacher for all of last year – Ms. Olivia.  We love her!

Neighborhood carving party.  This is apparently a long time tradition on our street that we like to look at but haven’t participated in yet.  Maybe next year.  This was the display about 2/3 full and grew after this picture was taken.

Drew and Emery were Marshall and Skye this year for Halloween.

Not bad right?  They loved their costumes and got plenty of wear out of them this month.

Ok these next two pictures are probably my favorite from Halloween night.  We trick or treated early and hit maybe 2 blocks on our street and then headed back home to pass out candy.  Our neighborhood (in metro Nashville) and specifically two streets (ours being one) is a VERY popular neighborhood for many to flock to for trick or treating.  We have gobs and gobs of kids and there really aren’t many kids in our neighborhood.  It’s quite a sight and our neighborhood even provides security patrol throughout the evening.  Drew and Emery loved passing out the candy and seeing all the costumes.  It was so warm and we were able to just sit on our porch and pass out candy until we ran out.  This picture below shows you a glimpse of our trick or treaters right before we closed up shop.  Of course, the later it got the more questionable the trick or treaters.  Emery didn’t care though and happily made sure everybody had plenty of candy!

And this one!  Drew refused to peel off any layers and kept his heavy vest and hat on all night.  It was definitely 80+ degrees and once he finally did pull off his hat, he was dripping in sweat.  He said, “Mommy look!  My hair’s already all wet!  I guess I don’t need a bath!”

 

Happy 4th birthday Drew!

Better late than never!  Drew turned 4 (!) on September 13th.  He said it was the ‘longest birthday EVER’ because he celebrated for almost a month.  He got his bike from us a few days before his birthday, then his friend birthday party was the weekend after his actual birthday.  Finally we traveled to Cincinnati in late September and he celebrated with all the grandparents there as well.

This one though (below) – this is on his birthday.  Here he is, our big 4 year old.  He woke up to fun balloons and sprinkle and icing donuts.

He had a bunch of Face time requests – Grammy and Grandpa in the morning…

….and Mimi and Pa Pa after school.

Drew_4.jpg

A bike!  It took a while but he’s finally getting the hang of it now.

His birthday party was at My Gym and he loved it!  I did too.  It was a perfect afternoon after Drew and I got stuck on the highway for 3 hours trying to get to soccer pictures that morning (side note; needless to say; no soccer pictures).

Wrapping up birthday month in Cincinnati.  I need to find the other pictures I took on this day.  But for now…

So as a lively 4 year old – Drew loves Paw Patrol (specifically Emery’s Skye pup), PJ Mask or other shows, trains, building things, going to the park, his friends at school (primarily the girls at the moment), drinks, ice cream after bath, his magical red blanky, playing with Emery, spaghetti, talking, Ted’s Montana Grill, Chicken nuggets, coloring, the beach, dancing, telling Alexa to play Kids Music, waking up at 5:30am and talking to himself loudly enough that he wakes Emery, scoring goals at soccer, trips to Cincinnati, reading books and going to school….just to name a few of his favorites.

Happy birthday Drew Drew – we love you!!

 

 

Charleston 2016

This is severely delayed but sigh…..my “blog” project continues as my way to get pictures posted even if months late.  And really, how could I not post some beach vacation pictures!?!  I took far too many but here are some glimpses from our 9 or so days on vacation back in August (eek, yes August!).  First, um yes this one below is most definitely my daughter as she sleeps comfortably in what appears to be full splits.  Both kids did great in the car, especially Emery, our little car sleeper.

We made it!  Emery was all smiles on the first day heading towards the beach.  How quickly her mood did change though…

Drew hated the water the last few years.  I thought he would be a bit better since he’s obviously older however we were all surprised how much he loved the ocean and enjoyed the waves and going in as far as he could.

Emery was pretty much only smiling at the beach if she was on someone’s lap.

Yeah, this is pretty much sums up how Emery spent most of her time at the beach.

Oh look, pinky toe in the water!  There!  It’s documented, she did touch water.  🙂

Aw, happy girl.

This was as close as we got to a family picture this trip.

These two love their Mom Mom!!

oh wait I forgot we got this family picture one too.  Aunt Katie took about 20 and this is the best we got (but no fault to the photographer!).  Pictures with sunshine and kiddos is tough!

One more beach day before heading home!

Peace out Isle of Palms.  See you next time.

Soccer fun

Drew played soccer this past spring and yes, I am just now getting around to posting a few pictures.  He did an ok job for his first organized sporting even experience…I guess.  Ok maybe not.  He really was not that much of a fan.

Straight face, walking, staring us down on the sideline – yeah that’s how he spent the majority of soccer season.

Oh look!  Is that Drew running after the ball??  It sure is.  🙂

Annnnd back to the smirk and walk.

On the positive side, he was always very happy to get the snack at the end of each game.

Maybe Emery will be our soccer player.  😉