We have been continually amazed as we have watched Emmie going from an unsteady toddle with a ton of weight on her head, to growing confidence and dancing, spinning and running.

We celebrated a friend’s birthday at the local putt-putt in April and got to see more of Emmie coming out of her shell.

She would try to hit it a few times and then give up and just put it in the hole.

We had a couple of other kiddos who were very serious about the game!

In exchange for watching my crew for a date night, I had the awesome privilege of watching my bestie’s kids one evening.  I had a blast and enjoyed the one year old cuddles. We also got selfies…

And played games.  Zoe came along for more training (because her brothers and sisters aren’t enough) and for added distraction.

Our photo survey from the month of February.  The theme includes Emmie.  She was kind of a big deal in February. Okay, one picture of our special Frodo the Cat.  He got sick after we returned and unfortunately, passed away.  It was a very tough time for us. Park play day.  After a series of cold day, well, sort of cold, it’s the South after all, we like to venture out to the park.  Warm February days are the best too because the pollen hasn’t arrived.

First time giving blood.  It just took our Super Ems to motivate me.  We were able to bank my blood and Grandmere’s for Emmie’s surgery.   She did need some.  So, we were both grateful we could give (and through a big miracle for Grandmere) to help her and I learned that it’s not as scary as I thought.   Any Trim Healthy Mama will know this yogurt.  And will also know the sadness in having it consumed by a cute toddler.  She likes it so much, I have to sneak it before she can see me or she’ll eat the whole cup. Frodo loved to nap with Emmie.  He tried several times to cuddle next to her but she would squeal and get excited and he’d settle for sleeping near by. What’s better than one bow?  Two! Liam is learning sme better distraction techniques so he can finish school. See the yogurt face.   Sour cream doughnut hearts for Valentine’s day!  Oh yeah. Climbing stairs (with lots of help) after being discharged.  She had to have help and rest half way but she was thrilled to walk up.

And Malachi had to get a picture too.

Emmie won a gift certificate from the kids’ dentist office in December.  They were thrilled that she won (we have an amazing dentist office) and we decided to wait until closer to surgery to take her in.

She walked in like she owned the store and knew exactly what to do.  She tested out each animal and was thrilled to choose the Wonder Woman super bear.

She tested it out to make sure it would work. And helped pick out a couple of outfits.Meet Super Bear.  She has been through surgery and will head in next week with us for the CT scan.