Fists of Fury

She Speaks!!!

Emma has started to really use words to communicate and we are sooooo excited (and glad we don't have to worry about her not talking..the words of a worrying mom).  As of today, her vocabulary consists of:

All Done (Ahhhhh du)

Juice (jewwwwwwww)

Hot (Hota)

Doggie (Doddi)

Daddy (sounds pretty close to daddy)

Again (Ahhhhh g)

Uh Oh, Spaghettio (Oh Oh Spkaht;ajktl)

Baby (baabii)

Cat (at)

Diaper (clear as day..once)

Up (Uhhhh)

On (Owwwww)

Off (Owwwwws)

Don't (dunt......mostly directed at Talula our dog)

Ok, so I am sure there are more but we are so excited for these.  A couple of days ago she just woke up and decided she was going to try and copy the words we said.  Way to go Emma!!

Sidenote:  She still refuses to say mama or mommy or I would even take a ma.  When I ask her to say it she gives me the John scowl face, you know the one.  It will be a great day of celebration when I hear my first mommy coming from my daughters mouth...

19 Month

We're Expecting!!

Many of you already know, but for those of you that don't know, we have decided to adopt our next child from Ethiopia!!  We are very excited and well on our way in this process.   As promised, we have set up a new blog dedicated to the adoption journey.  Go to:

 www.thestoryofafamily.blogspot.com 

I am hoping to make weekly posts to keep everyone updated on our progress so check often....

Trip to Visit Pells in Charleston

So my camera ran out of batteries but I wanted to put up a quick post about our trip to visit Tim, Linsday, Luke and Jack in Charleston.  We had a great time and are so excited that they live within driving distance.  It was Luke's Birthday so we all went to the Charleston aquarium.  Here is a picture of the cousins looking at the fish....

Turtle Head

Hide and Seek

Hide and seek is probably one of Emma's favorite things to do. When she discovered she could crawl into her toy box, she was very excited.

A Weekend with Friends

We were not able to make it back to Bellingham this year but were able to meet up with some of our dear friends before flying out of Seattle. The first picture is of Ayla, Brett and Alicia's daughter who was a sweetheart as we knew that she would be.

This is Emma looking for the Harris' cat...here kitty kitty...

Pell Family Christmas

We had a short visit with the whole Pell family before Tim, Lindsey, Luke and Jack had to leave to move to Charleston, SC (yeah for us!!! only 5 hours away!!). Then we got to spend some good time with Meemaw and Papa. Emma loves her cousins and tried to copy everything they did.

"Use a high chair? No way, my cousins don't. I'm a big girl now"

Christmas Time with the Stagge Family

Though every year my mom frets that we will not all be together again for Christmas, thankfully she has always been wrong. 29 years and going strong the Stagge family has always been able to be together for the holidays. Hannah and Emma had a great time playing with eachother and pushing every button they could find that played Christmas music....

This is Hannah's Ms. Potato Head (don't tell Emma). She carried it around all night....

Too old for matching pajama's??? NEVER!!!

Emma didn't really like her sledding experience. I think that the snow suit was a bit much....

Each time anyone fell off our tubes she got very upset and thought we were hurt...maybe next year.