Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with 2x the turkey, yummy sides and delicious deserts. We spent lunch eating turkey with T's side of the family at his Aunt and Uncle's house in Austin. We drove back to Georgetown to have a turkey dinner with my side of the family at my parents' house. Both lunch and dinner were fantastic! We have soooooo much to be thankful for...family, friends, good jobs, our health, a roof over our head, and food on the table each night! Sometimes life gets a bit hectic and we forget to stop to take a moment to see all the good around us---we really should take the time to reflect on how lucky we are more often!

Obviously, Em is one of the things we are MOST thankful for she has brought soooooo much joy into our lives. Here are some of her most recent pics. Enjoying some of the cooler temps while Daddy puts up the Christmas lights.

She is SOOOOOOO curious! That is one of the things we love about her!

Thanksgiving Day 2009

Mia wanted to start a rock band with Emma. They pounded away for a while. Em got some great practice on a bigger piano at T's Aunt's house earlier in the day.

I think Em is eyeing my plate which had more food on it :)

Mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm, mmmmmmm....Finger lickin' good :)

Emma Grace taking care of her baby. She loves feeding her babies and often feeds T and I a bottle also :) The other day I found her giving a story book character a bottle---she just held the bottle to the page, flipped the page and found the character's mouth again. What a little mommy!

Birthday Party and Cake Smashing

Em had a BIG day yesterday. It all began with a cake smashing photo session at 10am and ended with a birthday celebration with family. She was a trooper and stayed awake and in a good mood until 10:30pm...then she happily gave in to the sleep fairies :)

Our friend took Em's last photos of her 1st year series. Em was not too afraid of getting a bit dirty! It was a lot of fun!!! Thanks Karin for doing such a great job capturing Em grow during her first year!!!! We are soooooo thankful that we had this opportunity!

Karin has her pictures posted on her website.

http://www.karinmccannon.com/

click on the client link and then type in the passwords EmmaCake1 for the first gallery and EmmaCake2 for the second gallery. Her pictures were much better than mine---obviously :)

Thinking about it...
Mmmm....squishy!
I think I need to get into a better cake smashing position :)

Messy girl!

Drawing with chocolate.

Karin had set up this vinyl backdrop on our driveway for the big event.

T and I trying to decide what to do next. Em ended up getting wrapped in a big towel, then put into the tub...baby, bloomers and diaper all got dunked.

Em got to celebrate her birthday with family that evening. She LOVED having all the attention on her!!! She was quite the ham!

Not willing to wear the hat. I held it on for a picture and then the yanked it off.

T and I with our birthday girl. Mia enjoyed watching Em eat her birthday cupcake as well.

Em getting reading to open her gifts.

Mia was teaching Em how to play with the Legos. Mia had decided that it was her responsibility to try everything out and then teach Em how to use it. Very cute!!!

My parents had gotten Emma a basketball goal. I think T was more excited about it then Emma was, but I know that they will have A LOT of fun over the next couple of years shootin' some hoops!!!

Thanks to all who came over to celebrate with us!!! We feel blessed to have our family near!

Numero Uno!!!

OH NO!!!! My first birthday...it snuck up on me!!!
Here, Daddy...try some of my pancakes.
We decided that a pancake dinner would be appropriate b/c we did not want to wake up EXTRA early to enjoy a special breakfast this morning. Yummy! Emma's first taste of pancakes was a big hit!

I'm PURRRRRfect!!!!

Emma Grace was born 1 year ago today!!! Wow...time has flown by and we have had SOOOOOO much fun!

We Love you Em and we are looking foward to MANY more birthdays!

Racing for the Cure with the Northwest Stars

Our dear friend, LeAnn, was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring and recently finished her chemo treatments. We started a team for Race for the Cure in CELEBRATION of this courageous woman...and for all that have been touched by this terrible disease. Our team, the Northwest Stars has 55 registered team members and we raised over $3,000.00. It was an honor to be a part of this event!!!

We love you LeAnn!!! The picture of strength and determination!!!
Done!!!! The Motals...struttin' their stuff :)
Emma wanted to walk a bit to show her support of Auntie LeAnn!
What a WONDERFUL turn out!!! The Northwest Stars...Thanks for coming out and giving you time and efforts!!! You guys are amazing!!!!

Beautiful BOO-tterfly!!!

Emma was a beautiful pink butterfly for Halloween. The folks on our culdesac got together to bbq and snack on yummy food while we passed out candy. It was a GREAT set up. Emma really enjoyed interacting with everybody and playing with candy...maybe next year she will get to try it out :)

Trav and Em scooted around...Emma LOVED the scooter---especially when Trav went really fast.
Ahhhhh....freedom. Em got her hat off. She kept it on for about 2 hrs. I was impressed!

Mmmmmmm...this looks good. The poor pumpkin owner kept reminding me that it was his candy. She really liked the sound that they candy wrappers made.

Just hanging out with a pirate and Buzz Light Year---you do not get to do that every day!

We took a stroll around the neighborhood to check out the spooky decorations.

This time last year she was snug in my belly! Now look at my lil butterfly!!!

Checking out the scene!

Hello everyone...I'm here!

Stealing another kid's candy bucket...goodness! She really liked the Thomas the Train bucket and would have played with it all night. Unfortunately...the owner of it came by and wanted it back!