This one is long overdue: My first "babies"

This post is dedicated to my wonderful kitties Sadie and Devo . They just celebrated their 7th birthday on November 13th.  I have had them since they were a few months old.

They are brother and sister and I adopted them from a local pet store.  I was living in an apartment at the time and had no idea how they would react to a new home.   They settled in right away:

 Sadie is the black and white one and Devo is the orange and white one

They have been through quite the travels through multiple relationships, numerous homes, and even were "babysat" by my good friend Ann while Jim dealt with his bad allergies.  We didn't really know how it was going to work out and I was just devastated.  Luckily Ann took good care of them and Jim got his allergies in check and we welcomed them back home.  We then moved into our house we are in now and things are great.  They have lots of room to roam around, no more litter boxes in the bathroom (yuck!), no more hiding them from the landlords, finally a real home!

They continue to bring joy to our lives daily and even when they are being a pain in my butt, they still make me smile.  They give so much unconditional love to us and we hope that they will be with us for a very long time.  Emily loves it when they come around and check her out. They don't like to get too close however since she likes to pull on their hair, haha!

Sadie:

Devo:

Photo Previews!

So we had Emily's 6 month photoshoot a few weeks ago and I just got a couple sample pictures.  I can't wait to see the rest!  Thanks Dionne @ The Shooting Gallery!

End of the session....not a happy baby, haha!

My little lady is 6 months old....and some other stuff!

As of last Sunday officially!

Today was her 6 month check up and she did fabulous.  She is currently a whopping 17 pounds and 27 inches long!  Everything checked out great and she is reaching all her milestones.  She is starting to sit on her own, she can now roll BOTH ways (even though she chooses not to roll belly to back very often).  She has also become obsessed with playing with her feet - which is super cute!

She got a few shots today including her flu shot.  She did awesome!  She gave out one whiny cry and then I distracted her with some rings and she was good to go!  I put her upstairs to nap when I got home and she proceeded to just play and sing in her crib for about a half an hour.  I had to go back up and re-situate her and now she is finally asleep.  Silly girl.

I just can't believe how time has flown and how at the beginning I thought we would never get here.   She has turned into such a happy baby and is just so much fun!  I am looking forward to sharing the upcoming holidays with her and starting some new family traditions.

We love you Emily!!

 A couple from last month

 That goofy grin

 She's almost got it!

Minnie Mouse!

 Sitting all by herself

 Relaxin'

 What a cutie (I'm a little biased)

Meltdown!!

In other news, Jim and I have FINALLY started working out again.  Granted it's only been two days now, but it's better than nothing.  We have both decided to run on the treadmill.  My legs are feeling it for sure.  I haven't exercised since right when I found out I was pregnant - so over a year....Yikes!  It felt good to get back into it, but it's definitely not easy.  I managed about 2.5 miles yesterday and 2 miles today.  Emily seemed content hanging out in her swing while I ran yesterday and today it was during nap time.  I just might be able to make this work.  Jim has been getting up early and doing it in the morning - what a trooper, there is no way in heck I could do that!

Tomorrow night we get a DATE NIGHT!  I am thrilled.  My mother in law gave me a call yesterday and asked if they could watch Emily for us Friday so we could have some time together.  That was soooo sweet and of course I took them up on the offer.  So we are heading to our favorite Japanese Steak House for a nice relaxing baby free dinner.  Tomorrow night can't come soon enough!  I'll let ya know how it goes!

Happy Birthday, Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary!

So bing bang boom all in a row every year

10-22  My Birthday
10-31  Halloween
11-01  Our Anniversary

It's always a fun and busy time of year for us.  With Emily in the mix, it was even more fun!

My 30th birthday:

It was a Friday, and it was actually quite an eventful day.  I worked most of the day and took care of Emily.  Later that day we had Emily's 6 month photo shoot (a little early as she isn't quite 6 months yet).  That went okay (she had a few meltdowns as usual).  I'm still awaiting photos, but hopefully she got some good ones.

Afterwards, Jim's parents generously offered to watch Emily for us while we went out for a nice dinner.  We went to Kona Grill and let me tell you....that place is great!  We ordered some avacado eggrolls and potstickers for appetizers, split the macademia nut chicken for an entree (it's huge and comes with a pile of mash potatoes and veggies - definitely a good idea to split), and then split a huge serving of apple bread pudding cake.  Holy crap that dessert was good!!  We were stuffed.

We then went back to his parents and had a cocktail and talked.  Emily pretty much slept for them the whole time (it was her bedtime), so that was nice!  Overall it was a good day.

Message from Jim on our kitchen white board!

Romantic Dinner out at Kona

Halloween:

Halloween is always a fun time of year for us.  We get lots of trick or treaters come by and we love to carve our pumpkins and put out are few, yet cute decorations.  This year was even more fun since it was Emily's first!

Prior to Halloween we of course purchased her costume.  And let me tell you....she did NOT like it.  See for yourself....introducing our "Lil' Hotdog"!

The time up to Halloween day I practiced putting her in the costume occasionally so that she would get used to it.  I ended up swaddling her first then putting her in it and that seemed to do the trick.  That and dancing around the house with her...

In the Halloween spirit

Our pumpkin patterns

Emily watching us

Jim getting ready to carve

Trying to carve, but someone got hungry!

Yep, we are Disney addicts!

Jim sorting the pumpkin seeds from the goop

Emily being fussy (turns out she had a dirty diaper)

Mickey pumpkins!

More Mickey (and Minnie) pumpkins!

Ready for some Halloween fun

Who is that crazy lady?!

Here comes the hotdog!

Waiting for trick or treaters

They are coming any minute now!

Lit up pumpkins

End the night waiting for the stragglers

Our 2nd Anniversary:

It was a Monday and after a busy birthday the week before and a fun Halloween weekend, we decided to just lay low.  We had a regular 'ol night at the homestead with some take out Mediterranean food (which was totally delicious) and some tv watching.  Just a fun little night with my family, can't ask for anything more.

It was a gorgeous day November 1, 2008.  One of the best days of our lives!  I love you Jim!