3 months

Emma's 3 month pictures

One happy Boy!

For Christmas Andrew got a snow plow for his Deere from my parents and his. He got it just in time for the two big snow falls we just had. Andrew had a lot of fun clearing the driveway.

My parents also sent Andrew the world's best beef jerky. Within 48 hours of receiving the jerky it was all gone!

Christmas with The Brown's

Payton, Graham and Emma reading the "B" book
Payton and Emma hanging out
Emma's Christmas outfit

On Saturday the 22nd we got together with Graham, Kristy and Payton for an early Christmas. We had a very nice brunch with and egg bake (it was delish!), coffee cake, fruit and peppermint coffee. Graham also made peppermint hot chocolate....it was AWESOME!

Busy Weekend

Jaime, Mike and Emma
Joe, Jill and Emma

Joe....well......being Joe......

Friday I went to a cookie exchange with my playgroup. I had to make 5 dozen cookies! It actually wasn't that bad and the cookies I made looked pretty good too. It was fun to get an assortment of Christmas cookies, but not have to make all the different doughs!

Saturday my college friend Jaime and her husband Mike drove up from Bloomington to visit. We went out for lunch at Panera and then came back to our house and visited for a few hours. We had a great time catching up with them and I really appreciate the fact that they drove all the way up here just for us! Also, Mike got to hold Emma for the first time, and it was his first time holding a baby EVER. He looked like a natural!

After Jaime and Mike left we headed up to our friends Joe and Jill's new house. They just built a townhouse in Elgin and it is beautiful! Joe and Jill hadn't seen Emma in a while so it was nice for them to get to see her. Jill made chili and garlic sandwiches (YUMMY) and we played Catch Phrase, which reminded me of college and those crazy days. Then it took us an hour to get home because we had freezing rain-yuck!

All I want for Christmas....

Well, Emma can't tell Santa what she wants quite yet, but she did get to meet the big fella for the first time. Pulte had a family outing last weekend that included breakfast and pictures with Santa! Of course Emma had no idea what was going on so she didn't cry when we handed her over for the pictures.

Playmats ROCK!!!!!!!!

Emma is EXTREMELY fond of her playmat with the hanging animals. She will lay on the mat for quite a while and coo and bat around the animals. We have affectionately named 3 of the 4 animals, Ellie the Elephant, Raffe the Giraffe, and Perry the Parrot. It's so fun to watch her enjoy herself and it gives you a couple minutes to get stuff done :)

"Dad, this tree won't fit in our back yard"-Russ Griswold

Clark Griswold: "It's not going in the yard, Russ. It's going in the living room."

The chosen one
Andrew cutting the tree down
Emma all bundled up
The decorated tree and stockings hung by the chimney with care

On Friday we went to Marmion to cut down our Christmas tree. It was pretty chilly out so we bundled Emma up really good and she slept through the entire momentous occasion. After picking out our tree we went to Starbucks to get something to warm us up. We spent the evening decorating the house and tree and finished the night off by watching Christmas Vacation (I still laugh every time I watch it).

Thanksgiving Day

"gobble, gobble"
Dan eating the skin-ewwwww
Andrew and his birds
I tried to help and all I did was burn the rolls!
The boys playing race cars

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Andrew's family joined us at our house for our first Thanksgiving here. I did the meal planning/shopping and Andrew did the rest (it was GREAT!). Andrew made two birds, one in the oven and the other in the smoker. The bird in the smoker was fabulous!

Thankful

I'm thankful...

For Andrew- the man of my dreams, my best friend and an amazing father

For Emma Grace- who made us a family and allowed me to love someone more than I ever thought was possible

For my family- people who have loved me always and forever, no matter what

For my beautiful home- that Andrew built with his hands for our future

For Frankie- my first baby who has had his spotlight stolen, but still loves me anyway

For my health- without it I would be miserable

That my parents are alive- enough said

Meet the Webers

Aunt Sarah, Tyler and Jake
Uncle Dan and Aunt Sarah

Emma got to meet her Aunt Sarah, Uncle Dan and cousins, Tyler and Jake for the first time yesterday. I think everyone had a great time loving all over her and I know she enjoyed it too!

Early Turkey Day

Gaia and Emma
Payton taking "pictures" and saying "cheese"
The Brown Family
A good picture of me and Emma if my head wasn't cut off
Daddy and Emma

On Sunday we went to my Aunt's house is Dubuque for an early Thanksgiving with my extended family. The drive was pretty quick, about 3 hours each way and of course Emma just slept the whole time :) We had a very nice visit with everyone and Emma got to wear her "my first thanksgiving" outfit for the first time.

I love my Bumbo!

Andrew worked very hard this weekend to paint our two-story foyer and did a GREAT job! He started early Saturday morning and finished with the second coat early afternoon on Sunday. Emma and I just hung out most of the weekend, we did go and do a little shopping at Old Navy and ran some other errands on Saturday. Sunday after Andrew finished painting we went and got Emma's 2 month pictures taken as well as a family picture for our Christmas cards. I was very impressed with how well they turned out and I can't wait to get them back. I also worked on our menu for Thanksgiving and made up the shopping list (which was VERY long) and then today I went shopping for all the groceries, it took me 2hrs and I had to take a break halfway through to feed Emma.
This coming Sunday we are headed to Dubuque Iowa for an early Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house and then my parents will be coming back to stay with us for a few days. We are looking forward to our first Thanksgiving in our new house with our new Emma!
We also put Emma in her bumbo for the first time over the weekend and she loved it! I think it will be very convenient to have and I'm sure a nice change of pace for her so she doesn't always have to be laying down on the ground. Emma is really starting to smile a lot and she is following us with her eyes.

Miss Popularity

Emma and "Emma"

The other day the mail man rang the door bell to drop off a couple of packages and our mail. I was shocked and astounded to find all of the mail, except one piece, addressd to Miss Emma Grace Chudzick. She got 3 cards and two packages! She is one popular girl. Here is one of the gifts she got, it is from our family friends Becky and Dennis.

First Trip to the Zoo

Emma and the allegator
Emma and the Python
Pretty Kitty
Elk at Elk pond
Some girls in our group playing in the leaves

This morning we went on a Mom/Tot outing with a group I was checking out called Mothers and More. The outing was to Phillips Park Zoo and we had a very nice time. It was a little chilly outside, but we bundled up and Emma fell right asleep. We (I) got to see some great animals and I met some really nice women. We then went out to lunch a McDonalds and chatted some more. Most of the kids were older, like from 18 months to 4, but all of the moms were very warm and welcoming.

Getting SOOOO big!

Emma had her two month appointment yesterday and it went really well. She is now 8 lbs 5.2oz and is 21 1/4 inches long! She is growing way too fast (I've already had a talk with her about stopping right now!) She also got her first set of shots and she did pretty good. Of course she screamed but she calmed down right away once I gave her something to eat. Unfortunately I didn't even think about giving her some pain medication before so it wasn't until 4pm when she started crying a "mom it hurts" cry and I couldn't do anything to soothe her, I called Andrew and he picked some tylenol up on his way home. Once she got that tylenol in her she was good to go and slept the rest of the night.

Happy Birthday!

Andrew and Jim on his birthday (with Emma)
The painted family room
The painted Kitchen
The painted Living room/Dining Room
The painted Living Room/Dining Room

Friday we got pizza, rented a movie and stayed in. It was a pretty low key night, but it was very nice. Saturday Andrew started painting the living room/dining room while Emma and I went shopping at Kohls. It was also Andrew's Dad's birthday, and we went over to their house for dinner to celebrate. We had a very nice dinner (beef stew and it was yummy!) and carrot cake for dessert. We also had a nice time catching up with Andrew's Aunt Marcia and Grandpa Kurt.
Today Andrew finished painting the living room/dining room and I did some laundry and cleaning around the house.

Trick-or-Treat

The first house to trick-or-treat at
Walking the street to the next house
The loot

Andrew passed out candy this year and we were both really surprised with how many kids came by. We almost ran out of candy. Emma slept most of the early evening and we did decide to wake her up at 6:45 and take her to a couple of houses for her first trick-or-treating. She slept the whole time, but everyone ohhh'd and ahhh'd over her. It was pretty cold and late so we only went to two houses, but it was still fun!