Happy Birthday Emma Catherine!

I can't believe my little girl is 4 today. I know people say it all the time, but boy times flies quickly. It seems like just yesterday we were in Dothan in the hospital wishing she would go ahead and make an appearance in the world. At 6:06 p.m. she finally came into the world and our lives were forever changed. We love her so much and it's crazy how she is maturing and changing right before our eyes. She blesses us with her smile, joy, and love. Happy birthday, my sweet Emma Catherine.Wednesday's are a busy day for us with gymanstics, church, etc so to make the day a little more special, we picked up Gigi's cupcakes to have as a treat after lunch. She has been so confused because her birthday party isn't for another week and we couldn't bring cookies to school until next Tuesday. Hopefully she'll figure it all out. :)

Some Firsts

While in Florida Emma Catherine had two "firsts." Her first first was going to the movie theater. We went to see The Princess and the Frog. She was so excited to go and see the new Disney princess and to be in a theater. The movie was actually pretty good and I really liked the music. There was some voodoo in it which I wasn't thrilled about, but fortunately she doesn't understand that yet.
Another first was going to get her nails done. We told her back in October that if she stopped biting her nails that she could go to the real beauty parlor and get her nails done over Christmas in Florida. To be quite honest, I never thought she would be able to stop because she bites her nails all time. Her nails were never above the skin. She surprised us all and stopped biting her nails completely. She let her nails grow so long that we had to trim them. My aunt took her to the shop and also brought her special snacks.

Christmas Day

We usually start opening the adults Christmas presents before the little girls get up so we can get a head start. We started at 6:00 this year and the girls woke up sometime between 7:30 and 8:00. We heard them talking and playing in their room at my grandpa's so we quickly put out their big present.
They were so excited to get a barbie jeep. Emma Catherine has been asking for one for awhile. Not surprisingly she was a little nervous at first and Bailey hopped right in.
Once she saw Bailey she hopped in too. We then let the girls go at it and open their presents. The jeep ended up being a great entertainer though because when the adults were taking turns opening presents, Bailey would play in the jeep. She brought her new baby, books, and bags in the jeep with her. It cracked us up.
After presents we had breakfast casserole for lunch. On Christmas night we always go visit my grandpa's best friends and then to a Christmas party at another of my grandpa's friends. This particular Christmas party tradition started when my mom and aunt were little girls and it has continued all these years through many generations. It was a great Christmas.
We are still working on Emma Catherine's driving. She gets distracted easily and likes to play with the radio in the jeep. Also if we tell her she needs to move over to the right or the left a little, she makes a very sharp turn. I'm sure she'll get better with more practice. Unfortunately, there's not much practice going on in Chattanooga right now because IT IS SO COLD. The temperature hasn't gone above freezing in days. When we got back home on Sunday night, Ryan dumped the ice from our cooler in the yard. Well, the ice is still there. It is supposed to snow tomorrow so we'll see.