Emmalee turns 8!!

 Well birthdays in the Schimek household are over for a while. Emmalee's birthday marked 4 birthdays for our household in a month, plus 4 grandparents birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all in the timeframe makes for a jam packed month. Expensive too!! Thank you Lord for opening our eyes to budgeting!!

So today is our sweet Emmalee's birthday. I can't believe that 8 years ago I was cuddling my new baby girl in my arms and right now as I write this she is sitting her eating a bowl of cereal and talking to her sisters. 

We have tried to make it a point of making our kiddos birthdays special. Thru out the years how we do that has changed to fit John's work schedule, budgets, etc. We used to do special birthday breakfast when John worked afternoons(4-midnight), for a while we did birthday parties with inviting friends and classmates. Now what we do is dinner at the birthday child's choice of restaurant, then cake and presents at home with just us and the kiddos and sometimes a good friend. This works well for us and the kids really enjoy it. They feel special picking where to go and what cake they want. Sometimes they want a homemade cake, sometimes we buy one. As I get older I see that its not about how big of presents we buy, or having a huge birthday party. Those things are just fine. But for us and our kids, it really is about how special and loved they feel on their day. 

This year Emmalee changed things up!! She picked Qdoba for dinner and picked a homemade chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and topped with chocolate frosting and chocolate covered coffee beans, which she and her friend help decorate. She enjoyed her night!! She had requested I make her a unicorn shirt. I found this beautiful dress with a plain white top and beautiful pink tulle with silver unicorns for the skirt. I bought a super cute svg file of Etsy and put it on with my cricut and heat press. I did her hair up all cute and we topped it with a JoJo bow. She looked like the beautiful princess she is!!

Been a month of learning

This past month has been a big one for Livie. She has learned many new things this month. She no longer wants to eat baby food. She either wants to feed herself or just nurse. She also wants new things to try. And is getting where she spits out food if it isn't what she wants to eat.

She also has learned to pull herself up on furniture. This comes in handy for her when the kids put food on the coffee table to keep her from getting it.

Livie has also learned to FINALLY crawl. I actually thought she would just skip this since she is almost 11 months. Figured she would jump ahead to walking, but now she is crawling all over.

And she has gotten the baby doll bug. She will cry if Kennedy walks into the room with a doll and doesn't give it to her. Not only does she want the baby, she will hold it up to her shoulder, snuggle her face close to the baby's face, and rock it. It is quite cute.

So there are just a few things Miss Livie has learned this month. She is growing so fast and I can't believe my baby is almost a year old!