One of Emma's new favorite things to do is ride the carousel at the mall. I take her once a week and she is allowed two turns.

While we were at the mall yesterday Greg took her on the carousel. Later that night we noticed that Emma had recreated her very own carousel at home. :)

She acts out the events of her day through play all of the time. But, we thought that this was particularly clever! ;) Emma even included a tea cup (she calls it the "coffee cup") in her carousel~do you see the pumpkin bucket? She put two of her fisher price figurines inside and told me that it was her and daddy! :)

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our Halloween Pumpkins last night and Emma had SO MUCH FUN! These pictures speak for themselves....

"Holes in the Ears" : )

"BEFORE"...."AFTER"....

Emma has been telling me for a couple of months that she wants to wear earrings like me. : ) She is NO DOUBT a girly girl so I was not surprised! To be honest I was not 100% ready to let her get her ears pierced though and I was hoping that she would forget about it. After all she is only 4 and a half and still my baby!! I explained to her that to wear earrings like me she would have to let the lady at the store put holes in her ears, that did not deter her a bit. She told me that she wanted "Holes in the Ears"! : )

So, yesterday Greg and I took her to the mall and she got her ears pierced. Emma chose the earrings that she wanted and they did both ears at once. She did not cry at all, although later on she did get a little teary eyed-I'm sure that they were stinging a little bit. Motrin and a sucker cured that quickly! ; ) She looks VERY CUTE wearing earrings!

Today EVERYBODY in the house had to wear "earrings" (stickers): Daddy, her Teletubbies, and her baby dolls. That was pretty funny!

Log In Date, Lao Lao and Boogers.....

Look! It's the British singer-Amy Winehouse....no, wait it's just my Emma Kate on the brink of coming down with a nasty cold! : (I'm excited to announce that we have a Log In Date of October 15th with the CCAA for our dossier! We waited about two weeks, which seems to be the current average trend. Now we will wait and see how long it takes to get our Letter Of Approval, we are hoping to have it around Christmastime...with our Travel Approval soon to follow! AND, speaking of traveling...my Mom is going to be taking the journey to Sophie with us! Greg, Emma and I are SO excited that Lao Lao is on board. : )

On another note, poor Emma has a horrible cold. She came home from school on Tuesday and craweled into my bed, that should have been a red flag that something was brewing. She woke up around 3 am on Wednesday and we have been wiping boogies ever since-the poor baby!! She has stayed home from school for the past 2 days. With lots of hugs, liquids and Barney...I'm sure that she will be back to her old self in the next day or two.

Do I Take Too Many Pictures?!

I was cooking dinner one night this week when I suddenly heard Emma say "Say Cheese Mommy"!! I turned around to see her standing in the kitchen with her toy camera. I obliged and posed a few times as I chopped & stirred. Next, I heard her ordering our dogs Jack and Mikey to say cheese. :) Luckily I had MY camera in hand to capture these funny shots! Hmmmmm, maybe I do take too many pictures of Emma????

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

~My little pumpkin~
~Emma riding the train~

~She posed all by herself~ :)
~Emma HAD to carry one of the pumpkins all by herself...it was dropped more than once~
~Emma going down the big slide~

~Emma and Daddy~ Last Saturday we met our local FCC group for a morning of fun at the pumpkin patch. It was a very windy day, but it was in the 70's---the first time that we've visited a pumpkin patch in short sleeves!! There were a lot of fun activities to do and a great selection of pumpkins. The pictures really speak for themselves!

We are DTC!!!

*DOSSIER TO CHINA*

Our dossier (big-fat-pile-of paperwork) was mailed to China on Tuesday, about 10 & 1/2 months after we started. We should be logged in (Log in Date with the CCAA) before the end of October...if nothing goes wrong...we will keep you all posted...we HOPE to travel around January or February of 2009....HERE WE COME SOPHIA GRACE!!!!!! (We being Mommy, Daddy, Emma and ............Lao Lao????!!!)! :)

Cute Pictures of Emma!!

Okay, I know that Emma is my daughter....but, tell me that she isn't THE CUTEST GIRL EVER!!! :)
She has been very compliant mugging for the camera lately. We went to Hays, KS a couple of weekends ago (PULEEZE-do NOT google it...) and we visited The Stienberg Museum and Oktoberfest where these pictures were taken.
The other pictures of Emma dressed in her Halloween attire (thanks Lao Lao!!) were taken this afternoon after school out on the driveway.