She walks - finally!

Emma is almost 15 months old and has finally started walking! Luke and Leona started walking at 10 1/2 and 11 months, but little Emma waited. Which really hasn't been that bad because she is so little it isn't a problem to carry her. But now she is a walking machine chasing her brother and sister all over. Here are a couple of videos of the first few times she walked.

I didn't really push her to walk because I didn't want Thom to miss it, so he would always work with her on the weekends and I wouldn't do much to encourage her during the week. It worked, because she took her first steps for her daddy on March 25th.

We are all super proud of her, but Leona is just head over heels to see Emma-Lee waddle around.

Flutterbys

We visited a beautiful garden just north of us which had a butterfly house that we loved!

When we first walked in a white butterfly flew around us and landed on Emma's hand - how cool is that?

Then the same butterfly landed on Leona's finger - even cooler!

There were butterflies everywhere so the kids got to really have an up close adventure.

Here you can see our friendly butterfly.

We loved this place and are going back for Easter to see if we can make some more butterfly friends.

Luke's 6

Luke had a Space Alien birthday party at the Space Center here in Columbus. We said that an alien stole Luke's present and the kids had to get it back.

Luke has some great freinds.

This is Luke's special gift that he wanted sooooo bad...

He's a little into Harry Potter right now, totally cute kid.

Savannah the Beautiful

We had so much fun in Savannah! It is gorgeous and Thom and I totally fell in love with it. If Georgia wasn't so far from Cali and Utah, I could totally see us trying to make it work there. Maybe for retirement!

Savannah may be beautiful, but not nearly as pretty as my princess!

Great scenery.

Savannah was a big Pirate Town so we had to join in the fun!

We ate at the Pirate House, the oldest building in Georgia and pirate hang-out.

We also ate at the Crab Shack which was awesome except for the alligators.

I hate alligators, but the kids had fun.

On top of a very windy Lighthouse.

The oldest lighthouse in Georgia.

We went Dolphin watching, but Emma had more fun "eating" her life jacket.

So much fun!

Leona is channeling her little mermaid.

The beach was awesome

but windy.

Leona's self portrait in the sand, check out all her hair!

We had so much fun in Savannah and Tybee (the beach). I really hope we get to go back again... and again... and again.

Emma is ONE

We had a Birthday Extravaganza for little Emma-lee!

We didn't have a party for her, but we did have 3 full days days of FUN
On Thursday (her real birthday) we went to a play place called My Gym.

She played with her sister and brother and some other kids too.

Emma loved the big balls to roll around with and bang on.

She even really loved being in the ball pit (as long as no one jumped in on top of her).

That evening we were able to go see Thom on post which we weren't expecting, so we celebrated our baby girls special day with her favorite thing - Ice Cream!

The next day we went back to post pick up Thom and we played at a really cool indoor playground (sorry no pictures). Then we had dinner at Red Robyn where Emma was sung to by the waiters and got more ice cream and she loved it!

Saturday morning was finally time for presents!

Luke got her a little Snow White doll which she loved right away.

Daddy got her some clothes which she doesn't really need, but they are cute anyway. She also got a super cute cabbage patch from Grandma Jo and some other fun toys form the rest of us as well as a big play kitchen for all of the kids to play with (it even has a BBQ on the other side with fire for Luke).

After presents it was time for attack the brother games at an indoor jump house place called Monkey Joe's.

We all had a good time and Thom was able to help the girls slide down the big slides and race Luke down some slides too.

Emma loves ice cream so we thought about doing an ice cream cake for her, but decided to go traditional, and I'm glad we did because she dug right in! Luke and Leona were both hesitant about getting messy, but Emma has a super sweet tooth and just went for it.

She wore herself out with all that cake...

and playing... and presents... and ice cream!

Happy Birthday Emma!

We love you so much and can't believe that you are a whole year old now

and still the size of a 6 month old!

Here you can see her dive into her cake

Visiting History

There are a lot of great experiences that we now have the ability to enjoy since we are in the South. One of the coolest things we have been able to do so far is visit Atlanta on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Not just Atlanta but specifically the MLK National Historic Site. Within about a four block space you will find the house where MLK was born and grew-up, the church where he and his father preached, the King Center and museum, and his tomb. On King Day there were a lot of people visiting the site and they even had a march taking place there later in the day that we did not stay around to see, but people were really nice and we got to see quite a bit. I must say that the kids had a hard time with the museum because the subject matter made them feel uncomfortable, but they have respect for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and it was great for all of us to be there on that special day.

Emma and Thom waiting to go into the MLK childhood home.
The very nice family home of the Kings.

After our tour, reading about the architecture.

Thom and one of our heroes, Mahatma Gandi.

Leona decided to "walk in the light" as challenged by Dr. King in this museum display.

The kids in front of the eternal flame symbolizing the continuing effort to realize Dr. King's ideals.

It was awesome see so much of our history and be there with Luke, Leona, and Emma-Lee knowing that great kids like them are our future.