Another week bites the dust.

Emrie was 17 weeks old on Friday. She continues to get more personality every day. Lately, she's started doing raspberries with her tongue when I talk to her. She's like "Ehhh get outta here Mom. You're too funny. I think I'll spit a big raspberry at you." Then she spits and laughs.

This is her 17 week picture. Sorry I couldn't catch the raspberry on camera.

Our Little Cupcake!

The Aggie Mom's Clubs had their annual sale on campus Friday. I bought this sweet little cupcake hat for Emrie. I snapped a couple of pictures with my phone this morning. Everytime I see them I can't help but smile. I think the one on the left is going to be my "when I'm having a bad day" picture...you know, the picture that makes everything better. There is no way I can be in a bad mood after looking at it. God has blessed us with the sweetest little girl. I knew that I always wanted to be a mommy. Now I know exactly why. My heart overflows with love everyday with just one look at her. Thank you God for our Mootzie.

CHOKE!

Emrie went to bed last night around 7:30pm so I went to bed around 8:30pm. Hey, I learned my lesson early on...I gotta sleep when she sleeps. Anyhoo, she woke up around 10:30 and did not want to go back to sleep so she and I joined my dad on the couch and watched the end of game 6 of the World Series. The Rangers were sooooo close not once but twice. Wow can you say choke. Emrie was extremely disappointed. In fact, she was so distraught that she decided to stay up til about 1am. Then she was back up around 4am obviously awakened by nightmares of game 6. All I can say is the Rangers better win tonight. I need some sleep.

Mom + Dad = AWESOME

My mom keeps Emrie on Mondays and my dad keeps Emrie on Thursdays and Fridays. When my moms here she normally cleans. She does the laundry, changes the bed clothes, washes dishes etc. It's AWESOME! When my dad is here he cooks. Tonight we had meat loaf, mashed potatoes and corn. Again AWESOME!
I'm currently working out the details of my master plan to convince them to BOTH come on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays : )
We're winding down for the evening. Emrie is already in bed and we're watching the world series. Go Rangers!
Tomorrow is Friday. Thank you God!

The Butterfly Orb

I've been meaning to post pictures of this thing I bought for Emrie's nursery called the Butterfly Orb. It's really cool. I custom ordered it and actually got to choose how much of which colors I wanted. So I went with 40%turquoise, 40% yellow, and 20% pink.
It matches her nursery just right. Right now it's hanging over her changing station. The ceiling fan creates just enough breeze to make it spin slowly. It's mesmerizing. And Emrie likes it too.

It's also a real pain because it never fails when I'm changing Emrie's diaper and get a little too close...the next thing you know my hair is tangled up in the orb! Once she starts sleeping in her baby bed (yes, she's still in our room right now) I plan to move it over her bed so she can gaze at the butterflies as she's drifting off to sleep. Awww sweet baby.

Mommy & Emrie Day

My Wednesday babysitter, Amy, went out of town for the rest of the week so Emrie and I spent the whole day together. This morning we tried out her exersaucer for a while. She really likes bouncing up and down in that thing and pushing the buttons to make the lights and music come on. She also had her dreaded tummy time. Most of the time when we put her on her tummy she just stubs her nose at us, stick her thumb in her mouth and falls asleep but not this morning. As you can see in the picture she was up looking around. It won't be long before she's sitting up all by herself.

At 10am we headed to the radio station. In fact, if you listened to KORA from 10am-3pm you probably heard Emrie on the radio. She'd be quiet as a mouse until I turned on the microphone and then she'd start talking or humming or laughing. I think this baby has a real future in radio!

When I got off the air she and I did a little shopping at Gymborie. Well, I shopped and she slobbered all over my shoulder. I don't think she's teething yet but she sure does slobber. Anyway, I picked up a bright red shirt with polka dot tights on SALE. I love that word SALE! It's never too early to teach it to your children.

Emrie is sleeping now and I'm working on her scrapbook. I've made it all the way through her showers. I haven't even gotten to the part where she was born yet. WHY? Why didn't someone warn me about what a big undertaking a scrapbook would be? At the rate I'm going she's going to be a year old and I'll still be working somewhere around the 3 month range.

Quick Update from the Weekend

Congratulations to my cousin Cody and his new beautiful wife Bri!

They tied the knot on Saturday in Industry, Texas. It was a really nice wedding. My singing partner Scott Hughes and I sang at the church. We sang The Prayer. I love that song.

Brian had his company picnic so he and Aiden went there first and then met us at the reception in Shelby. It was Emrie's first wedding and she did really well. Mom gave one of the readings during the ceremony and I was up at the front singing so daddy better known as Mufasa was responsible for Emrie. I honestly only heard her once during the ceremony and even then she wasn't crying. She was just chattering away.

She also did really well at the reception. Granted she had three major blowouts but I was well stocked with backup clothes. I only wish I would have gotten at least one good picture of her in any of her wedding clothes. By the third change of clothes she was down to your basic pink onesie. Ahhhh my little Mootzie made big poopsie. That just came to me. Yep. Sometimes I amaze even myself.

The Walking Dead

Brian and I have recently started watching the TV show The Walking Dead. It's in its second season and we still can't figure out where the zombies came from...maybe in season three. Anyhoo, it's Monday night and I'm waiting for our other favorite show Sons of Anarchy to come on. I just stumbled across a show on the History Channel called Zombie Apocalypse. This show is actually telling you what to do should zombies attack. Right now it's discussing what weapons are best suited to properly kill a zombie. In case you're wondering, a snow shovel is one of the number one rated tools. I'm afraid we in Texas are going to be out of luck. The good news is that guns are a handy second - plenty of those in Texas. Oh, and always aim for the brain.

I gotta be honest; I never gave much thought to it. You know zombies are just something someone with a morbid imagination made up to scare the poop out of you. Well, not according to this show. It's tying biological warfare to the creation of zombie-like people much like the movie I Am Legend. Now that is scary.

16 Weeks Already

This is Emrie chillaxin' on her pink piggy pillow pet. She was 16 weeks old on Friday! She kind of looks like her favorite Uncle Brandon when he was a baby.

At 16 weeks Emrie has become a little chatter box. I have no idea what she's saying but she just talks away. I especially love it when I ask her a question and she answers in her precious baby talk. It makes me laugh which makes her laugh. That's also something new she's just recently started doing...LAUGHING. She has also discovered her feet. They're apparently very captivating because she loves holding them...pulling on them...staring at them...talking to them. Ah feet. Who knew?

15 Weeks Old

I have really gotten behind on my daily blog - SORRY!!! This whole mommy thing can be very time consuming.

Emrie was 15 weeks old on Friday. I figured I better post her 15 week old picture before this Friday gets here and she's actually 16 weeks old!

I included her 11 week old picture too so you can see how much she's changed. She's getting so big.

Thank you God for our little Emrie. You have truly blessed us. Our hearts overflow with joy and love daily!

Mootz...in a hat!

It was a little chilly this morning so I dug out one of Emrie's little hats for her to wear. She looked so funny...but warm. I just had to share this picture with you.

I call it Mootz in a Hat!

Aggie Bling

98.3 KORA and Montelongo's have teamed up to bring you the Collegiate Jewel Giveaway! Every time you hear the Aggie War Hymn call us to register for the weekly drawing for some AGGIE BLING! The winner will be drawn on Friday mornings. I love this contest because I actually have a beautiful ring from The Collegiate Jewel and I receive so many compliments on it. If you're a true Aggie fan you should stop by Montelongo's and check this jewelry out. In fact, while you're there REGISTER TO WIN IT!!!

That Hit the Spot

At the end of my really, really, really bad day I was exhausted. Being upset will do that to you. And, I had a crick in my neck. It didn't start out too bad but by the end of the day I couldn't turn my head. So I decided I deserved a massage!

I managed to get in a 30 minute appointment at the French Door at 5:15. If I would have known how good it was going to be I would have scheduled a full hour. Delores, my massage therapist, took a couple of minutes to discuss my trouble spot and then got started. I was wonderful. This sounds kind of ugly but I really liked it because she was all about my massage and not a chatty cathy. I don't want to talk during my massage. I want to just lay there and drool. Delores has it down to a science. It was like getting a massage from a mime. I went in knotted up and left feeling like jello.

I know what you're thinking and NO I do not get paid to tell you these things and I didn't get a free massage. I just believe in passing along good stuff and my massage was REALLY GOOD STUFF!

Sometimes a girl just needs flowers

I was having a really, really, really, really bad day. You know how sometimes you let those little things slide...and slide...and slide until all of a sudden you just can't do it anymore and you explode. Well, today I had reached my capacity with the little things.

Anyway, since Brian is out of town and my stupid cell phone only works half of the time (which only adds fuel to the flames) I decided to unload on my good friend John Siegler. Thank you John for listening to me rant and rave and cuss and fuss. Thank you also for the flowers. They made my really, really, really, really bad day a little more tolerable. Thank you for thanking me for all of my hard work.

See how easy that was? I said "thank you." Those two simple words go a long way. We should all say them a little more often.

The Best Night So Far

Emrie stayed with my parents yesterday in Brenham. My mom watches her on Monday and my dad gets Thursday and Friday. So, with Brian out of town I ended up staying the night in Brenham too. Wednesday night was the pits. Emrie wasn't feeling well so she was up ALL NIGHT which means I was up all night. I made the drive the B/CS early yesterday morning, doubled up on coffee and was okay until about 3pm. Boy, I was tired. I made it through work and hit the road back to Brenham at around 6pm. Thankfully, Emrie was feeling better and had an amazing day with her Mufasa - that's what we call my dad. She was talking away when I got there. My dad has been trying to teach her to say "I love you" which he swears he's heard her say : ) You gotta love grandparents.

I went through our nightly routine of nursing, bathing and putting Emrie to sleep and she passed out at 8:30pm. Now here's the GREAT part. She slept like a log until 2:30am. That's 6 whole hours! I was so refreshed (its amazing what a couple extra hours can do) that I didn't mind nursing her in the middle of the night. And you know that little Mootz fell right back to sleep. We were both snoozing again by 3am. Granted I had to be up extra early this morning (5am)because I had to report for work at 7am but still it was a great night!

My little Mootz is growing up so fast! Brian wont recognize her when he gets back.

Brian's daily pictures...

When Brian is out of town I try to send him a couple pictures of Emrie each night. These are the two from last night. She looks so funny!

He misses his little Mootz. He calls every morning and every night to talk to her. Yes, I'm chopped liver : )

I normally put him on speaker phone so she can see the picture of Brian on my phone and hear his voice at the same time. The picture on the left is her..."you talkin' to me" face. Priceless!

Emrie and Addix

These two pictures just make me smile. Emrie was so happy sitting on the couch so I snapped a picture. Then we put Addix on the couch next to her so I could get a picture of these two happy babies together. For some reason these two were no longer happy BUT their mommys had a good laugh.

Sunday...another exhausting day

We started our Sunday at 5:30am. Now remember we didn't get home from the Jankowiak Family Reunion until 1am. Did I mention we were pooped? Brian had to be at the airport by 6:30am so we were up and out the door early. I know...I know... he could have driven himself to the airport but he's going to be gone all week so Emrie and I wanted to see him off. She was actually a way better sport about getting up early than I thought. She woke up on her own at 6am. We plopped her in her car seat and drove to the airport. She never even fussed. Brian gave us both a big kiss and hug and then he was off and Emrie and I headed back home. I was exhausted but Emrie was bright eyed so we hung out for a while before getting ready for church. I had nursery duty so we didn't leave church til after noon. By this time she was getting cranky. Can you tell?

We had somethings to take care of at the radio station and then be back at the church by 5pm. We ran some errands and finally called it a day around 7pm. Emrie passed out about 30 minutes ago and I'm about to do the same. Tomorrow is Monday. Ahhh...Monday. I can hardly wait.

Updates from the weekend...Friday and Saturday

The Jankowiak Family Reunion was scheduled for Saturday afternoon and as long as I can remember my mom and dad have been the ones in charge. So, when I got off work on Friday I made the drive to Brenham to help get things ready. Emrie was already there...she and my dad had spent the day in Brenham.

Let me back up for a second...on Thursday, my great-aunt Bernice passed away. There was a visitation on Friday and then the funeral on Saturday. She was a neat lady. In fact, she told her daughters when she got to Heaven she was going to tell God we needed some rain. You gotta love her attitude. So, when I got into town I met my family at the funeral home for the visitation.

After the visitation, my mom, dad, Don and Kerri Woltmann (friends of my parents), Wanda (friend of my parents) and Emrie and I all drove out to the Latium Volunteer Fire Department. That's where we've had the reunion for the last several years. We peeled potatoes. Covered tables with paper, decorated and basically got everything set for the next day. It was a lot of work and we didn't get home til 12:30am. Emrie and I stayed at mom and dads.

The next morning was the funeral. We finished up there around 12:30pm and then had to hurry and get out to fire department for the reunion. It was supposed to start at 1pm. Thankfully, no one really shows up until 2ish. Mr. and Mrs. Woltmann had been there since early morning and had already taken care of a bunch of the busy work. Once we got there we set up for the raffle and started cooking. We served steak, sausage, potatoes, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, sour kraut and bread. What can I say? We come from a long line of eaters. The food and fellowship was great. New this year was BINGO! I was the number caller. We also had a margarita machine. And, new for the kiddos, my cousin Debbie brought a huge donkey pinata. The kids beat the snot out of the poor donkey and had a blast doing it.

People started to clear out around 9pm...which meant it was time to clean up and pack up. I dont think I ever fully appreciated all the work my parents put into the reunion each year until I helped them from start to finish. We made it back to Bryan around 1am. We were pooped! As you can tell from the picture Emrie had a great but exhausting time too.

Thanks Mom and Dad for all you've done to keep the Jankowiak Reunion running strong for more than 30 years. Thanks Don and Kerri Woltmann - Mom and Dad are blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thank you EVERYONE who stayed to help clean up! It was another great year.

Another week bites the dust!

Mootz...I mean Emrie is 14 weeks old today. She's spending the day with her Mufasa (my daddy) in Brenham. Daddy kept her yesterday too. He said she had the best day ever. She never cried, took several good naps, went on a walk and just talked the day away. He swears she even spoke a full sentence. Really? I know she's extremely brilliant but a whole sentence at 14 weeks? All she does is chirp and grunt when I'm around. Who knows...maybe she's been holding out on me.

I weighed her on Wednesday and she's a healthy 14.5lbs.

In the picture on the left she's sporting a light pink Ralph Lauren onesie. Before you say anything, it was a gift. And, right after this picture was taken she took the biggest poop ever. I think it's okay to say poop on a blog. Anyway it was huge. So big in fact that it got all over Mufasa too. I ended up having to cut the onsie off of her and hose her down in the tub. So much for the Ralph Lauren onesie.

The picture on the right is after the big poop incident. Yes, he's feeding her. What can I say? He's a glutton for punishment. Emrie loves her Mufasa.

Two of her favorite things...

Emrie loves bath time and her thumb...LIFE IS GOOD!

Emrie Visits Texas Nation

You can't tell from the look on her face but Emrie LOVES Jake Thomas and Texas Nation! We stopped by the KORA studio this evening and "Uncle Jake" was about to go on the air but he managed to slip in a couple of minutes with his number one fan before his show. Emrie's favorites - Velvet by Stoney and I Dont Want You to Go But I Need You to Leave by Aaron Watson.

REPULSIVE BUT I COULDNT LOOK AWAY

Repulsive but I couldn't look away...in fact, I took a picture!

I was on my way back from lunch and drove past this poor squished squirrel with its tail sticking straight up in the air in the middle of the road. I have no idea what possessed me but I found it necessary to turn my car around and snap a picture. Even worse...I found the need to blog about it.

Living the Good Life

This is a picture of sweet Emrie from this morning. She woke up not long after I did and was in a wonderful mood. I put her in our bed and we chatted a while before I had to get up and ready for work. I popped on the TV to catch a little of the morning news and noticed her watching the TV. So before I got in the shower I propped her up on her "pillow recliner" and changed the channel to Disney just in time for Mickey Mouse. She loved it! I know...I know...I shouldn't make it a habit of sitting her in front of the TV but she seemed to be enjoying it AND I was able to get dressed and ready for work in record time. M...I...C...See you real soon! K...E...Y...Why? Because we like you! M...O...U...S...E!

Sing Sing Sing

I joined the church choir on Sunday. Since the first time I attended Parkway Baptist I've always loved the music. We truly have some gifted folks at our church who make beautiful music and I felt the time was right to be a part of that. The last few times I've taken Emrie to church she's really enjoyed the music...now the rest of the service not so much (sorry Pastor Chris) so I took her along with me. She loved it and the choir members loved her. Brian and Aiden showed up about 15 minutes after practice started so all three of them watched. It was cool. I didnt realize how much I missed singing until I sang those first few notes. I hope Emrie takes after me and likes to sing. Brian always says he's singing in his head. Blah Blah Blah.