Emma's 1st Birthday - Round II

It was just the three of us for Emma's official birthday on the 20th, so Allen brought home a cake, balloon and stuffed animal for Emma after work that day for us to celebrate after dinner. Emma loved the cake of course, but we made sure she didn't have too much since she goes to bed soon after the dinner hour. We love you baby girl!

Christmas I - Grimords

December was an extremely hectic month, which makes me a little sad since it really is my favorite time of the year. We started out the month with both Emma and I getting H1N1- yeah that was fun! I'm telling you that I have never felt so sick in my entire life, it was pretty awful. Thankfully, Emma didn't seem to be affected by it too much, she was also recovering from an ear infection, pink eye and the flu all at the same time - you got to love daycare right?! Anyways, my mom came down a little sooner than expected to help take care of the patients - Allen was fortunate not to get the flu, but he did have a pretty bad sinus infection so needless to say the Rolland household was out of commission for about a week.

Following the sickness we had our first big snow storm that came up from the south - we got about 12 inches from that storm and while I would normally enjoy this kind of weather, I worked through most of it being the Director of the Red Cross branch in Marion. We opened up two shelters that weekend so I didn't really get to enjoy the snow as much as I wanted to.

Things started to perk up a little bit as we got closer to Christmas and my dad and brother came down, thankfully Thomas was able to get leave and be with us for the holidays. We were a little limited in what we could do because of the weather so we spent most of our time staying inside, cooking and enjoying each other's company. We had a great Christmas!

Christmas II - Rollands

Our second Christmas was with the Rolland's who came down the Monday after Christmas and spent the week through New Year's with us. We were very fortunate this year to spend the holidays with both families. One of Emma's big presents from Grandma and Grandpa Rolland was a Radio Flyer Wagon - sadly we can't use it much now, but we're excited about using it more when it gets warm outside. We spent our time with them having a great Christmas, shopping, watching movies and eating yummy foods.