Dinner at the Hotel DuPont

Last night we had an amazing dinner at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington. Back in June, Martin won the gift card by playing in charity poker tournament and winning 3rd place. We decided to use the gift card to celebrate our engagement anniversary, which was earlier this month. Even though it had been 6 months that we'd been waiting to use this, it was so worth the wait!

This picture is the Green Room, which is the main dining room, but was closed for kitchen repairs last night, so we had dinner in the Bradywine room, which is very similarly gorgeous!


Our food was amazing! We had grilled ceasar salad with crab meat which was half a head of romaine that was literally grilled and then topped with huge lumps of crab meat and a great ceasar dressing. For dinner Martin had a seafood pot pie and I had duck with scallops. The food was really great, and we were able to get some unique dishes which added to the experience. We never would have gone here without the gift card, so we were so thankful to have this amazing opportunity!

Emma spent the evening with our friends from church, Jason and Megan, and she enjoyed playing with her friends Jake and Madison! Look at those cute girls!

The weekend

Over the weekend we enjoyed a visit from the Vermont Dunphys. The weather wasn't great, so we hung out inside for the most part, though we did take a drive up to Christiana mall to walk around and get some exercise. We played some games and even got to hang out in the pool at the Hampton Inn for a bit.

Bookworm

Little munchkin is already taking after Mommy and Daddy - she loves books! But recently she has found her favorite place to read....

Scripture Memory verses

It took a while, but I was able to track down the PDF list of the verses that Martin and I memorized last year. You can get it here.

One of our favorites from the year was Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, "my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose."

Emma's birthday

On January 13th we made a Warm Delight for Emma's "cake" - just for the pictures mostly. She had a candle.

Which you should not put into one of those things right out of the microwave or you will melt the whole candle:

She loved it, nonetheless.

We had cake on Saturday at her party

Emma dove right in to the icing, and then was very hesitant with her hands so messy. She didn't start really eating the cake until we wiped the icing off her hands.

Then she dug in!

And decided that she loved cake (of course)

She even tried to share cake with Daddy

And the camera

It was a great 1st birthday!

Goodwill project

While I sort through pictures from Emma's birthday, check out my post at Thrifty Living on turning this



into this!

Rice Krispies

This morning Emma had her first bowl of cereal with milk. She loved it, and has even started feeding herself off the spoon!

You can sort of see white spots on her top gums where her top 2 teeth are poking through!

The other day I made Rice Krispies Treats and let Emma lick the spatula. She went to town on that thing...

And was so proud of the way she cleaned it off!

Emma is 1!

January

Emma arrived right on time (well, 2 days after her due date) at 10:58am January 13th. She shares her birthday with her Aunt Laura!

Emma's first snow was on the way home from the hospital, but we went out in her snow suit a few weeks later.

February
Emma's familiar smile, way back on February 2nd.

March

We had some warm days in March, so Emma got outdoors early. She wasn't sure what to make of the wind initially:

April

Emma started talking and laughing in April. She also rolled over for the first time!

May

In May Emma grew in leaps and bounds. She enjoyed a trip to Miami to see Uncle Evan and Aunt Sarah graduate. She learned to hold onto things, and loves baseballs.

At the end of the month she began to sit up by her self!

June

June was a fun month for all of us. Emma began to love sitting and playing with things. She started singing along to music and eating cereal.

July

In July Emma had her first pizza crust at Pizza Johns. Daddy was so proud!

We also took a trip to Vermont, and Emma loved getting outside, especially on the sailboat.

August

Uncle Evan and Aunt Sarah got married on August 15th, and Emma was the honorary flower girl. She looked so grown up in her pretty white dress!

We also took Emma to the beach for the first time. She was less than thrilled with the sand and the cold water, though she loved being outside.

September

Emma's first Orioles game was in September, and she cheered the Birds on to victory! She wore Mommy's old O's shirt and took a nap through the middle few innings.

In September we captured that smile again. This is one of Daddy and Mommy's favorite pictures of Emma. Emma also began to sign "more" at meals.

October

We did a family photo shoot in October and captured some great memories of our happy little munchkin. Emma was also dedicated to the Lord at our church.

November

We had a warm November, so we took lots of walks with our friends (and neighbors) Alex and Avery. Emma learned to turn pages in her books, and sat and pointed through them. She also loves the ceiling fans, and learned to sign "fan" and wave goodbye.

December

In December Emma started clapping, taking steps, and then walking by herself! Wow! She enjoyed the wrapping paper at Christmas, and loves to eat "real" food.

We had such a fun time as a family the days before Christmas when Martin was off work.

January

Emma,

We love you so much and we are so thankful that God has entrusted us with raising you. We pray that He would make Himself known to you, save you, grow you into a Godly woman, and use to to make a great impact for His Kingdom! You have brought us so much joy this past year. We are loving watching you grow up. You have helped us to grow this year too. We've learned to trust God to protect you. We've learned that we cannot rely on our own strength to make it in life, especially as parents! We've learned that we need to seek the Lord first in order to be the best parents that we can be for you.

This next year we are looking forward to watching you develop your toddler skills. We can't wait to have a conversation with you in English. We want to pray for you more this year, so that as you develop and grow physically we can help you to grow spiritually as well. Happy 1st Birthday little munchkin!

We love you and are privileged to be,

Your Daddy and Mommy

Ravens!!!

Woohooo the Ravens crushed the Patriots today! We are looking forward to seeing them take down the Colts on Saturday!!!

Emma in the snow

A few weeks ago when we had the big snow, I took Emma out to get some pictures of her sitting in it. Well, lets just say that she was less than impressed with the snow and looked pretty much like this every time I tried to sit her down in it:




We got our second snow of the week (!!) this morning, so I thought I would try with her again. Instead of crying the whole time she whimpered a bit and looked pensive. Then I guess she got more used to the snow and settled for content:

And even took a closer look at the snow. PS...it looks like I used a cool effect on this picture, but I just dumped the camera in the snow accidentally and the fogginess is from the snow...

Emma even settled for pretending to play with the snow. This is her "I cannot look like I am enjoying this but I will move my hand back and forth in this crazy white stuff"

Emma is walkiing

About 2 weeks ago, Emma took her first few purposeful steps on her own. Prior to that, her version of walking was more like "controlled falling". It only took her about a week for stops to turn into really walking.

Christmas toy from Oma

Emma has really enjoyed playing with her new push toy from Oma! She really loves to push it around and dance to the music. Take a look:

A Major Accomplishment

At the start of last year, Justin Taylor posted a list of 52 different passages from the Bible, with the goal of memorizing one every week for all of 2009. This sounded like a great idea; a manageable way to learn Scripture, and yet challenging because every week there is a new passage. Some of the verses were short while some were longer passages, and even all of Psalm 1.

I started off strong the first few weeks, and then Martin decided he would like to try to memorize along with me. He had some catching up to do, but made his goal to learn them at a faster rate so that he could go back and review. Well, we both did it! I don't think that either of us could do every single one perfect at this point, but having each other to review with has been a huge help in committing these verses to memory. We also worked hard to match each verse reference with its passage, cause what's the use of knowing a verse when you can't find it if you need it!

This year we are working on a memorization plan that we have made ourselves. Some of our favorite verses from last year were the longer passages, so we are focusing on longer ones all this year. Instead of having a verse every week, we going to do a new one every 2-4 weeks, depending on the length of the verse. We are starting out with Psalm 130, which is shorter. I am very excited about our plan for this year, especially now that I can look back on all that we accomplished last year!

New Toys

We got Emma some bath toys for Christmas.



Its a tugboat with sea creatures.

She loves it.

Can you tell?