Daddy's 30th Birthday and our very 1st Dog jog

Hi Everyone;

As promised I am trying to update the blog weekly. I hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather, it is beautiful down here in Tennessee, still warm during the day and cooler at night but still comfortable.

Last week it was my Daddy's 30th birthday, can you believe it, I know he doesn't look anywhere near that age, or so I don't think so! It was so exciting to get to celebrate with him and all of our friends. On his actual birthday we had Kara, Ella and Fisher over for dinner and cake. Mommy made one of Daddy's favorite dinners; Lasagna, Cheesy garlic bread and Ceasar salad. For dessert, Daddy had brought home some "Dirt Cake" that my Pediatrician and Daddy's friend Kristin made for him.

Daddy got lots of desserts on his birthday, he had cinnamon rolls that one of the nurses in the clinic made for him, then donuts that one of the cheif residents bought and also dirt cake. On the weekend Mommy and I had a suprise party for Daddy, thanks to the help of Kristin, Kara and Chris. Kristin helped to gather a few of the residents, Kara helped mommy make food and get things prepared and Chris was the decoy, he kept daddy occupied! Daddy partied till 3am that night, I think he had a great time.

This past weekend on Saturday morning we participated in our very 1st "Dog Jog". We went with Kara, Chris, Ella, Fisher, Gracie and Bubba and our whole gang, we were quite the bunch. The dog jog was held at one of the Parks in Johnson City and the proceeds went to the local Animal shelter. Basically it was a 1 mile jog that we all did with the dogs and afterwards the dogs all went swimming in the lake, it was lots of fun. There were a whole bunch of vendors setup to visit afterwards and we got a bunch of free stuff, including these real funny play masks! Daddy, Ryder and I had so much energy that morning that the three of us did the jog twice, Dexter couldn't handle a second run, he was exhausted from the first. Fisher and I also got to hang out together in his stroller, I definitely think we have a connection!!!

While Mommy and I were away in Canada, Mommy had asked Daddy to put the child safety latches on all the cupboards and thank goodness she did. I love crawling into the kitchen and trying to open the cupboards, so far I haven't figured out how to get them open but don't worry I will keep trying. Although, Daddy didn't do the drawers yet and I had been able to open them up. Check out some of the pics Mommy took of me this morning in the kitchen, she took some video but they don't seem to want to upload, maybe next time. Oh yah, I not only do I crawl all over, I now pull myself up on everything and can even walk around furniture, watch out here I come!

Well that is all for now, we are having a rainy day today so Mommy and I are hanging out inside. Tomorrow should be a real fun day, we are having "Biscuits and Gravy" for breakfast at Kara and Chris's place, this is a traditional Southern breakfast that Mommy and Daddy have never had. Then we are going to a "Fall Farm Festival" with pumpkins, horses, a petting zoo and lots of neat things to do!

Love and miss you all,

Emmie

Visit to Canada

Hi Everyone, it was so nice to visit with all of you when we were back in Canada. Wow were we busy, everyday we were on the go! I made Mommy promise that the next time we come home that we take it a little easier and not travel so much.

Where do I start, we had visits with so many people, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Our visit started off with a visit to Papa who is currently staying in the hospital, it was so nice to see him, he really enjoyed seeing me. For some reason we didn't get any pictures with him, sorry Papa, I guess we were just so busy when we were visiting that Mommy never got the chance to take out her camera!

Next we spent the day hanging out with Auntie Amy, she came with us to see "Uncle" cousin Jay and Erica, this was before my new little cousin was born. Doesn't Erica look good for 35 weeks pregnant. I got to play in Heidi's room and check out all of her new stuff. Heidi must have been so excited, that she decided to come a little early (5 weeks to be exact). Mommy got to visit with Heidi in the hospital and she told me that she is adorable, I can't wait to play with her. Since Heidi was so early she has to stay in the hospital for a little while, so Mommy, Daddy and I are all thinking about her and hoping she gets big and strong very soon!

One night I got to have dinner with Aunties Amy and Sarah, they are so much fun. Auntie Sarah's house isn't very baby proof which meant I got to get into lots of neat things. Amy and Sarah tackled the feat of feeding me my dinner, check out what I looked like when I was all done. Mommy really misses Amy and Sarah and she was so happy to get a chance to spend some time with the two of them, I could see it in her smile!

We also got to have dinner with Mommy's friend Jen and my friend Cassie. We went to the park for a little bit and Cassie got to show me some of her favorite things to do at the park. Then Mommy and Jen took us out for Sushi, now that was fun. Cassie wanted to share everything with me, she is so nice, and Cassies nanny Hermie helped Mommy out at dinner which was very nice of her. I really enjoyed spending time and playing with Cassie.

This time when we were home we got the chance to make it up to Sudbury to visit all of my family in the North. I have a new cousin that we hadn't met yet, his name is Konner, he is 3 months old and he is so little and cute. I had tons of fun playing with my older cousins Karsen and Raeleigh, I can't wait till I can walk and run all over the place with them. It was also really nice to get to spend some time with my Great Granny, Mommy talks about her all the time and I know Mommy really misses her. It was very nice of my cousins Derek and Lindsay to let us stay at their place, they have tons of toys and a pool that I got to swimming in with Karsen. Our visit was really quick, but as Mommy puts it "better short than not at all!"

We even managed to get in one last summer BBQ while we were in town. Our cousins Lynn and Larry were kind enough to allow us to use their house since Gigi and Papa's place is still under repair from their flood. We had nice enough weather that we got to sit outside for part of the day. I had lots of fun playing with all of my cousins, big and small! My cousin Erik was showing me the ropes and he played really nice with me. I also seemed to have a keen interest in Erik's baby sister Elsa, she is only 2 months old but I have a funny feeling that we are going to have lots of fun tgother when she gets bigger like me. Mommy was so happy that everyone could make it out to the BBQ! This was my only real chance to spend some time with my Uncle Ryan, he ended up having to work lots when we were home, I hope at Thanksgiving I will get to see more of him, he is lots of fun.

The last leg of our adventure home was a trip to Gravenhurst to visit Gram, Pop-Pop, Great Gramma Hollinger and Ta-ta Kristina. We got to spend the whole day together, we played, went on a walk and they all got to see me eat my yummy baby food. It was a really nice visit, I thinked everyone was suprised at how big I have gotten and how much I like to move. Pop-pop kept saying "does she ever stop", I do, but only when it is time to take a nap! They were all excited to hear that Mommy and I would be back for Canadian Thanksgiving.

While we were home since Gigi and Papa's house was out of commission due to the flood, we slept at Rob's house with his kids Ameriah and Tacoma. Tacoma really likes playing with me, he even gave me my very own shoulder ride, it made me laugh! It was really nice of them to let us stay at their house.

Well that is all for now, it was great to see everyone while we were home in Canada, can't wait till Thanksgiving!

Love,

Emmie

Labor day Weekend in East Tennessee

Well my first labor day weekend has come and gone and yes, I spelt it without a "u" just as they would spell it down here in the south! We had a nice relaxing long weekend, Daddy was off all three days which was wonderful.

Our house is in a bit of chaos so we moved into our neighbors house for the weekend while they were out of town. We babysat there 2 dogs Bubba and Gracie, it was lots of fun to have 4 dogs to play with. Gracie really missed Ella and Fisher so she kept trying to cuddle with either Daddy or Dexter and Bubba was quite interested with me. He cleaned me all up during dinner one night which I thought was so funny, check out the video at the bottom!

Mommy and Daddy finally decided to purchase a king size mattress and frame, thanks to the help of Gigi and Papa. With both dogs in bed with them they have been finding it difficult to sleep at night so Gigi and Papa offered to help them out by buying the mattress and box spring. The bed and frame will be delivered in 4 weeks and I can't get over how excited Mommy and Daddy are. It was lots of fun shopping for mattresses, Daddy kept laying down with me on all these different beds and bouncing up and down. When we were finishing up and paying, Mommy and Daddy finally caught me laughing on video while I was playing in my stroller, listen to the video below.

Tonight was the kick off to College Football here in Tennessee and oh boy do they go all out. Daddy says it is comparable to the way Canadians are with hockey season. Everyone we saw in town was wearing bright orange and white (East Tennessee colours) and Kara and Chris had a kick-off party at their house. I wore my bright orange dress that we bought in Costa Rica and I fit in quite nicely. While Daddy and the boys played corn-hole (not sure if this is spelt correctly) outside and we cheered them on, Mommy got some good pictures of my posing on a blanket in the grass. Fisher was really cute, he kept trying to play corn-hole with the boys by sitting on the boards and dropping the bags in the hole. If you are wondering corn-hole is a game they play down here that is similar to bean bag toss.

At the end of the evening I took a bath with my buddy Fisher and it was so much fun. Check out the video Mommy took of the two of us, listening carefully at the end to hear my giggle when Fisher was doing zerberts on my leg!

Well that is all for now, we are off to bed and will head back to Kara and Chris's in the morning because the flooring guys will be here to start laying our floor first thing. We can't wait for our house to get back to normal.