Emery's First Birthday!

My little girl is ONE!  It is hard to believe that it has already been a year.  What a year it has been!  There have been many emotional days filled with tears of joy and sadness.  These days there are lots of happy days.  Emery is doing wonderful!  Emery is commando crawling (she has been since 9 months) , climbs up on things including her brother, she smiles all of the time, she waves hello & goodbye, and she is finally sitting up all by herself.  We are so proud of her!  We still do not know exactly what the future holds for her but we definitely know it will be a very bright future.  Emery is one determined little girl and she does not let Down Syndrome get her down.  Thank you to all our friends and family for your thoughts and prayers during this last year.

We celebrated Emery's first birthday three different times in three different cities.  The first celebration was in Austin with my family.  We went to Dave & Busters for dinner and of course Carson loved playing games.

 The second celebration was on Emery's actual birthday, September 8.  We were in Hartford, Connecticut, with my aunt and cousins.

 The third and final celebration was in Midland with her cousins.  This was the first time for Emery to have birthday cake.  She loved it, just like her brother and cousins did!!

Connecticut

My cousin, Melinda, lives in Hartford, Connecticut.  She got married to a great Irishman, Paul.  The wedding was in a cute little town called Simsbury.  We took a train from New York City to Hartford.  It was great because we were able to see the country side and the train was really roomy.  Connecticut was beautiful and it was great to see my family.  The wedding was so fun!

New York City

My mom, dad, Emery, and I visited New York City before going to Connecticut for my cousin's wedding.  We had fun but it rained everyday that we were there.  Luckily my mom and I still managed to get some shopping in and see 'Chicago'.  Poor Emery got sick and with the bad weather, she did not get to see much.  Emery sure did like Time Square with all the lights!

Austin & Last Helmet Appointment

Emery first put on her DOC Band or helmet on June 7 and her last day was September 2!!  Three months and her little head looks great!!  We are so very glad that we decided to get the helmet.  Emery never let it get her down.  The first picture below is of Emery before they started taking the after pictures.  Too funny she really is showing her personality.  We did not know that she was flipping off the camera until they uploaded the pictures to the computer.  Look at that smile!  The second picture is of Emery's technician, Amy, who took care of her and us during this entire process.  Amy was amazing and what is funny is that she is from Odessa.

While is Austin for Labor Day my sister, mom, and I went and got our hair blown out.  It was so cool!  The place we went is called 'Blo'.  They wash your hair, blow dry it, and do it for you.  It is not a regular salon because they do not cut or color hair.  I went all out and went curling.  I loved it!  I have not attempted to duplicate it yet but hopefully I will try it soon.  Wish me luck.

Carson loves to go fishing when he is with my dad, Bubba.  This time we even were able to get Carson to kiss the fish.  Emery thought fishing was quite boring and took a nap on Mimmie

Train ride at Zilker Park!! Carson's favorite!!

Packing Emery up before heading to New York City and Connecticut.