18 Months

Our sweet Emme Kate is 18 months old today! She had her well check yesterday and Dr. P said she was perfect! He was impressed by her development - she is meeting or has surpassed all of her milestones!

STATS:

30 1/2 inches - 28%

24 lbs 14 oz - 67%

So basically, she is a little short and likes to eat, lol! No, actually she is still in her baby phase and her curve seems to be gaining in height and is starting to level out in weight. He thinks by her 2 year visit we'll see percentiles closer together. He likes her growth.

Vocabulary: mama, dada, nana, papa, yaya, pops "pop", gabby "bobby", jackson, clay, thank you, down, done, water, papi, purple, cat, more, milk, eat, mine (ugh!), fish, hi, bye bye, shoes, bath, bubbles "bubba", baby, tree, cheese

Sounds: dog (she only says the "ff" of ruff), monkey, elephant (complete with arm as a trunk), cat, bird, snake, tiger, cow (she sort of does a motor boat blowing for this???), chicken, duck, pig, frog (she hops when she does it), sheep and car

She throws her arms behind her like a super hero when she runs, she tries her hardest to jump straight up - so cute!

She has the best little personality - she loves to laugh, loves to play with Jackson, loves to be held & cuddled, loves to play outside, love-loves her papi even though her days are numbered with that thing!

She is so stinkin' cute and we could not love her more!

P.S. I'll get a chair pic tonight!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town...

...and to our house! Santa & Ms. Claus dropped in for a visit on Monday night. Guess he had been checking his list and needed to know just what to bring the good little Hiler kids! Jackson & Emme were both a little apprehensive and wouldn't sit on Santa's lap or let him hold them, but they didn't cry either.

Ho Ho Ho!

Santa brought Emme a My Little Pony & magnetic "paper" dolls.

Jackson got a dinosaur & a dragon

I love his little face here - How to Train Your Dragon is his absolute favorite movie! This Night Fury dragon has slept with him every night since he got it!

Notice the body language...

Telling Santa what he wants

We tried our best to get a good picture...

Emme telling Santa what she wants

Aaron offering Santa some cookies - he wanted the whole plate, but Ms. Claus said no.

I think they wished for egg nog, lol!

Guns Up! Ms. Claus asked if we were Aggies, to which we all said very emphatically NO! She said "Oh good!" Ha! She had never done a guns up before as you can tell by the look on her face. ;)

Santa gave each of the kids a bell and told them to shake them. If the bell rings then he knows they believe in Santa Claus. Both kids bells rang!

Jackson & his Night Fury!
Emme & her My Little Pony

SPOILER ALERT! If your children are of reading age, do not let them go on...

My dad's bestie, Charlie & his wife Meg do this every year. Charlie starts growing his beard in late August & by Christmas is a pretty authentic looking Santa! Meg looks the part also! Their church collects gifts/toys each year and then Meg & Charlie take the gifts to the Ronald McDonald house & other hospitals and then they also book appearances for families and other organizations. I think my dad said they just picked up another major hospital. They were so sweet to come over and see our family - and we had a crew. Aaron's parents, my parents and my Nana were all there to see Jackson & Emme tell Santa Claus what they wanted for Christmas. We all had so much fun! Thanks Santa & Ms. Claus - we SO enjoyed your visit!

Mr. Roboto

We had Jackson's robot themed 3rd birthday party at the municipal utility district building down the street from our house. We invited his whole class for the first time this year and I knew we would not be able to accommodate everyone at our house. The building was perfect with a huge indoor space, a kitchen, bathrooms, a playground, a fenced yard to run around in and room for a bouncy house. The best part - it cost $50. Score.

Pictures from Jackson's party (Sunday, Dec 5th) - in no particular order....

The cake - Gabriel is my hero!
Some of the decorations Aaron & I made - we saved cans for months, lol!

small table centerpieces - they were all different

Good buddy, Zach!

Frankie drinkin' & drivin'....

Sweet London!

Gabi painting her robot bank

The bank painting was a hit!

My sweet Wacko!

This was pretty much Jackson's face the whole time!

and he was rarely still...

This is one of Jackson's best buddies, Luke.

He is quite the daredevil - at one point, he dropped 5 feet face-first off the moneky bars into the dirt, got up & said That was fun! He's a nut!

Jackson "pumping" Frankie. Ha!

This was about the only time KK wasn't crying. :(
She is very shy! So glad she was able to have a little fun!

"Robot" hats made of oil filters

Evidently, the new thing is to NOT open gifts at the party. I sort of have an issue with this because I believe it is important to teach children how to give gifts & how to graciously accept gifts, but obviously that is not something that all parents feel is important, so we didn't. We took all the gifts back to our house and our family members watched Jackson open them.

He got tons of fun things from all of his friends and sweet family members - thank you so much to everyone! Yaya, Gabby & Nana all made yummy food to bring; PaPa took pictures; Aaron stayed up late & endulged me as we made soup can robots; Pops & Clay helped with the clean-up - it was a true family affair! Thanks guys! Love ya 460!