1st Birthday Pics

Today was Emmaline's first birthday, and happened to be one of the last days of a small spell of indian summer here in Ohio. So Ab took some pics outside this afternoon.

Moo Juice

This week Emmaline turns 1. And with her 1 year birthday comes the opportunity to move off of formula and onto Vitamin D milk. Unlike a lot of things somehow the transition to the ol' moo juice has been a breeze. So easy, I'm almost afraid to even say it!

Our First Fat Lip

We went to T-town this weekend and got to catch up with our good friends Jason & Becky...


Of course we found time to hang out with the Laveys. Carter and Emmaline were able to sneak in some good play time at Nana's.


On Sunday morning, EGH & I decided to play on the couch, and I tried to take some shots while she was sitting on my stomach...


On Monday, I took the day off and we hung out with Kara, Brooke, & Carter. Emmaline was playing with a couple plastic balls while trying to crawl around on the linoleum floor. Unfortunately, she found out that the combination of the two was a bit too dangerous...

There was a little bit of blood, probably more tears than blood, and a decent amount of swelling. But she seems to be a pretty tough kid and we haven't seen a tear since. Well, at least not a tear related to the fat lip incident... :)

Halloween Lamb

We dressed Emmaline up in this ridiculously cute lamb outfit for Halloween.


This might be the best hand-me-down costume ever (thanks Emily!). Below is the best photo we took, those little nonsense ears don't quite lay down, which was perfect. Also notice what's in her hand, more on that later...



Tonight we trick-or-treated with the super-excited-for-Halloween Baker boys. The Power Ranger was terrified of dogs, the Jedi raked in the candy. The lamb just watched them, and squawked.


Regarding what was in Emmaline's hand above. It was actually an old transformer (Astrotrain to be specific, which changed into a decepticon, train (with jets) & space shuttle, but I digress...) of mine, which she loves. She's recently taken to all of my transformers. She takes each one out of the case, inspects it intently, and then sets it down, and grabs the next. Besides Astrotrain, she's also fond of the Constructicons and this halfway ghetto go-bot transporter thing.

Katie's Wedding

Last evening Katie Humphreys Schriner married Michael Schriner here in Harbor Springs Michigan.


Unfortunately it rained during the entirety of the outdoor ceremony. But Katie wasn't going to let a little rain ruin her day. I was given the great honor of walking her down the aisle which was really neat. I've never had the opportunity of being anyone's 'best man', and now that I'm approaching 32 and most of my male friends are married I doubt I'll ever get that opportunity. However walking Kates down the aisle was an order of magnitude bigger deal to me.

The reception immediately followed, and quickly got loud. Not necessarily the DJ, its just that my family (besides me of course) has no concept of an 'inside' voice. There seems to be a direct correlation between the volume of the boys in the McMann family and how good a time everyone was having. Last night we were exceptionally loud.

Well, that might be some sort of record amount of verbiage that I wrote above, so I'll stop while I'm ahead and post some pictures!

Below is a pic of Kara and Brooke. I had my SB-400 with me and pointed the flash, up. Unfortunately I turned the camera 90 degrees, so the flash was pointed left of me. I thought the picture wouldn't turn out right, however, it actually turned out very nice.


Once dinner was finished, Katie told me she had an idea. And went to talk to the DJ. About 3 minutes later the DJ said that the next song was for Katie's Dad, and "Keep your hands to yourself" by the Georgia Satellites came on. What came next can best be described by this pic (shot on my camera by Todd)


The party certainly went on from there…

The last time I posted was 2 months ago

Rule. I mean seriously, 2 months? Do I really think I have any real readers? Doubt it.

It's 12:05 am and I should be in bed but I had to share a couple things.

1. I joined facebook tonight. Welcome to the intarwebs circa 2006, Brett. Glad you made it.
2. I made an idiot of myself last evening right after we left Bible study. The actual details aren't that important, nor for anyone who knows me is this situation at all surprising. However, after nearly wetting her pants Abigail said this:
   

"Sometimes, it strikes me as amazing that we ended up together. You do so many things that I've spent my whole life avoiding."

- [AEH 2008]

Nice. She avoids looking like a moron, and I excel at it.

Retreat of the Teething Monster

For the past week or so, Emmaline has been vying for The Crankiest Baby in the World title--she has been teething. Thankfully, yesterday, one of her top teeth poked through her gums, and she has been acting like herself again. Hooray! She cracked a few smiles and played with the toys that had been her favorites before all of this drama began. But we had to call in the professionals--the Baker Boys--to help her remember how to laugh. I'm happy to report that they were successful. We don't call them professionals for nothing; nobody does silly like these two. :)