Fall in the Jomaa House!

It seems like summer just ended. We had a really busy few months and we are already into Christmas! Where did the time go? Here's a recap of the last few months:

September:

We took a week in September to spend time with my parents in Destin. Fouad had to leave for a few days for work, so we extended our stay through the weekend in Panama City. As always, we had an amazing time. Emily LOVES the beach. She could spend all day collecting seashells and building sand castles. Here are a couple of shots of our beach bum:

Running in the water

 

Walking down to the beach

Emily and her princess loving friend Olivia had a little photo shoot in the park inspired by Pinterest. The girls had a blast together. Look at those precious smiles on their faces. We really wanted to do these pictures before Olivia and her family moved to West Palm Beach. We miss them so much!

Waiting for her laundry to dry

Hanging up their dresses

Sweet giggles

October:

Emily started ballet this month! The most interesting part about this activity is that parents aren't allowed in the room while the class is going on. I had a hard time on the first day with this, but Emily was ready to shoo me out of the room. We can't wait to see her mini recital on December 16th!

Practicing her moves

 

Jenn & Olivia joined us at the Cumming Fair for some fun, food, and rides! The girls were really adventurous. There was so much for them to do. We will be going again next year for sure!

Roller coaster with Daddy

 

Best Friends

 

Emily and I made sure to get out of the house and enjoy the fall weather this month! Here's a picture I snapped of her while she took a break from collecting leaves :-)

Hiking on the Greenway

 

Our sweet friends moved at the end of the month. This is a picture of the last time we were able to play before they left - at Olivia's birthday party.

We miss you Torrence Family! 

 

We went to Cagle's Farm to check out some pumpkins, walk through the corn maze, and take a hayride. We always love visiting this farm!

Finding the perfect pumpkin!

 

So glad I snapped a picture of this sweet girl on picture day before school! By the time pictures were taken, the bow was out of her hair and she was a little grumpier - no smiles!

Picture Day!

Emily and her friend Mattie enjoyed a day at the spa. They had manicures, pedicures, and facials. Every three year old needs some spa treatments to relax, right?

Relaxing with her yogurt facial :-)

Emily had fun dressing up for Halloween and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. She was a pro! She had no problem going up to the door, ringing the doorbell, and saying "Trick-or-Treat!" all by herself - much different than last year! Emily also got to dress up for school and participate in the Halloween parade :-)

Braves player, Witch, & Rapunzel

 

Ms. Lourdes & her class

 

We also got the chance to hang out with Nina, Samir, and Tarek at the zoo! Emily loves playing with her cousin!

Cousin bonding time

November:


It seemed like this year the leaves changed overnight and were more beautiful than I can ever remember! Emily loved spotting all the different colors out the car window. Here's a shot from our favorite park:

 Perfect fall day

Emily was so excited to celebrate "Turkey Day" this year both at school and with our families. Here's a few pictures from her school celebration - they put on an adorable show for us!

 Ready to feast!

 If you're thankful and you know it, stomp your feet! 

Emily & Ms. Lourdes

Photo Catch-Up

Well, we ended our summer with a lot of fun things, and now we are into fall. Here's a quick recap of our latest outings and adventures:

 

One last pool day with our friends

 Enjoying the biggest hot dog possible at our last Braves game of the season!

 

Playing doctor and giving regular "check-ups" to everyone, including our poor dogs

 Our little helper assisting with cleaning the house

 LOTS of tea parties, and always remembering to keep her pinky up!

 Makeup with Mommy

 Makeup by herself

 Doodling all kinds of things, including "monsters"

 Reading to Kitty in her closet

Home Depot workshop with Daddy after soccer

Parents Night Out

Emily's school does Parents Night Out one Saturday a month. We have been a little nervous to sign her up for a few months because we didn't know how well she would do. This past Saturday, Emily went for her first time and had so much fun! They wore their pjs, ate pizza and ice cream sundaes, watched a movie, and did art projects. Emily told us she thought it was so funny that the wall pretended it was a TV (which means they must have projected the movie on the wall) and she cried for a second when some of the kids were picked up early, but she stopped before we got there. We were so proud of her! She is excited to do it again next month!

 

Love this sassy girl in her "kitty cat" pajamas as she likes to call them :-)

Sassy girl got a new haircut

Emily loves to go to the "hair salon" to get her hair cut. We LOVE Sweet & Sassy. They do such a great job, and she feels like royalty when she gets her hair cut there. Here she is admiring her new do...

This girl LOVES purple...can you tell?

What Emily is up to these days...

This post is purely for us to look back on in a few years and remember exactly what it was like when Emily was three.

For the past few months, Emily had been obsessed with letters and numbers. It started with her name - she LOVES to spell her name. Then she started to recognize letters from her name in other words and would get excited that they shared letters with her name. After that, Emily would ask us to spell EVERYTHING. Now she has moved on to letter sounds. She frequently asks us to spell words, but she wants to guess the first letter based on the sound. I am truly blown away by this! She is learning so much at her school, and it always takes me by surprise. Like the time she started singing her colors in Spanish. I thought she might just know the song, but she actually knew the colors. Recently we were at our favorite Mexican restaurant and she wanted a purple balloon. I told her she had to ask for it using the Spanish word for purple and she did! Smart girl!

Emily is also very into pretend play. She loves to dress up like a princess, host tea  parties, or give us a check-up using her doctor kit. She likes to pretend that she's at the hair salon when we blow dry her hair at night, or that she's at the dentist when we brush her teeth. Her imagination runs wild, and I am often surprised with the scenarios she comes up with. It is so much fun!

She is also becoming independent when it comes to dressing herself. This has been a few months in the making, but we have finally reached the point where she has to pick out her outfits every day. It's almost always a dress, and almost always some combination of pink and purple (her current favorite colors). Today, she HAD to wear her pink ladybug socks. She said everyone would laugh at them because they are so cute and funny!

Class clown in her ladybug socks

Emily is also starting to love to read. Her favorite books at bedtime are Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, Pete the Cat, and her big book of princess stories. I often hear her reading Pinkalicious to herself - she has memorized the whole story. 

This is such a fun and sweet time in her life. She loves to laugh and be silly, and can be so incredibly sweet with her hugs, kisses, and dramatic declarations of how much she loves you. I will definitely miss these days when they are gone!

Daddy's Girl

This sweet picture of my two favorite people just melts my heart!

Daredevil

Looks like someone is comfortable at White Water now!

Southeastern Railway Museum

We took Emily to meet with her friend Jake at the Southeastern Railway Museum. Emily loved riding the small park train, and the large steam train. The small train was her favorite because it was purple :-) She also loved walking through the old train cars and seeing the different compartments (beds, bathrooms, dining areas, etc).

Emily's Soccer Party & School Party

Emily had her party at the indoor soccer field where she has soccer on Saturdays. We all had a blast! Her coach, Coach Justina, was on hand to facilitate the activities on the field, and then we had snacks and cake upstairs. I wish we would have known that the air conditioner wasn't working that day...it was HOT! We still managed to have fun wearing all the kids out :-)

Emily also enjoyed celebrating her actual birthday at school. We brought cupcakes to snack time so everyone could celebrate. Look how happy she was!

Happy 3rd Birthday Emily!

It's hard to believe that it's been three years since we first met our sweet baby girl! She surprises us every day with her intelligence, compassion, creativity, and humor. Happy birthday Emily! We love you :-)

Fun at White Water

Emily has visited White Water a few times this summer thanks to Uncle Andy! The first trip was just with Mommy and Daddy, but the second time we brought Miss Jenn and Olivia! Everyone always has a great time there!

 The purple slide - definitely her favorite! 

 Riding the "Bamama" (Bahama) with Daddy!

 Shootin the Hooch in a tube

 Relaxing in the lazy river

 Listening as Uncle Andy gives the rules for the day

 Racing with Olivia

 Going down the big slide with Miss Jenn!

 Sweet friends

Lots of giggles :-)