Happy birthday party, Emilia!

Way back in June, Southwest had a 40% off sale, so my mom booked a flight to Austin over Presidents' Day weekend, since she had an extra day off work. Emilia's birthday fell on a Tuesday, so we would have had her party the following Saturday, November 3. Since my mom was already coming the weekend of November 10, however, we decided to postpone the party until she could be there. I actually appreciated being able to postpone for a few more days accepting the fact that my baby had turned one!

Emilia's birthday invitation

 Waiting on guests to arrive.

Aunt Catie, of course, made Emilia's beautiful birthday party dress.

I described to her over the phone what I wanted, and she made

exactly the dress I pictured in my head!

 Eating something "healthy" before the cake.

 Reconnecting with Joanie and greeting our neighbors,

Brenda and Justin.

Sweet birthday party girl! 

Three of my favorite friends, plus a new friend (or two):

Ruth, Adele + Reagan, Meg + (Walter)!

Reconnecting with Imogen, Joanie's daughter

  

 Sweet neighbors Sara and Noa

Party people, busting out the bubbles

I can't get enough of these two sweet friends: 

Visiting with Cappy

And reluctantly eating some non-sugar items pre-cake.

 Playing with Mama.

Cupcake time:

Cupcake eating, live in action

 

Maya and Bella

James

All clean!

Family pic

 Sweet James, who turns three in December, was so sweet to play with Baby E

 He's going to be such a great big brother to baby Reagan!

 Party people, watching Alabama lose to Texas A&M :(

 Reading with Ruth and Mimi

Happy birthday party, sweet baby girl!

Happy Halloween!

Since Emmers can't walk or eat candy yet, and she goes to bed before it gets dark, we decided not to spend money on a Halloween costume this year. So here she is on Halloween, dressed in her tutu that she wears casually during the rest of the year:

 My little ballerina!

 Hoping to catch glimpses of the big kids trick-or-treating.

 Too bad Emmers had to go to bed before any of them came by!

In the bustle of Emilia's actual birthday, I forgot to let her open her present (oops). She got a few fun gifts from friends and family, so we kept our gift small. Here she is opening it the day after her birthday:

 "Hooray! Thanks for the tissue paper, Mom and Dad!"

 "More? There's more?!"

 "A touch and feel farm puzzle by Melissa and Doug?"

 "Looks yummy!"

 "I like the puzzle, but I LOVE the tissue paper!"

 "What a great gift!"

"Yay!"

ABD

All. But. Dissertation.

That's it, folks. My dissertation is all I have left to do before you can start addressing mail to Dr. and Mr. Leachman.

I successfully defended my dissertation prospectus the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. So preparing for that defense was my excuse for not keeping up with the blog for all of November. What's my excuse for my blog-absence extending well into December? Um... Paper grading? Online Christmas shopping? The fact that the entry about Emilia's first birthday was my 100th blog entry (did you notice?), and how could I mess with that kind of symmetry??

So. I'm tentatively returning to blogosphere, though I don't know that this blog will look the same in the coming months as it has for the past year. We'll just see how it goes. If you're feeling desperate for new pictures of my precious baby girl, chances are you'll have better luck following me on Instagram, @juliannaleachman.