A Dockerty Family Birthday Celebration

As we couldn't quite get an answer from Emily on what her favorite dinner would be Mom decided we should have spaghetti and meatballs followed by an Elmo chocolate chip cookie cake. We all know Emily's favorite anything is chocolate so I thought that would be okay. When asked what she wanted for birthday dinner her brother promptly responded with his favorite meal of Mac and Cheese, followed by the suggestion of salad and Apples. Emily agreed that apples sounded good to her.

As a special birthday surprise Emily received her first bouquet of flowers from her Daddy. She was very proud of her flowers and happy to report that they were "MINE" as any good two year old would tell you! MINE MINE MINE!

Happy Birthday Emily! Today I am reflecting on how for nine plus months I carried you and loved and hated every minute of it. I was so happy to be having you but also so miserable with pregnancy. I started a new job while 3 months pregnant with you and often joked with my new coworkers that I was not always this miserable and that they didn't know the real me because being sick everyday made your Mom a bit grouchy. You were a special baby to my new work family as the day you were born was the day the US BioEnergy first 10k was filed. Mommy worked very hard with her US Bio coworkers/friends to prepare that document and while US Bio is no longer in existance I will always remember that day along with your birthday. For months Mommy's coworkers half heartedly joked that you were not allowed to come one day early as Mommy had a job to do and that was finish the 10k. March 29th arrived and I left work knowing the 10k would be filed the next morning, at nearly the exact time you were born. Mommy actually listened to the US Bio Press Release from her hospital bed just hours after having you! You can look forward to me telling you this story along with your birth story to you every year from here on out but I will spare the internet ALL the gory details! For now we will just say two years ago today you blessed us all with your arrival and we have not stopped chasing after you or loving you for one tiny second!

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Lady!

March 14, 2009 Emily's Second Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Emily! Tomorrow my little lady turns TWO! While we celebrated her birthday two weeks ago, her actual birthday is March 30th. As Elmo or "Melmo" is the only character she knows we had an Elmo themed party, it was absolutely adorable if you ask me. For the first time ever my entire family was here along with Mike's entire family. It was a big birthday celebration weekend. We had beautiful weather and a great time. I find I don't have the words to describe how much Emily has grown up in this last year. I look back at the photos from her first birthday party and am just amazed that it has only been a year. She has gone from learning to walk, to running, dancing, spinning, jumping, talking, and just being the sweetest feistiest most adorable little girl around!

Mom's Birthday Breakfast

Minnehaha Falls and Bowling

On March 16, 2009 both Ben and I played hookie from school and work (everyone else was on Spring Break). Turned out to be a GREAT day for that as it was unseasonably warm with a high of 67 degrees for March 16th! We spent the day with my brothers, their wives, and Gabe. We took the light rail train to downtown and had lunch and then went bowling at Gameworks, we had a great time but learned that we are a pretty poor group of bowlers!

Cousin Gabe

We only get to see cousin Gabe a couple times a year as he lives in Texas but we sure love his visits! Ben and Emily adore Gabe and Gabe plays with them so nicely. The weekend of Gabe's visit was the weekend when most of the snow melted for the year. The kids had a great time playing in the mud at the park, splashing in puddles, playing Rock Band, tag, and hide and go seek. We also went to the Mall of America and to see Minnehaha Falls. The kids of course loved the rides at the MOA but the Falls were a bit of a disappointment as much of the viewing area is under construction and due to the recent thaw there were HUGE puddles to navigate around and thru. Pictures of that will follow...

Happy Ben

For the second time this season MN has beaten WI in basketball. This makes for a very happy husband and father in law. Last night I had the pleasure of attending the big game here in MN at The Barn. It was a very exciting game, down to the wire. Before we left for the game I asked Ben who he thought would win the game and he said, "the good guys" not able to resist I had to ask who the good guys were and he of course said, "The Gophers". Today he said the reason that the Badgers lost was because they were too slow which is quite funny given that WI does actually play really slow basketball. I think that I have lost this battle, there is no way we can live in MN and I can raise a Badger fan. Although I still have hope with Emily, very little hope...


Ben is so proud of his sister. Every day Ben says something adorably sweet about her. She thinks the sun rises and sets with him and never wants to be left out of anything he does. One day this week Ben introduced Emily by saying..."We have a pretty girl coming, she is pretty cute" Here is the photo from her entrance....

A few weeks ago Mike and Ben were in St. Cloud, MN and Emily and I were in Madison. Mike sent me this adorable picture of Ben getting ready to go to sleep with the caption:

Ben, in bed for the night: "I want mama!"


It sure is nice to know that my little boy still misses his Momma! Look at that face! It reminds me of a scene from the movie ET!

Daily Dockerty Life in Feb 2009

A little cleaning.
A little ice cream eating.
A little train playing.
A little dancing.
A lot of love.

The Big Girl Bed

Our little girl is almost two so we decided it was time to take down the crib and get her the big girl bed. (Not that we expect her to sleep in it or anything) She loves to play on her bed, and her brother loves to talk about how she is going to sleep in her new bed but when it comes time for bed she high tails it to find Momma! Don't be fooled by all the smiles in these photos!

Someday she will sleep in her bed, when both her and her Momma are good and ready but until then it looks darn cute and makes her Momma shed a tear that she is no longer a baby anymore.

Miss Emily seems to pick up one or two new words a day now. Just tonight while watching the photos scroll by on the Apple TV she kept pointing to the photos of her as a baby and saying "Baby, Baby". I asked her if the baby was Emily and she said no, just "Baby". She will occasionally say her name now and it sounds like "Meme" which goes right along with Elmo whom she calls "Melmo". Emily equal "Meme". Works for me!

Sibling Love