Finally….an update!!!

Hello all and welcome back to the Dever Dish…I realize I have been out of commission for awhile; so I wanted to get you up to speed on the happenings of the Devers. Miss Priss is exactly 15 months old today, can you believe it??? I'm just not quite sure where the time has gone. The last time we left you, we had just celebrated Emerson's 1^st birthday with her big birthday bash. I hope you all enjoyed the slideshow of the great pictures that our friend Amber Byrd took of the celebration. If you haven't seen it, I posted the link for you at the bottom of the post.

July ended up being a crazy month for us, as we had tons of things going on. The week after Emerson's birthday party was her 12 month wellness appointment… and it was a tough one. Those of you who have kids know that seeing your child get shots for the first time is pretty awful and most of us moms shed a few tears. Usually the administering of shots gets easier, at least on the parents….well, my friends, no one prepares you for the 12 month appointment. Emerson was pitiful and I again, like I did the first time with her shots; shed a few tears with her. Usually kids will hold their breath and turn red and then finally let out this god awful cry but for some reason this time, Emerson went right into screaming and then, for the first time ever, she sobbed uncontrollably and continued to do it until we were outside of the doctor's office. Poor little girl, I felt horrible for her. The bad news is the nurse mentioned she might remember this experience (because apparently she has a memory now) and that the next appointment to the doctor for shots might not be as easy (like this visit was easy, Sheesh) !!! The good news is Emerson is a growing 12 month old and in perfectly good health.

Danny left that same day after the appointment and traveled pretty much every week for the rest of July going to New Mexico, Jacksonville, Minnesota, and Philadelphia. I too was also busy at work preparing for a huge conference that would start the first week in August. I actually had a blast planning it, as I got to work with a new co-worker and had a great budget to work with (wink, wink)!!! The weekend after Emerson's party we had another photo shoot with our friend Amber to capture Emerson at a year old. We ventured to the Carolina Inn early the morning of July 19^th to take some indoor and outdoor pictures of Emerson along with Danny and me in a few of them. I must say, Emerson did pretty well for her first time being "professionally" photographed. It took her a few minutes but she soon warmed up to Ms. Amber and by the end of the shoot, they were best buds…of course, if you know Amber, you could understand why. She is so full of life and truly loves every second that she is taking pictures, and she was great with Emerson. So after an hour and half of picture taking and 4 outfit changes…Amber got some great pictures. That slideshow will be posted soon for all of you to see, but I thought I would post a sneak peak for you……

We were also visited by the Wisconsin Devers in July. (A couple of years ago when the Dever families were all spread out we started referring to ourselves by state; Danny and I were the NC Devers, his mom and dad were the Florida Devers, and his brother's family were the Wisconsin Devers. I guess that is going to change now that two sets of Devers and a single Dever live in NC) Corey, our nephew was coming to orientation for Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte and they came over for the weekend to visit. Corey was accepted early admission and will finish his senior year of high school there. We are all very excited that we will soon have a professional chef in the family. You know I'm excited, 'cause a fabulous party always needs fabulous food!!!

The last event for us in July (well really first of August) was a trip with our dear friends and neighbors to a concert. This was our first concert in, well, years…. so we were super excited to get away for the evening and enjoy some good 'ole country music. We headed out that evening with Dale and Amy (god bless her, cause it was HOT and she was very pregnant) to see Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift. I forgot how much I love going to concerts…so my new goal is to go to at least one concert a season now. We had great seats for the show and would have had an even better parking spot if Dale hadn't driven… (Gotcha!!! J) Anyways, it was tons of fun and I can't wait to do it again…. Here is a picture from the event taken with my cell phone (sorry the quality is horrible)!

So as you can see July was pretty busy for us but I still managed to take TONS (sorry!) of pictures of our little cutie…you will see that her convertible car was a huge hit and she has had tons of fun playing in it (there are times, we can't get her out of it….is it okay to bribe a one-year old?) There are also pictures of Emerson and her first experience with water as a recreational activity, her first trip to a playground, and more just clowning around. As always, I have put captions on most of them for you; so you know what is going on….there are a lot of pictures this time, though, so I didn't put a caption on all of them. Below the picture link is the link to Emerson's birthday slideshow.

We hope everyone is well and the 13-14 month update will be sent soon!! Until then…

Emerson – 12 to 13 months pictures http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=l05z5pu.1idawbfq&x=0&y=hw5l37&localeid=en_US

Birthday Slideshow http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=168809