My Baby's Birthday

Today is Emily's 23rd birthday. She's the baby of the family, coming six years after the second last baby. Hers was an exciting arrival - the six older kids were so excited to have a new baby in the house. She was born by emergency C-Section seven days past her due date. My mother always said that C-Section babies were the prettiest because their heads weren't misshapen from the birth process. Of course she might have been biased since both of her kids were born by C-section. I had a lot of 'help' with her. It was nice that the older six kids were all in school so that I had some alone time with her during the days.

Emily was a sweet little baby, not a lot of trouble at all. We all enjoyed her so much. The first few days we were home from the hospital there was a steady stream of the kids' friends coming in to see the new baby.

She grew quickly as all babies seem to do and by Christmas was sitting under the tree grabbing whatever ornaments she could reach.

We had a bay window that she liked to sit in on sunny days. This must have been around hallowe'en because I didn't make a habit of having big pumpkins in the window.

Even as she grew older she liked pumpkins, only now she was old enough to carve them - sometimes we'd carve four or five pumpkins using simple and ornate designs.

She's dabbled in a lot of different hobbies, activities in her short life, starting with ballet.

Her interest in playing bass guitar began when she was around 14 and has continued off and on ever since.

By the time Emily was 11 she was Auntie Em. Here she is with her first nephew, Jonah Quist, Jenny's son.

Whoops! Just tilt your head sideways. She's quite a computer whiz and has helped me out of quite a few computer snags over the past few years.

From the time she was 14 she has worked for her sister Sara in the Photo Gift business. She's an expert on making photo gifts, taking portraits, and manipulating photos with Photoshop, among other things.

Emily started golfing in her mid teens when her dad was becoming so enthused about the sport. Although not her favorite activity, she willingly joins in the annual family golf tournament, and plays best ball with Lloyd, Allan and I on occasion.

Emily at 5 years old.

While at work at Photo Gift World one day Emily took a baby picture of herself and manipulated it into this artsy picture.

Emily was the most adventurous of our children. When she was in Grade 11 she went to Germany as an exchange student for 3 months. While there she attended a german school, lived with a German family, and was totally immersed in the German culture. We were nervous to have her away, but through the magic of instant messaging we were able to be in touch with her the whole time.

Then, when she graduated from High School, she worked until she had saved enough to go to Scotland on a work abroad program and spent a year there, working mostly as a temp. She had time between assignments to travel around the British Isles a bit. Again, we were glad to have her home when it was over.

This is Emily in Dundee, Scotland.



Shortly after coming home from Scotland she met Allan Taylor, fell in love with him, and in February of 2008 they got engaged.

On August 23, 2008 she and Allan were married in a lovely garden wedding in Sara's yard.

And here she is at her birthday party last night. Happy birthday Kiddo. Love you lots.