Fun Weekend

The weather was beautiful this past weekend and we enjoyed a lot of outside time. The kids have a lot of fun playing in the yard. Kevin has been working on planting some new grass to fill in where it was just dirt and now the backyard is very green!

Jackson loves running around the yard and kicking balls. Love that concentration- with tongue out and all.

Emmy has another new word. She says, "rock, rock, rock" whenever she is on her rocking horse or in her rocking chair.

She has learned how to open the screen door on the back porch. Gotta watch this girl! She heads outside any chance she gets!

We also got out the pool again this weekend. The baby pool is perfect for Emmy and the bigger pool is great for Jackson but of course they want to play in the same pool together!

14 Months

**UPDATE: Ok, so I forgot a few things: Emmy is really into pointing! She loves to point at pictures in books and random things around the house. I also forgot to mention that Emmy pretty much stayed sick this past month. She had her first ear infection and a couple of viruses. She was also diagnosed with respiratory airway disease and we now have a nebulizer at home. Basically while she was sick she got a bad cough and the doctor said that her breathing and coughing was "asthma-like". We hope that she won't officially get the asthma diagnosis but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Thankfully she is finally over her illnesses and seems to be healthy. She is currently getting her one year molars in. The first one started coming through about two and a half weeks ago and I've noticed two more poking through in the last couple of days. And on top of all the words listed below that she says all on her own she tries to imitate all kinds of words. Like yesterday she imitated "chalk" and today she imitated "go"!

Love this age! Emmy is so much fun! Not too much has changed this past month but she is doing better with drinking milk from her cup. She will now drink anywhere from 3-8 ounces a day. And I wanted to record all her words since she is starting to say so much. These are all word approximations but these are the words she says:

uh-oh
mama
dada
hi
sock
night night
no
done
doo doo (cock a doodle doo)
tweet tweet
tickle
thank you
choo choo

Easter and Other Things

So I've gotten behind on blogging again. We've had A LOT going on around here! Having two kids can keep life so busy sometimes!


So if you have young children and don't know about the 'Pete the Cat' book you've got to check it out! This is the cutest book and by far the kids favorite! Emmy got it for her birthday and both kids will sit together and read/listen to the story over and over. Emmy is always bringing the book to me and then going to the computer so she can listen to the story. Once you get the book you can download the story/song for free. Anyway, the kids love it!


Emmy was sick for about a week- had a fever for five days, so Emmy and I did not make it to Easter service. This is the second year in a row for me to miss Easter. Last year the kids gave me the stomach bug. I guess we'll try again next year!

She was still able to enjoy a few Easter festivities like hunting for eggs. Both kids LOVE playing with Easter eggs! We hide them and find them over and over again.




The kids also had fun with their Easter baskets. They got lots of goodies like books, sunglasses, a new video, fun t-shirts, and Jackson's favorite- chocolate covered raisins. :)



We are very very blessed and did enjoy a nice Easter weekend as a family. I'm just glad that things are finally getting back to normal...

Spring Break- Part 2 and 13 Months

I can't believe Spring Break is already over. It's been hard to even keep up with what day it is and so nice to have Kevin home for the week. The last part of the week was just as fun as the first half even though it rained a couple of days.

We spent a day at the lake with Gigi and Pop and had a lot of fun. Jackson enjoyed some fishing with his Daddy which he was really excited about.




We also spent some more time at the park and Jackson was really cute with his soccer ball:

And Emmy loved the slide:



13 MONTHS:
Emmy is thirteen months and what a difference a month makes! At 12 months she was just beginning to eat a few table foods but I was still having to give her some baby food. Now, I continue to be amazed at how this girl eats. We lovingly call her the bottomless pit :) and I love it! She constantly wants seconds and even thirds of her vegetables and fruit. One of her favorite things to eat is grape tomatoes- I think she would eat the whole package if I let her! So thankful for a good eater!

She is still not loving milk in her sippy cup, although it's getting better. We dropped her last night time bottle earlier this week and she has done well without it. She only drinks about 1-3 ounces of milk a day so I'm just making sure she's eating enough calcium. Good thing eating isn't an issue! :)


She half way signs "done" and will say "du" when she's all done. She says "mmm" for "moo" and "doo doo" for "cock a doodle doo". She will shake her head no and say "no, no, no" when she's not supposed to do something or when I tell her no. She tries to say "socks" and "shoes" whenever we are getting dressed. She imitates several other words as well. And she is so stinkin cute when she puts her purse over her arm and walks around the house!!! Love this girl!

Spring Break- Part 1

I thought I would break up my Spring Break post because I already have so many pictures and we've been doing lots of fun stuff!

Jackson has been so excited about Spring Break. For one thing he knew Kevin would be staying home and for another thing he knew we were going to the zoo. For several days leading up to Spring Break he would ask if it was "spring time" (meaning Spring Break) yet. We've had gorgeous weather and here's what we've been up to:

Lots of outside play time! The kids are so happy to be outside. Emmy loves it and gets a huge grin on her face if I ask her if she wants to go play outside.



Jackson is sporting his green for St. Patrick's Day:


Kevin has spent lots of time working on the patio and Jackson's been helping. It should be done soon!


Also, this week marked the first pool day. We brought out the little baby pool and the kids have had so much fun. Emmy is not afraid of anything- loved sliding into the water and being splashed in the face!



How cute is this girl in a swim suit:


I wanted to post this picture to remember and show Emmy one day. This is how she sucks her thumb. Her thumb of one hand is in her mouth and then she holds onto her other arm. This is how she always sucks her thumb!



Jackson loved throwing water on himself (because we told him he couldn't throw it on anyone else!) and sliding:




And we also made it to the zoo today. Jackson was so excited and had a ton of fun! I didn't get too many pictures but here's Emmy first reaction to seeing her first animal (the giraffe). Not real sure what to think:


Then she liked it:


And Jackson roaring like a lion:



So far we've had a great Spring Break!

Spring is coming!

We are really enjoying the Spring like weather. We've been playing outside a lot! Jackson likes to dig in the dirt and Emmy likes to do whatever Jackson is doing. Needless to say we've been taking a lot of baths around here. Kevin is working on a patio for our backyard and Jackson loves to help. Emmy got her first pair of tennis shoes as her Robeez couldn't keep up with all the places she wanted to go- dirt, rocks, pavement... She is really on the move these days and has even started trying to run on occasion.

Both kids are loving the Cozy Coupe and constantly fight over it. I finally put them both in it at the same time and neither one were thrilled about that:



Jackson was so excited to find these flowers. Spring is coming!!!

In other news, Emmy is 100% off of baby food and has been for almost a week now. I'm thrilled not to have to give her baby food and it's nice that she can now feed herself. Since she was rejecting table foods for so long I was afraid that she was going to be a picky eater but I'm so glad that she isn't. She will basically try whatever I put on her plate.

Also, Emmy recently had her first ear infection. I can't believe she made it through her first year of life without one. That's a huge blessing considering what we went through with Jackson.

I could take pictures of these faces all day long!!!

12 months

It's hard to believe Emmy is one year old! When I see these pictures of her standing up she looks like such a big girl. Can't believe how fast she is growing up.

We had her 12 month well check today and here are her new stats:
Weight: 20 pounds 15 ounces (50th percentile)
Height: 30.5 inches (90th percentile)

No wonder she looks like such a big girl! She has sprouted up! At her 9 month check up she was in the 60th percentile for height and now she is back in the 90th percentile.

So Emmy is a happy and healthy girl. She is still having some trouble with table foods although we continue to make progress. She is also having trouble with just eating in general again. Most of the time she is very fussy while eating and doesn't eat a full meal. She also pulls at her ears a lot while eating. She has started burping a lot during and after eating so the doctor recommended increasing her reflux medicine dosage. Jackson was able to come off of his reflux medicine at a year so I was hoping for the same with Emmy but it seems like she still needs it. I am hoping this will help her eating overall.

Table foods that she consistently eats are: banana, peas, bread, waffle, grapes, sweet potato and any kind of cracker, cereal, etc.

Currently, she says: uh-oh, mama, dada, and hi. She also will imitate: bye, done, night night, shoes and socks.

She loves playing with all different kinds of toys and especially likes to play with whatever Jackson is playing with! She does love books and enjoys pulling them all off her shelf and looking through them. She loves anything soft like her stuffed animals and will give them big hugs. But her favorite thing to do is just walk around the house. This makes her super happy!

Jackson was so sweet to little Emmy on her birthday. He sang Happy Birthday to her that morning and was so excited that it was her special day! I am so blessed to have two sweet kiddos!

Emmy's Birthday Party

Emmy's birthday is on Wednesday so we celebrated this past Saturday with a little partying! It was so so so much fun and I was so appreciative of all the people who came to celebrate our sweet girl with us. I had a lot of fun planning the party and making all the invitations and decorations.





We all enjoyed pizza and cupcakes in honor of Emmy. However, she was not interested at all in trying a bite of cupcake. If only she knew what she was missing...

She got some icing on her fingers and she is looking at them in disgust. We are still working on table foods and she's not big on new textures. She wouldn't even try a bite!


Some sweet birthday girl pictures: