Fourth of July

We celebrated the July 4th weekend at the lake with my parents. It was lots of fun as usual. We brought Jackson's pool with us and I am so glad we did. It provided constant fun for the kids and adults and much needed relief from the HOT HOT sun!

Me and my sweet girl:

Emmy enjoyed some pool time as well:


Love this cute face:

She Rolled!

Yesterday (4 months, 4 days), Emmy rolled from her belly to her back! I put her on her belly for tummy time and noticed that her arms were very extended and her chest was off the floor more than it's ever been. Then she just rolled over. I remember with Jackson watching him for several days get himself up on his side before he ever rolled over. She did it some more this morning so I was able to get some pictures:

New Stats

Today was well check up day. I took both kids. Jackson for his three year and Emmy for her four month. It was a little chaotic. Good thing I made a list of all my questions for both kids- I would have never remembered them all. Anyway, it went well overall. Both kids are healthy and growing well- definitely something to be thankful for. Here's an update on the kiddos:

Jackson:
Weight: 30.2 pounds
Height: 37 inches

I told Jackson to make a silly face and here's what I got:

It's still hard to believe Jackson is three. It's amazing how quickly he is growing and all the new things he is learning. He still eats well. He needs a little more convincing than he used to to eat his veggies but he usually gives in pretty quickly. Jackson still continues to take good naps. I usually wake him up after two hours (I'm not sure how long he would actually sleep). He goes to bed at 7:30 but usually doesn't fall asleep until after 8. He wakes up between 6 and 6:30 and will often crawl in bed with us and go back to sleep for another 30 minutes to an hour. It's sweet because he really likes to snuggle. I love it!

The other day I read "Curious George goes to a Costume Party" to Jackson before nap time. Jackson said he wanted it to be Halloween so I asked him what he wanted to be this year. His response: "I'll be a princess". Love it! He's so much fun!

Emmy:
Weight: 14 pounds 8 ounces (75th percentile)
Length: 25 1/2 inches (90th percentile)

Here's Emmy at 4 months:

She's the absolute sweetest baby! She takes three naps a day. The first two are usually 2 1/2 hours sometimes as long as 3. The third is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. A lot of times she takes the third nap in the swing. She goes to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 and eats at 9:00 without waking up and then sleeps until between 7:00 and 7:30. It's so nice to be getting a full nights sleep. I can't even remember the last time Emmy woke up before 6:45 which is such a blessing.

One of my favorite times is when I go in her room in the morning to get her up and as soon as she sees me she gets a huge smile on her face. She smiles and laughs all day and has the sweetest spirit. I really only hear her fuss when she gets really tired. Otherwise she is very content.

I am loving every minute of being home with these two this summer.

Fun Emmy Pictures

It looks like she is praying:


She found her thumb and loves it!


Love black and white photos. She looks so sweet:


She makes this happy face a lot:

Emily's Baptism

Emmy was baptized this past Sunday (June 5). The timing was great since we already had family in town for Jackson's birthday and it was a really special day. Emmy wore the dress that I wore when I was baptized which made it even more special. Here is the blessing we wrote for her:

Psalm 18:2-3
The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer, my God, my Rock in whom I take refuge. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies.

Emily Ruth, we are so blessed by the Lord to have you as our daughter. Our prayer for you is that in all things, in health and happiness and sickness and sorrow you would seek the Lord as your Rock and your Refuge. We pray that you would come to know Him as your Savior and your faith would grow deeper each day. We pray that you would love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. Amen.

Eating her dress (she loves to eat her clothes):


Our family:


Kevin reading Emmy's blessing:


Being baptized:

Jackson Turns Three!

This past weekend (on June 5) Jackson turned three! I still can't believe it. We had a fun party on Saturday with family and friends. It was really hot but the kids stayed cool in the pool. He was so excited about his party. For the whole week leading up to it he talked about all his friends coming and eating cupcakes! When we asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said trail mix. The child LOVES trail mix. So we got him some trail mix (among other things). The other day I let him have a hand full of trail mix while he was playing outside in the pool. Days later he is still talking about eating trail mix in the pool. I guess that was exciting! Anyway, thanks to our sweet friends and family who helped make Jackson's third birthday fun and memorable!

Having fun in his new pool:

Enjoying a birthday lunch:

This boy LOVES Curious George:

I thought this was a neat picture. Four generations of girls (my mom, my grandmother, Emmy and me):

Memorial Day Beach Trip

We were very excited that we got to go to the beach for the long Memorial Day weekend. We went to Gulf Shores with my parents and had a really nice time! It was a little different due to the fact that Emmy is still so young. We didn't have as much flexibility and we did the best we could to keep her to her schedule- she still eats and sleeps a lot!

The kids' sleep schedule were both off so we were up VERY early in the morning. But at least this is the view we got to see at 5:30 in the morning!

Jackson had such a great time. He loved every minute of it and was so much more into it than last year. While he had fun last year he was still somewhat timid about the sand and the ocean and the pool. This year he just jumped right in and played.


He loved the pool time with his daddy- even getting his face and hair wet which he wouldn't dare do last year!

Emmy fell asleep wherever we went. After an early morning on the beach she fell asleep while we were walking back to the room.

But she really loved being in the pool. She just hung out and kicked her feet. She was really cute in her swimsuit!

We are so thankful we could get away for a long weekend and spend some time at the beach. We had a great time!

(In the above picture Emmy is wearing the first dress that I made for her back before she was even born. That makes this dress very special to me. I hope to make more soon!)

One Happy Mommy

I will admit that I have been a little nervous about potty training Jackson. It was more about me than him- I felt like I didn't know how to approach it or really what to do. But I am proud to announce that Jackson is officially potty trained. We started this past Saturday and as of today (day 4) he is telling us when he needs to go and going on his own! How exciting! This is such a great feeling. I have felt that he was ready for a couple of months now but decided to wait until things calmed down around the house. After having Emmy, dealing with lots of sickness, working in May and finishing out the school year it has been a little busy around here! I'm glad that we waited because one of my biggest fears was that we would try and fail. I really wanted him to be successful and I am so proud of him!

Can't believe this boy is about to be three!

Three Months

Emmy was three months old yesterday. The last month has flown by! She is wearing size 3-6 month clothes now and growing like a weed! For the month of May I went back to work two days a week and Emmy stayed with my Mom. Emmy did great and it was so easy to go back to work knowing that she was well taken care of. Thanks Mom! Now I only have one day of work left and then I will be home for the summer! We also spent the last month trying to help Emmy take her bottle better. At about 2 months 1 week she was obviously getting frustrated with how slow she was getting her milk. We moved her to the medium flow which worked for a few weeks but she started getting frustrated again. We just moved up again to the fast flow and she seems so much happier. She doesn't care a thing about sucking on her bottle for comfort, she just wants to eat- get the food in her tummy and be done. She used to take her paci once in awhile but now she rarely takes it. It doesn't comfort her at all. But she LOVES to suck on her hand and fingers. It's funny because Jackson loved the bottle and paci and rarely sucked on his fingers.

So happy:

All dressed up:

We are in the middle of potty training with Jackson. He is doing well but sometimes it's hard for him to sit on the potty when there is so much fun to be had...

Life with Emmy

I just wanted to jot down some things that I want to remember about Emmy at this age.

Emmy is one of the sweetest and happiest babies I know. She is full of smiles and laughs and coos that are the sweetest thing I've ever heard!


No matter how tight we swaddle her up she always gets at least one and usually both hands up to her face. She loves to sleep with her hands up to her mouth.


She much rather suck on her hands than a paci. Sometimes she'll take the paci- but she doesn't love it.



Nicknames: Em, Emmy, Emmygirl, Emmykins