Happy Birthday, Emery!!

Wow!  Our sweet girl is one years old.  She has the sweetest disposition but is also starting to show us her toddler side.  Yikes!  She is always making animated facial expression of some sorts and does not sit still for too long.  The monthly photo shoot was a tough one once again. Here are a few of the outtakes!

And somehow Cory managed to snap this perfect picture of our pretty baby girl!  I love it!

Let's see what you are up to:

• You are growing big and strong.  Today at your well-child checkup you weighed 23lbs. 12 oz. (85 percentile) and your length is 30.25 inches (85th percentile).  You weight up a little percentile in weight and down a little in height.  However, Dr. A thinks you will hit a growth spurt in your height soon and go back up to the 90's percentile for height. 
• You returned to sleeping much better this month.  If you can get to bed by 7:45 then you sleep all night till about 7:30.  You still take 2 naps a day 9:30-11 and 1:00-3:30.  

• I think this picture perfectly depicts how you feel about eating.  You would rather eat anything off our plate versus the "baby" food we give you.  I have started giving you 'big people' food and you are eating much better.  You are SO over puffs, yogurt melts and anything babyish.  You would rather eat hot dogs, grapes, grilled cheese, pancakes, pizza crust etc. 

•  Your brother loves to stand behind your chair while you are eating and you get so tickled at him!
• You drink 3 bottles a day - morning, noon and nighttime. You have mastered drinking from a sippy cup.  You like water and whole milk.  However, I think whole milk is upsetting your stomach.  Today, Dr. A suggested we give your organic soy milk till you are 18 months old to see if that sets better with you.  Hopefully we will only be on it for 6 months and then your body will be more ready for whole milk. 
• You are wearing size 12-18 month clothing, size 2-3 shoes and size 4 diapers.

• You can cruise furniture with the best of them and have started letting go while standing up.  And a few days ago you started standing up in the middle of the room without holding onto anything.  I have a feeling you are SO close to walking. 
• When you are playing you often smack your lips together.  It is pretty funny! 
•  You are really social!  At your well child check up Dr. A had a medical student shadowing her and while Dr. A was talking to momma in the beginning you wiggled out of my lap and crawled across the room to the medical student, Miss Devin, and reached up to be held.  She brought you back across the room to me after a bit and you again crawled out of my lap to go back and see her  When she picked you up you just started waving at me and smiling.  Then she brought you back again so Dr. A could look you over. And after Dr. A was done with her exam you again crawled back over to the medical student.  You seem to love women much more than unfamiliar men. 

• You are a momma's girl for the most part but you also LOVE when your daddy comes home from work.  You drop whatever you are doing to crawl over to him! 
• Your words mainly consist of mama, dada, bubba and hi.  You love to say hi over and over and anytime you hear a phone ring you start saying hi over and over.

• When we tell you "no" about playing with something then you shake your head back "no" at us and start to giggle. 
• You sign all day and sometimes clap when you want more
• You give high-fives on demand
• You love to walk behind the push toy and just go and go until you run into something.  

• You and Lincoln are developing quite the relationship.  For the most part you guys have a great time together.  However, when Lincoln starts to get too rough with you, tries to tell you "no" or takes a toy away from you then you get pretty upset.  This month you started hitting him and bit him once.  The coming months between the two of you will be interesting. 

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  We are over the moon about you being in our lives and look forward to watching you grow and develop more and more.  We love you!

Birthday Eve

Last night as Emery was going to bed we took a few pictures of her in her crib!  

These two are a mess! 

Goodnight to our little 11 month old, for tomorrow you will be ONE years old!

RazorFest

On Saturday we went to the Razorback festivities prior to the spring game - aka RazorFest! They have tons of inflatables, games, face painting, food and free stuff. We met up with the Epps and checked out all the fun stuff!


A little golf playing



Linc wanted nothing to do with the cow/bull but Emery kept giggling at him!



Family picture!



This is pretty much where Lincoln hung out. He is not a fan of huge crowds but we did get him to go through one inflatable!









Jason and Cory talking.... about The razorbacks, I'm sure.


And the always photogenic and super fun Epps crew with their three beautiful daughters!




We had a fun time! Cory stayed for the spring game but I headed home with the kids for naptime! We are excited for our new coach and a new season!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Splish Splash

Monday night, Cory took Lincoln to Walmart with him while I gave Emery a bath.  Usually we bathe them together but since Lincoln was gone Emery had the bathtub to herself.  Emery LOVES water and she always has loved it.  She sets out looking for water and it is not uncommon for me to find her by the bathtub, trying to crawl into the shower or worst of all with her hands in the toilet.  I have a feeling she is going to be the swimmer of the family.  Here are a two recent instagram pictures of her where she crawled into the shower and turned on the water and was playing in it.  

So on Monday night I took the opportunity to do a little bath time photo shoot.  I have recently been learning how to use my DSLR camera on AV mode so I love the chance to experiment with my camera and settings.  Enjoy a few (ok, a LOT) of pictures from our bath time. 

Emery loves the bath and is constantly trying to lay her stomach in the water.  I can barely keep her sitting up in the bath b/c she keeps nose diving into the water.  I will be interested to see if this love of water continues on for her. 

Choo Choo!

About a month ago we went to our friend Carson's birthday party that was on a real train! Lincoln was in heaven. He has a huge love of all things Thomas so this made him one happy boy.












His smile in this picture definitely shows how happy he is with his two greatest loves - balloons and trains!



He loves trains so much he has become a collector of all the Thomas trains. He has Thomas, Percy, Flynn, Skarloey, Salty and Victor as well as Cranky the Crain.


He is constantly talking about "shunting" cars or trains as well as saying that people are "cross" instead of mad. When we are driving down the road he wants me to "shunt" other cars. I feel like he often gets Thomas and Friends confused with the Biblical truths we are teaching him.

Three funny examples:

1. He was telling me the story about Adam and Eve and had said "then they ate the fruit and God taked it away and he was cross at them"

2. When he first started learning about the trinity we asked him who the trinity consisted of and had said "Thomas, Percy and the Holy Spirit."

3. We were talking about a Bible story and he said "Mommy stop, stop, stop. Do you hear that?" (Me: "Hear what?") "Jesus is shunting our house!"

Out of the mouth of babes. I love it!

Easter Weekend

For Easter weekend my parents joined us to celebrate. However, the weekend did not get off to the best start.  On the way to our house they hit a deer that was standing in the middle of 540.  The front of their car was smashed to pieces as was the deer.  They are still awaiting word if it is totaled.  The wreck happened about 40 minutes from our house so Cory went to pick them up and bring them to our house at 9:00 p.m. Friday night.  Lincoln was too excited that they were coming and had a difficult time settling down and understanding why he had to go to bed without seeing Papa and Gigi.  I put him to bed and laid down beside his bed and read him a few books to help him wind down.  I eventually just turned the lights out and just laid there beside his bed.  After a few moments of silence he said, "Mommy, let's hold hands."  It was too sweet.  So we held hands through the rails of his bed.  Another few seconds of silence passed when he said, "Mommy, you look like humpty-dumpty"  Ummm...thanks, I think?  It was too funny not to document.

So Saturday was spent with my parents finding a place to rent a car and taking another trip to their car to get a few more things out of it.  Cory and I also spent sometime at his work organizing his work space.  And the evening ended with Mellow Mushroom pizza and NCAA games.  

Sunday morning we headed to church at 9:00.  Before we left I snapped this picture of Lincoln in his sweet little shirt and tie from Papa and Gigi.  It was his first time to wear a tie. 

After church we spent some time taking pictures in the backyard.  Lincoln was not too interested in cooperating so in the mean time we snapped a few pictures of Emery in her ADORABLE dress from Papa and Gigi.  

Lincoln finally found his happy pants and decided to participate! :)

See....he can be sweet.  A little impromptu unasked for kiss for Papa. 

We went inside and let Lincoln and Emery open up their fun Easter goodies from mommy and daddy and Mimi and Poppy.

This was Lincoln's sheet from church on Easter morning.  This is exactly how all of his coloring sheets look.  A black crayon colored over the whole thing.  The psychologist in me tries to refrain from analyzing this behavior. :)  As my friend Sarah Pope told me "He may not enjoy coloring but have you seen him throw a ball?"  Good point, Sarah!  Coloring is not his strength.  Here is hoping Emery likes to color.  

Our church service was amazing and such a sweet time of worship and reflection of our RISEN Savior.  And an added bonus was hearing Lincoln say, "Jesus is Awive" 

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28:6