Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did and as usual, Santa was very good to us. Both girls were spoiled with many new and exciting toys. Matt and I are just counting our blessings that we were able to be together as a family for Christmas. We had some friends over for dinner and of course Avery couldn't wait to show Grant all the toys Santa left and ones her Grandparents sent. Emmersen also gave us a present of her own...she rolled for the first time on Christmas day! We really had a great day and are now looking forward to a new year. And as usual in the past few years, we are baffled that yet another Christmas has come and gone and a new year is about to begin.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello!

Wow, it's been longer than ever since I've blogged! I can't believe I've gone this long. Well, I'm sure you'll all be completely shocked when I say that one of my new year's resolutions will be to dutifully update the blog at least once a week. I am going to work diligently to accomplish this goal. With Emmy getting bigger and needing a little less of my attention, I hope to actually follow through with this resolution.

As you can imagine with a newborn around the house, much has happened since I last left you all. Particularly with Emmersen's health. After several visits to the ER and doctor's office, we've now discovered she is allergic to both milk and soy. She is on a very specialized formula (in fact, the most specialized there is) and seems to be doing well. However, her acid reflux is constantly a battle. With her allergies, we are now seeing a pediatric gastroenterologist so he has been closely monitoring her allergies and reflux. One of these days the poor kid might actually feel good! Thankfully, aside from the aforementioned issues, she is a relatively happy baby. Very smiley, except of course for the camera! Preparations are now underway for Christmas. It's such an exciting time as a parent. Avery is starting to understand the concept even more but definitely showed reservations when meeting the man in red. Her only request was to receive 5 presents. I told her Santa may be able to take care of that, but of course she'd need to be a good girl. So easy to please. It makes me dread the days when 5 presents of any kind will do. I have many pictures to post, of course as usual, but I will first start with Emmy's monthly pictures. I realized I missed posting her three month shot...mostly due to the fact that we were busy trying to figure out a diagnosis for her problems. Without further ado, here they are!

Three months...right about when she started getting sick and losing weight. :(


Four months...a much happier baby!

Proud Mama

These photos were taken while my dad was in town a few weeks ago. I know I am biased, but I think these pictures turned out wonderfully. The dresses are a gift from Sam who had them made for the girls. They are such thoughtful and special gifts, not to mention beautiful!

Update on Emmersen since her last well baby check up: she's actually been to the doctor now twice in the last week. The first appointment was because of her acid reflux problem. It seemed to be getting worse so we packed up and made the trip in to the doctor. She had gained about a pound in a little over 3 weeks, seemed to be doing well aside from the spitting up. We adjusted a few things here and there and then Friday hit. She wasn't eating right and her diapers were becoming quite explosive. I took her to the doctor again today and she had actually lost about 5 oz. Of course, I started freaking out a bit but after I explained what was going on to our pediatrician he mentioned an intolerance to the protein in milk. I guess she is displaying the classic symptoms of this intolerance so we are going to try to switch her to a soy based formula. Hopefully that does the trick. If not, we will need to put her on a hypoallergenic formula which unfortunately is quite a bit more expensive. The doc said the symptoms don't show up until 2-3 months which would explain why we are just now learning about this. Thankfully she should out grow this problem by 6 months so we're keeping our fingers crossed. We are hoping the soy formula will also help with the reflux and help to make her a happier baby. Poor thing! Who knows how long she's really been feeling crummy and we just didn't know it. OK, that's the short version of what's been going on with little Emmy! Now on to the pictures.

My beautiful girls.




My dad and the girls. I have a ton of pictures to post (imagine that!) of all of our visitors but I had to get this one up because it was such a great picture.

Just a few more shots...

Avery and her buddy Grant. By the time I got our camera working, they were off to bigger and better things...like CANDY!


And that's a pumpkin down her shirt...don't ask! Ha Ha



of our Halloween outing!

Happy Halloween???

So I am a few days late in getting these pictures posted. It seems that's the story of my life lately....a few days late on everything! Our slew of visitors is over and now our life consists of getting back to a regular routine. We miss everyone and are so thankful for all of our family members who came to visit and help while we adjusted to having another little one around the house. Matt was also gone last week and I tell you, I can't believe I survived! Ha Ha I know, women (and sometimes men) do it all the time, but I was feeling a little disheveled while he was away. Anyway on the the reason for the post. Here are a few snapshots of the girls on Halloween. Avery is a fairy princess. I know, a shocker to those of you who know her. And Emmersen is, well, a baby! If you can read her shirt in any of the pictures it actually says: "This IS my costume!" I loved it!! We hope you all had a happy, safe Halloween and if your adventures were good, your teeth are probably rotting away as you read! :) Enjoy!!

My girls

These pictures were taken awhile ago now, but better late then never right??

Tiny foot

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Tiny Hand

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Tiny Baby

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My other baby...maybe she'll teach her baby "sitter" (as she calls her), how to suck her thumb. Isn't she beautiful?

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Doesn't she already have that "c'mon Mom!" look on her face? Scary! Ha Ha

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Tagged! I am it!

I got tagged from Sam! Now you see how often I've been reading and posting on blogs lately. Still getting used to having two children! I know I can't use that excuse forever though!

10 years ago I was...

1. Starting my first year of college at Miami University. Wow that's scary to think about!

2. Trying to find all my classes and get to them on time.

3. Discovering all the advantages and disadvantages of being away from home.

4. Making new friends.

5. Pulling all nighters for exams! Thank goodness I don't have to do that again!

5 things on today's to do list..

1. Do a new post to the blog (done!---ditto Tammi!

2. Take a nap. (dealing with a newborn who doesn't like to go right back to sleep after she eats at night)

3. Call the base pharmacy---done!

4. Start thank you cards from Avery's birthday.

5. Spend time with my Dad while he's here visiting.

5 snacks that I enjoy...

1. Ice cream---stole this from you again, Tammi!

2. Chocolate

3. Fruit

4. Peanut Butter sandwich

5. Chips

5 things I would do it I was a millionaire...

1. Pay off debt

2. Invest

3. Travel

4. Move closer to home and buy a house or property to retire in

5. Take care of my family and volunteer more

5 places that I have lived...

1. Hartville, OH

2. Oxford, OH

3. Canton, OH

4. Vandenberg, AFB, CA

5. Cheyenne, WY

5 jobs that I have had...

1. McDonald's worker...yes I'm one of those!

2. Grocery store cashier

3. Waitress

4. Student Supervisor at our University market

5. Admin assistant at the Wyoming Society of CPAs

Now I've done my part! I actually followed through and completed this! Even while holding my second born in a sling and dealing with a screaming toddler who doesn't want to nap! OK, well I will try to post some actual pictures at some point today. Right now, I've got to get Avery.

OH, the five people I'm tagging: Mae, Kim F., Jenna, Beth, and Debbie. Have a great one everybody!

Happy 2 Month Birthday Emmy!

I know I've been a blog slacker yet again. Give me some time! We've had many visitors and are looking forward to my Dad coming to town Wednesday.

Emmy had her two month well baby last Thursday and is a happy, healthy little girl. She's now 12lbs. 1 oz. and is 21.9 inches long. She's growing so fast and believe me when I say the second child grows up even faster than the first! She has now started cooing at us and the smiles have started as well. It melts my heart every time. She's been such a good baby! She definitely has her moments, but over all she is a pretty mellow little girl. She is going to have to be tough to put up with her big sister's antics!

I'll post more details of Emmy's life later, but for now I'm signing off to spend some time with Matt's sister before she leaves!


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To our daughter with love

We've watched you grow up these past three years and are amazed by how giving, kind and wonderful you are. You are such a big girl now and so many things have happened in the past few months to show us how big you are getting. You are now a big sister, going to preschool and learning all kinds of new things. Especially how to push mommy and daddy's buttons by asserting your independence! Our lives became more rich once you entered our family and we are looking forward to watching you grow up into a beautiful young lady. We love you so much and hope you had a terrific birthday!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Avery Grace!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Some of you may recall that my friend Joy made my baby shower cake. Well, we loved it so much that I asked her to make Avery's 3rd birthday cake. As you can imagine, we were absolutely amazed by how it turned out! It's absolutely perfect and we are so lucky to have such a talented friend.

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Mommy, Daddy and our first little girl.

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You'll have to bear with me because it seems that I took more pictures of the cake than anything else at the party!! I was so excited about it!

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Princess Avery

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Avery and some of her friends playing outside. There was so much going on that that's the only picture I snapped of the kiddos! I tried!

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That's Avery's 3rd Birthday celebration! We had a blast, but unfortunately Avery started getting sick yesterday and ended up going to bed while everyone was still here. Those of you that know her know that she definitely had to be sick because she would have never gone to bed while there were still kids to play with!! Poor thing. Not much better today either so we're just staying home, opening presents, ordering her favorite food, pizza, for dinner, and eating left over birthday cake. A very relaxed day!

First Day of Preschool

Where does the time go? It seems that just the other day we were planning her first birthday party. Our little girl is growing up too quickly. I guess I need to say our first little girl now, don't I? Well today I took her to her first official day of preschool! She's such a well adjusted kid so I tried to prepare myself for the drop off scene. I guess I didn't prepare myself enough because I had to say goodbye to her several times just to get acknowledgement that I was even there! Ha Ha She just walked right in like she owned the place. Typical Avery. Her teacher is actually in our bible study group, so that puts my mind at ease since I am not there to watch her. She is going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and next Tuesday can't come soon enough for her. We've been talking about school ever since she got home. I'm so happy she enjoys it and it's really something she needs right now. Time away from home to do something just for herself. But....I am torn between emotions of sadness and joy. Sad because my little munchkin is growing up so fast and joy to watch her enjoy and explore life. I'm sure I'll be posting much more about Avery's adventures in preschool. Somehow I foresee many, many, many stories to tell! For now, enjoy the pictures!

Getting ready to go!

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Avery and her teacher, Miss Melinda.

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