Smiling and talking like crazy!!

This past month has been SO FUN with Emery! She gives huge smiles to us constantly, especially when you say her name or "hello"!   I have so many pictures on my phone, but these are a few of my favorites!

And lastly here is a video that I caught on my phone, of her talking to Kyle.  He was giving her a lecture on how she needs to put herself to sleep... and she had a lot to say about that :)  So cute!

So maybe she did take after me in something! YEAH!!

What we do on Saturday nights....

That's right we have a baby so now we stay in on Saturday nights...

 oh wait we did that before we had Emery :)

ANYWAYS, This video shows how big of dorks we are but I think it's hilarious.  I bet Kyle that he couldn't jump on the counter top from a standing position, so of course he set out to prove me wrong.  I've never been able to jump, even in my dancing days, so this is seriously impressive to me.  Sorry for the long pause at the beginning, we're trying to stop laughing so he can do his trick.



P.S. Marshal and Nick-- send us a video when y'all try it... we know you willlllllllllll

Apple Crisp Recipe!

I've also made this Apple Crisp Recipe lately... another one from Tara!  It tastes so good and is one of the easiest desserts I've ever made!  Sorry for the not so beautiful picture... I had already eaten a "slice" by the time I got around to taking a photo to document!

Ingredients:

1 box of Jiffy yellow cake mix

1-2 jars of apple pie filling (depending on the size of your pan)

1 stick of butter

Directions:

Pour the apple pie filling into your dish.  Sprinkle the yellow cake mix top top.  Melt butter and drizzle over the top of yellow cake mix.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour and then enjoy with vanilla ice cream!

*A little hint... if you fill your pie pan to the brim make sure to put a cookie sheet underneath because it will bubble over into your oven!*

Emery and Bella

My friend Holly's baby, Bella Rose, was dedicated at church on Sunday so they hosted a little dedication party that afternoon!  Bella is only 2 1/2 weeks older then Emery, and it's so fun to have a girlfriend in town to have play dates and discuss the latest baby stuff with!  Emery and Bella actually both just got diagnosed with acid reflux-- oh the joys of that!

Anyways we had to snap some shots of them together.  Look at beautiful Bella and all her curly hair, OMG I love it.  

Bella all of a sudden reached out her hand...

And intertwined her arm with Emery's!  Too cute!

They are going to be BFF's for sure :)

Dinners with friends!

Last week was crazy as we had dinner plans every night with friends!  It was so much fun but was a little tiring with Emery and messing up her schedule almost every time!  Sadly, I only took pictures of 2 of our dinner gatherings but still want to post them!

Our first was going to Pappasitos with Cory and Mada!  They were actually in town getting their Visa's as they are officially moving to Switzerland with their work!  It is truly such an amazing opportunity for them, Kyle and I are so envious!  It was great seeing you guys and so glad you were able to meet Emery before you left!

 

Last weekend we met my girlfriends, Jen and Lacey with their significant others for dinner!  Lacey just moved into a new town home and so we met around that area to eat and see her new place!  I miss these girls so much and we always have so much fun when we all get together.  They are two of the biggest reasons why I am going back to work next week! (Yes that's right my maternity leave is up on Friday!!)

Lacey, Jen and I:

Emery was a great baby sleeping for the first half of dinner!

Lacey and her boyfriend, Levi:

Jen and her husband, David:

Our fam:

 Emery and I:

The whole gang:

Our Acid Reflux girl!

Last week was pretty tough around here.  Emery not only was refusing to nap more than 15 minutes at a time unless she was held, but towards the end of the day would scream and refuse to eat after about a minute of me nursing her.  One night I tried to get food in her for literally an hour and she ate for maybe 3 minutes... talk about frustrating! 

I finally made an appointment with our pediatrician and within 2 minutes of hearing her symptoms said, "Without a doubt she has acid reflux".  He said the reason why the feedings progressively get worse and worse throughout the day was because her throat was getting more and more raw from all spitting up!  I felt horrible that I let those symptoms last for almost 2 weeks, but was absolutely relieved when he knew what was going on.   He gets at least 3 cases a day of newborns with acid reflux, crazy!

So this should go away on it's own by the time she's 6 months, but until then we'll give her mylanta and zantac to coat her throat and help keep her food down!  The medicine is making the biggest difference.  Emery now takes naps during the day-- some even 2 hours long!!  Plus because she is eating longer and keeping the food down, she has now moved to a 4 hour eating schedule! YEAH!

And since no post is good without pictures I'll show you her favorite way to take naps-- it just started this past week.  She loves to be vertical (that helps the milk stay down as well!), definitely have her paci in her mouth, and "hug" us.  Too cute!

And a close up:

We are so glad she's feeling better! 

Florida trip!

Two weekends ago, we packed Emery up and went to Florida for my cousin, Ben's wedding. She did great traveling once again and we had so much fun visiting with all my family.  This was my mom's whole side of the family, and unbelievable every single aunt, uncle, cousin and child made it except 1-- pretty impressive!

I was on baby duty for the wedding so I only took one picture of Ben and all his pink tied groomsmen.  Emery stayed awake the entire time but didn't let out a peep thank heavens!  My dad still is not able to sit with all the damage due to his sacrum from the cancer, so Van kept him company standing in the back.  Van was my dad's best man in mom and dad's wedding, so they were on cloud 9 being together again!

We stayed for family pictures afterwards and then headed to the reception!

We had so much fun and stayed until 10:30 or so!  We got to catch up with my cousin Sarah (Ben's sister) and her daughter Addyson.  They have a little boy on the way and they are about to move to Charlotte, so exciting!

Love getting to see my Aunt Debbie too!  Grandma and Debbie were the baby sitters all night so Kyle and I were able to dance a lot!

And of course I had to document the "boys".  Kyle has a blast anytime we hang out with the cousins, we are so lucky to all be around the same age!  (And yes these guys even make Kyle look like a shrimp at 6 foot 1!)

I'm sad we didn't even get a shot of our family together, but Kyle did snap one of Em and I:

  

Sunday we hung at the pool until it was time to check out.  The Nats had a blast at the pool, and even Em sported a terry cloth jumpsuit!

We then headed to my Uncle Johnny's house for a family BBQ.  Johnny and JoAnne rented a 17 foot blow up slide for their back yard... to say the kids loved it was a huge understatement.  Even Nick, Kyle and Jamie flew down that thing all afternoon!

Here is a picture of the whole family together!


And all the grandkids & great grandkids!


And all the cousins!

It's so neat to think all these people are here because of my Grandpa and Grandma.  We are truly blessed!

Sunday night we hung out with my family at their Disney resort!  Even though we were sad we weren't going to be spending the week there with everyone it was still fun to drive through that "welcome to disney gate"!  In a couple years we'll be back with Emery when she can truly enjoy it!

Strawberry Pie Recipe!

I feel so southern making strawberry pie in the summertime in Georgia!  This recipe comes from my sister and is so easy to make and absolutely delicious.  Kyle doesn't even like strawberries so I ate the whole pie ALL. BY.  MYSELF. last week!  Yup I admitted it... diet starts tomorrow.  So without further ado:

Ingredients:

• Graham cracker crust
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 ½ cups chopped strawberries
• 3 Tbps. cornstarch
• 3 oz. package of strawberry jello

Directions:

1. Cook water, sugar, and cornstarch on the stove top. Stir quickly to make sure you get rid of all the lumps. Remove from heat as soon as the consistency is like that of pudding.
2. Add jello and strawberries, and stir well.
3. Pour into pie crust.
4. Chill until set.
5. Top with Cool Whip and garnish with strawberry slices.

2 Months Old!

I can't believe Emery is already 2 months old, this month has been so much fun!  She turned 2 months on May 8th, so I'll try to recap below... good thing I keep a "notes" file on my iphone from week to week or else I would not remember all these details!

SLEEP!

Emery has consistently slept at night 8 hours, wake up to feed, then 3 or 4 hours until the next feeding.  At 8 weeks (when we got home from our Raleigh trip) she started sleeping in her crib in the nursery for some naps and at night time.  She does not sleep as long as she used to in the bassinet (went from 8-9 hours at night to now 7 hrs) but we think it's because she's less cuddly in there and it's harder to get her to sleep on her side like she used to.  Once we moved her to the crib it does take her longer to go to sleep and relies on the paci more to soothe her.  

She still is not a good napper during the day but we really can't complain since she does so well at night!  She will take longer naps on us then if we put her down alone, so this is how I blog a lot of the time :)

She also still prefers to sleep on her tummy on our chests.

EATING!

She's a great eater still and isn't falling asleep as much, YEAH!  Emery was eating around 3.5 to 4 ounces I THINK this month, and still on a 3 hour schedule.  She hit a growth spurt around 7 weeks and starting eating 4.5 ounces.  She also started to get a little picky between positions and sometimes I would have to switch her between the cradle and football hold depending on her "mood".  My only concern this month with nursing was not knowing how much she was eating.  But since she was 75% for weight at her check up the doctor said not to worry that she's obviously eating fine!  Those cheeks are getting big!!

RANDOMS!

-She started SMILING (week 5)!!  It's by far the most exciting thing she's started doing yet, and Kyle and I will do whatever it takes to get her to smile over and over... whether it's talking really funny or mimicking her facial expressions.  She is by far the happiest in the mornings right after I nurse her.

- She does not care if she has a wet or dirty diaper... nice!  She loves the changing table and never has cried on it before. 

- She is still such a content baby.  I love her awake time when she smiles so much and takes everything in.  She fights sleep for about 2 minutes, but overall we feel so blessed how she is not fussy!

- She still loves bath time just hates getting out of the warm water.  We think it's just too drastic of a change going from hot to cold for her.  Luckily the crying only lasts a minute until she's dressed and swaddled and then she sleeps amazing!  

- Everyone still says that she looks exactly like Kyle with her darker complexion.  She's still holding on to her blue/green eyes of mine though!

-Around 6 weeks she started talking back to us.  It takes so much effort and she has to kick her legs for a while but then the sweetest sound comes out.  She especially does it if we open our mouths really wide like we are trying to talk too.  Here is a video of when she first started talking: (I apologize in advance for my voice)

-She started to turn her head back and forth A LOT to look at everything (7 weeks).  She is not the normal baby with one bald spot in the back, hers is more of a U on the back of her head from how much she turns it.  Her neck is so strong!

-She started reaching out and touching the toys that hang down from her car seat handle.  All of a sudden we'll hear a little jingle and it's her slapping it.  She still doesn't have exact arm control by any means but she can hit those things if she tries hard enough.

- Emery had her first road trip to Raleigh and did AWESOME!  My friend, Amy, let us on to her trick of what she does while traveling in the car and it worked perfect for us.  Bottle feeding is faster then nursing so I would pump in the car then we would stop and feed her.  Timing is EVERYTHING though and you have to leave your stops as soon as she is done eating or else you are stopping a lot!  Here's Ky at one of our stops:

- I have started putting bibs on her ALL THE TIME as she spits up a ton after I feed her.  I get nervous when other people want to hold her because I don't want them to get covered in spit up as well, so I make sure to warn everyone!

- She loves to play on her mat and is tolerating tummy time a little more now, but definitely prefers to be on her back looking at everything around her and kicking her legs.  When she gets fed up with tummy time she'll put her face straight down and scream into the floor. Here is a video of her talking during play time... too cute!

- She fits in 0-3, and 3 month clothing perfectly.  Those newborn clothes are getting tight!

- Kyle traveled a lot this month, so Emery was not liking it when he tried to soothe her as she wasn't real sure about him.  We had the longest Saturday of our lives when every time she fussed Kyle picked her up.  It was very hard knowing that if I held her for a second she would calm down, but it was very important to us that she can relax with Kyle too.  By Sunday Kyle had it down pat and it's so cute how Emery gives him the biggest smiles when he gets home from work now.  I think she was just trying to trick him into not traveling... and I'm not complaining about that :)

And lastly here are some of my iphone pics of Emery this past month:
(the pics aren't aligned evenly but I don't have time to fix it right now!)