Moving on up to Big Girl Gymnastics!

Emery has officially moved up to the "big girl" gymnastics class!  Since she had been in the Mommy and Me class from last August, the teacher wanted her to go ahead and move up even though she isn't 3 years old yet.  This is a class where she goes in all by herself and I stay outside the gym and watch her through the window (score for pregnant momma!).   She just LOVES it and comes up with new gymnastics tricks to show us everyday.

Last time we were in Shelby, we picked up two leotards from an outlet store and she would wear them all day everyday if she could.  Kyle came to watch her first big girl class with me, and we both totally teared up watching her run right in and wave through the window at us a couple times.  So proud of her coming out of her shell this year!

Love our big girl!

Best Ever and Easiest Cinnamon Roll Recipe!

Seriously the title to this post isn't lying.  These cinnamon rolls are the best ones Kyle and I have ever eaten and they are SO easy to make!  I found it on Pinterest, click here for the original recipe & more pictures!

Baby Cinnamon Roll Recipe
Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter, divided
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in the bottom of a pie plate. Add the brown sugar to the butter and stir to combine. Unroll crescent dough and pinch seams together to create one big sheet. Spread with remaining softened butter. Combine white sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the buttered dough. Roll the dough back up into a log, and cut into 8 cinnamon rolls. Place rolls in prepared pie plate. Sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top with vanilla glaze (recipe follows) and serve warm. Store leftover cinnamon buns (who am I kidding??) at room temperature.

Vanilla Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar
4 tablespoons heavy cream (or 2 tablespoons milk + 1 tablespoon butter)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

With a fork, stir together sugar, cream, and vanilla until smooth and pourable. Add one tablespoon of milk if needed to thin. If using milk and butter instead of cream, heat the milk and butter in the microwave to melt the butter, then add to the sugar and stir in vanilla.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Valentine's Day 2014!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day around here this year. Emery just loves decorating the house for special days and we ate a lot of yummy food too which made her love it even more.  Before Kyle headed into work we had a delicious breakfast and opened our cards to each other-- we tried a new recipe for Cinnamon Rolls and oh my goodness they were delicious.  I'll post the recipe next post!

My sweeties...

That night for dinner we head steak and lobster-- YUM!  Earthfare had a deal where you could buy both for $9, so for $18 we paired it with twice baked potatoes and ate like a queen and king!

Emery insisted we eat dinner by candlelight-- so funny!

And for dessert-- SNOW CREAM!

Later that night our neighbor brought over some donuts (he works at Dunkin Donuts) so Emery enjoyed eating her sprinkled donut the next morning.

We also made a couple Valentine's for her friends using an empty toilet paper roll folded into a heart shape.  She was great at stamping, we'll have to do it again soon!

And a fun Valentine's playdate with Nora making heart shaped sugar cookies to end all the celebrations!

And a cute little video wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Another Snow Day!

I know I just posted about a snow day earlier this month, but this past storm was the most snow Emery has ever seen-- we got around 13 inches!  Kyle, unfortunately, still had to head into work the next day but Emery and I enjoyed making a snowman, sledding (basically me pulling her around on flat ground since we have no real hills near our house), and eating a lot of snow-- Em's favorite part!  I couldn't find her gloves anywhere so she rocked socks as mittens-- worked great actually.

Fun fun!

And a couple pics of playing outside with Daddy when he came home!

Don't laugh at Emery's 18 month jacket that she was wearing... haha.  We did end up buying her some official snow gear a couple weeks ago that will last her at least until the end of next snow season so if it snows again we'll be ready (and can't wait to strap some skis on her next year)!

Em's First Hockey Game!

A couple weeks ago, our friend Warren gave us free tickets to one of the Checkers Games.  Emery was not only so excited to dress up in the team's official colors and see her first hockey game but staying up past her bedtime is always a bonus too :)

I wish, for Kyle's sake, that she loved watching the hockey players but unfortunately she takes after her mom and couldn't take her eyes off the cheerleaders the whole time :)  Either way, we all had a blast and enjoying sitting in the suite with Warren & Mandy cheering on the players!

Boonetown!

Two weekends ago, we headed to Boone to meet Nick, Anne and Eric up at the cabin for the weekend!  We had beautiful weather and it was such a relaxing weekend with everyone.  Saturday morning, we all headed out to go for a hike to enjoy the blue sky and warmer weather.

We hiked all the way up to the fire tower and had such beautiful views from the top (good thing none of us are afraid of heights)!

We forgot the hiking backpack so Kyle carried Em on his shoulders most of the way.  Towards the end she started slumping really bad and before we knew it she was fast asleep in the cradle position in Kyle's arms.  Sweet girl, so happy outside!

Saturday for lunch we headed to Black Cat and then all took naps back at the cabin before Nick, Anne and Eric headed out to Sugar to go snowboarding.  Kyle and I rented Captain Phillips and had a wonderful night in enjoying the quiet of the cabin!  Before Em went to sleep she was thoroughly entertaining us with her improv dance moves and prayers.  Here are some videos of her little spunky personality:

Sunday, we cleaned up and all headed home pretty early to get ready for the week.  A wonderful weekend with family, oh we love Boonetown!

Snow Day!

We had a day of snow last week and Emery loved playing in it.  We only had around 2 inches max, but enough to make the yard look pretty and entertain Emery for a little while!

She loves to eat it constantly!

And a fun video of Em playing in the snow!

But if I'm being honest, she really loved drinking the hot chocolate more than the snow.  Give this girl some marshmallows and she is good to go!

We also made DIY bird feeders to keep ourselves busy while watching the snow fall outside.  Really fun!

Meanwhile, poor Kyle was stuck in Atlanta during their horrible "State of Emergency" Snowpocolypse.  The city was completely unprepared for the snow and 285 turned into a complete sheet of ice.  After having to park and walk a mile to his hotel that night, he was safe and sound and able to escape out some back roads the next afternoon.  Thankful for his safety!

Hanging with friends!

We have been having a blast hanging out with friends lately, so I wanted to post these phone pics before they got lost!  I am determined to host/schedule more playdates this year to get to know friends better and before baby comes since we'll be stuck inside for a little while after that!

Em's newest friend, Hayley, who we met through library story time!  Em and Hayley have a blast together and we've had a lot of fun getting to know their family!  

Em's best pal, Nora, who lives here in our neighborhood!  Kim and I have become close friends and I'm grateful to have them so close by.  On top of that, Kim just passed her newborn baby boy clothes (She has a 4 month old) on to us... so grateful!

Met my cousin Sarah and her kiddos Addyson and Jaxon at Sports Connection where the kiddos jumped on the bounce houses for a couple hours!  Always have so much fun hanging out with their family!

Had Katherine and Mada over to play the other week, too!  Can't believe how big both our girls are getting-- I feel like they were both babies yesterday!

Ashley and I had a blast out at dinner one night trying a new menu during Charlotte's Restaurant Week.  This is where restaurants set up a 3 course meal for $30 so you can try out their menu.  This place was AMAZING Italian Food, can't wait to bring Kyle there to try it. Love having girls' nights with Ash!

Emery also got to go to her first Hockey Game the other weekend!  Our friends Warren and Mandy invited us to go sit in a suite and enjoy the game with them.  Fun night!

And lastly, we drove to Shelby to visit Lauren, Merrin and Baby Woods!  They are doing great and we always have so much fun hanging out with their family.  Merrin and Em are both such little mommies, it's so cute to see them around baby Woods!

And I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling with him all morning too!

Thankful for sweet friends in our life!

Baby #2: First Trimester

Oh man, this baby is already getting the second child syndrome as I have done no pregnancy surveys this time around and taken very few belly pics!  As we announced a while back we are expecting and due May 10th with a baby boy and are so excited.  So let's start from the beginning:

We found out September 2nd (Labor Day I was 4 1/2 weeks) that we were expecting!  I shared this video in an earlier post, and as you can tell Kyle and I both were pretty much shocked with those test results.

I had convinced myself and Kyle that it was going to take us a while to get pregnant this time around… so much to the point where I didn't even take a test until 3 days past when my period was supposed to come.  (So different from Emery where I took it 5 days before ha!)  Not to mention he was out of town all but 2 days that month, what are the chances?! With all that said though, we are so grateful that getting pregnant has happened so quickly for us and we were completely pumped!

We did make the decision to not tell Emery or any of our close friends and family until we were out of the first trimester.  (The reason being: After having my thyroidectomy I am now on "fake" thyroid hormones and have to be monitored to make sure my thyroid levels are in a normal range.  If they aren't I am at a higher risk for miscarriage or the baby having brain damage.)  Although, my family ended up finding out a little early since we took a trip to Disney and I had to explain why I was eating a lot of snacks and gagging every now and then!   Thankfully, my levels have been in the desired range or pretty close and we made it through the first trimester with no issues… Praise the Lord!

Just a few randoms that I don't want to forget!
CLOTHING - I started showing really fast (like week 5 again), just like I did with Emery and before I knew it my clothes were getting a little tight.  What's great about this time around is that I had larger clothes to change into (from after I had Emery) rather than going straight to maternity.  A HUGE thank you to Tara and Kerry for passing all their maternity clothes down to me... what a blessing it is to not have to buy a thing to wear during this pregnancy!

FIRST ULTRASOUND (Confirmation of Pregnancy) - September 30th (8 weeks), so so exciting to see a little heart flickering away since the morning sickness really hadn't kicked in full force yet.  Such a miracle and we found out our due day of May 10th, 2014.

MORNING SICKNESS - My worst part of the day was the afternoon and night.  Morning sickness started to hit week 7 and lasted until week 13, but all in all was WAY better than my experience with Emery.  I didn't have to take Zofran everyday and only threw up every other day or so.  Once again I couldn't stomach much protein or veggies and really stuck to eating soup, bagels and cheese.  Cooking dinner was pretty much impossible and same thing for eating it.  I'm so thankful for Kyle doing everything for Emery at night during those weeks, somehow he managed to be home by 5:00 and not travel any during that time.  Brushing my teeth at night and trying to get down my multi vitamins continued to be a struggle until week 18 or so!  Gagged till I fell asleep most nights, yuck!

On another random note, walking and constantly moving HELPED my morning sickness not get the best of me during the day.  Thankfully, during our Disney trip we were walking everywhere so most days I felt great!  Another perfect thing about Disney is that Emery and I were able to watch all the classic princess movies before we left since laying down was always a plus for me.  She knew who everyone was and we have the morning sickness to thank for that ;)

EXHAUSTION - Hit full force the entire first trimester (and truthfully a good part of the second trimester too).  I had to take naps most days during Emery's nap and I was still falling asleep on the couch at 8:00 every night!

NUCHAL TRANSLUCENCY TEST - October 23rd (11 1/2 weeks) We opted for this test again just so we could know if our chances this time around for down syndrome or any other chromosomal abnormalities.  Thankfully, our results came back very encouraging with my age statistics, the baby measurements and my blood work. 

CRAVINGS - Unbelievably the only thing I have been having a hard core craving for is Tomatillo Salsa!  Moe's has free kid meals on Tuesdays, so most days after the library you can find us there with 4 cups of the salsa in front of me :)

Before we knew it we were out of the first trimester and able to surprise our best friends and family with the great news!  Everyone was very excited for us and our baby will be the 6th grandchild for both my parents and Kyle's parents.  We still decided to wait until we found out the sex to tell our other friends and to make the big announcement on Facebook, Instagram and our blog.

So if I had to describe my emotions during this pregnancy it would definitely be cautious and guarded, but at the same time a complete blessing and something we are so so excited about.  It is flying by as most days I honestly forget that I'm pregnant as Emery has all my concentration!  She is going to be the best big sister and she cannot wait to meet baby boy.  And that's my recap of the first trimester, here was my belly shot from 13 weeks!