Newborn Session Teasers

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!
I cannot wait to see the rest of the film! Thank you so much Amanda!
 http://www.erasphotography.com/

Smitten Kitten

Look at 'em!....wouldn't you be too? =)

1 Month Old

Yep, already. Emily is a month old. I thought my pregnancy went fast....well now that she's here, hours are like minutes.

So what's up with Emmy Kay now? I'm not so sure about weight & height seeing how our next check up isn't until 2 months, but I definately know she's a-growin! She's in size 1 diapers now & her newborn onesies are snug. We went to a birthday party today & the NB dress I wanted her to wear is now a lil tunic I had to put leggings underneath. And the dress fit just fine when she was 10 days old. Looks like it's time for 0-3!

Sleep wise....she's doing pretty well. Her last feeding of the night is around 11p and then she's up for chow time around 3a & then again between 530a & 6a. She's gotten really good at nursing while laying in bed beside me & it's safe to say that my nips are so numb I can catnap while she's eating.

She's been trying to hold her neck up for the past couple weeks & when she's laying up against our shoulders, she holds her head up to see our faces. She's starting to realize that her fingers are fun lil toys & likes to hear the sound of her voice. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the baby crack machine instantly quiets & calms her. As does laying on the boppy in her big sissy's lap & staring at her does.

Everyone comments about how much Em looks like Brookie. While I definately agree that they have the same nose & pouty lips, I think Brooklyn favors me more while Emily favors Dustin more. What do you think?

Happy 1 Month-Day Emily!

A Day at the Beach

With Dustins paternity leave ending Monday (insert sad face here. Sure I've been alone with both girls, but not for any longer than 3 or so hours. We're talking about 8-10 hours a day now. Yikes! Plus its been nice having him around to be lazy shmazy with.) we decided to make the most of this week. Sooo we made the drive up to Lake Erie and went to East Harbor beach.

Brooklyn absolutely adores the water. Any kind of water. To get her to take a bath, we say "Let's go to the ocean!" and she would spend hours in there if we let her. She's obsessed with The Little Mermaid & loves to watch River Monsters with Dustin. This girl is a fish!

I sooooo wish we had our camcorder with her when she saw the lake & sand. Her face was priceless & we could barely contain her from diving right in.

We went in the late afternoon so the sun wouldn't be as harsh for Brookie & Emily, and it was perfect. We found a spot with great shade & set up camp (ya, we looked like hobo's moving to the beach with all our gear. But I'm a paranoid WHAT IF?!?!? kinda gal & didn't want to need something & not have it)

Like Minnie Mouse....we never leave anywhere without her =)

Emmy gets her toesies wet

Loves of my life.

Love this face!!

and this one =)

Ahh, my beloved Moby! Love it. Especially since it's UV protected.

Pretty girl having a splash...errr blast!

<3

We could only stay about an hour, hour and a half. A certain toddler didn't think she needed to listen to her parents & would dart straight for the water alone. She also drank her weight in lake water (which made for some interesting diapers today), had sand in every body crevise, ate some sand, & threw the worst tantrum when we left for the car. A Margaritaville milkshake & chips and salsa made her feel better....until the drive home. That's when I prayed to just go deaf for an hour. Alas we made it home & it was straight to the "ocean", then bed. And then this morning, her first words were "Beach Mommy? To the beach today?!? PEEEEAS!"  

P.S...Yes I got my hair cut. Yes I love it! Pics will follow once I don't have my hair up in a bun all day.

Beastly Mane

That's what I've got...right on top of the noggin. Let's start with saying I adore my hair. Like I'm a teensey weensey bit obsessed with it. I don't know why, I've just always had an admiration for long hair. Especially straight hair. Yes, I'm a natural ringlet gal who goes through an obsene amount of heat protectant spray so my Chi can do it's thang. But in my defense, I don't fight my curls....my curls fight me. I have tangled ringlets on the bottom half of my mane & then the top half is frizzy waves. Not attractive.

Anyways, I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've gotten my hair cut in the past 3 years. A trim the week of our wedding, a MISTAKE!!! huge change when I cut 10 inches of my hair off a couple weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Brooklyn (and before I knew I'd become pregnant in my face), bangs when Brooklyn was a few weeks old because I felt frumpy (and then they looked like middle school bangs for a few months until they grew out a little), and then last August I got a trim. 4 times in 3 years.....my hair is scuhhhhreaming for a lil TLC.

I guess I'm scared of change & I have a HUGE issue with "cutters" remorse. But I am in need of a change...a pick-me-up. Because this look I've got going on in this 95 degree weather & humidity makes me look like the love child of.....

and

Plus 2 under 2 isn't exactly giving me the 45 minutes-1 hour time I need to wash, dry, & straighten my hair. Soooo tomorrow I've got an appointment for a cut. A trim. Perhaps some bangs? I like the length of my bangs when we were on our honeymoon

And I like this length of hair? ...Maybe??

Arrrgh! This is hard. I'll probably walk out tomorrow with "just the dead ends cut off" and not look any different at all.

Picture will follow in a future post....maybe. Unless I walk out looking like this

GOO!

Sister Sister!

Hey Hollywood!!!

What's Happenin

First of all, I'm sorry for the lack of posts recently. But we've been busy this past week. First we went to Kingwood Center. This place is special to Dustin & I because it's where we had our engagement pictures taken 3 years ago.

It's also where BrookBaby took her 1st walk :)

And now it's where Emily had her 1st walk. Holy canole was it hot that day!

I absolutely adore these pics of Brooklyn.

Notice her new best friend.

We've also gone to Mom's alot to go swimming. It has been crazy hot here lately, so having such a sweet Momma with an inground pool has been bliss! And yes, I've been bad & have gone swimming. Technically I wasn't told in the hospital that I couldn't go with my c-section incision, but I also have heard from other c-section Mommies that 6 weeks is usually the golden rule. Brookie was born in September so there was no need to swim. With Emily & a lil tadpole toddler, swimming is in high demand. But my incision looks & feels great, I feel great, so why not. I dove in. Talk about euphoria!

Ahhh, one of the many moods of Brookie.

Because of the heat, we've spent alot of days indoors with the central air blasting. Sometimes these days are my favorite....just lounging & playing with my girls.

This girl in particular cracks me up....for example.

This is her Elmo Easter basket from a couple months ago. She decided to make it her own Russian-esque hat!

We also went to Miss Addison's 1st birthday party where someone got their first taste of cotton candy and became quite obsessed with it. I mean who wouldn't? Dissolvable chew free pure sugar? Count me in!

The girls also had doctor appointments. Emily's 1st for her 2 week check up & Brooklyn was just for a regular check up. Brooklyn weighed in at 28 lbs 6 oz and 38 inches tall. You read that right, 38 inches! I mean, it isn't too suprising considering her parents are amazons at 5'11'' and 6'4'', but the look on our pedi's face was hilarious. He said "She's a big girl...but in a good way!" She's 100th percentile for height & 70th for weight& in absolute perfect health. Now if we could only handle those temper tantrums....

Emily's appointment went great too. When she was born, she weighed 8 lbs 3.7 oz & 2 days later when we left the hospital, she was 7 lbs 8 oz. 12 days later she weighed in at 9 lbs even. Baby girl gained a pound and a half! Woo hoo! The doc looked at me & said "Wow, good milk Mommy!" I was thinking Ummm, do I thank him? lol

She measured 20.5 inches. If you look at my ticker, you'll see she measured only 19 inches at birth. An inch and a half growth in 2 weeks? Doubtful. So we're thinking the measurements were off at the hospital when she was born. And when I watched the video of Emily being cleaned off & her measurements taken in the nursery, I noticed the nurse didn't stretch her out completely. So she was more than likely 20 inches at birth.

Doc said she looked great. Her umbilical cord stump fell off @ 10 days & looked fine. Only issue we had was her left eye was very goopey & crusty. We thought it was a blocked tear duct so we kept massaging her eye with a warm compress & it's since helped clear it up about 90%. She's been eating well, obviously, so it makes for a tired Momma. My boobs are literally her life, so when she calls, I answer, no matter what time or for how long. Usually she's about 10-15 minutes on each side, but sometimes she has her days & will want to spend a half hour on 1 boob so I look a little lopsided & feel pretty sore. She's also been sleeping fairly well (knock on wood!!!) and will wake up twice a night. Usually between 2 & 3am and then again between 5 & 6am. We'll take it.

It's hard to believe that I've already been off work for 3 weeks, it actually feels like it's been longer than that. Hopefully that feeling lasts because who would want to go back to work when you can stay home & stare at these faces all day?

More House!

Okay, okay...we've been in our home for going on 2 months & I've only posted pictures of Miss Brookie's room. I've been juuuust a lil bit busy BUT I've been reminded that I've left ya'll to hang. So, I give you before & after of our dining room & kitchen. And I promise Emily's nursery, our bedroom, & the living room will follow soon.

So here's the dining room before (that wasn't our table or flowers)

First of all, I adore the bay window. I also detest the green carpet. Especially since there are OAK HARDWOOD FLOORS underneath it. Who does that? Who covers beautiful natural wood? And you may also notice the horribly eye gauging wall paper. It wasn't just in the dining room, it was throughout the entire downstairs, minus the kitchen. The first thing I did when we closed was call around for a paint contractor because I knew it had to come down ASAP. Well, whoever did this wallpaper job seriouslly needs a lobotomy. The contractor told us that it was the worst job he'd ever seen. Creases weren't in the corners, it was basically paper glued to paper. But it gets better. Underneath this wallpaper was a layer of glue....and then lovely flowered wallpaper that wasn't stripped. It took alot of work from the guys, but they made it look great in only 5 days.
Here's the finished dining room. The color on the wall's is Sherwin Williams Toasty (which I wish I would've done the whole downstairs in, I love it!)

I can't wait to add Emmy's pictures to the wall =)

Flowers from our wedding & my favorite ceremony picture of us.

Our project for next spring is to get all the green carpet outta the downstairs. We may cover the wood in the living room with new dark carpet, but only based soley on the fact that we'll have a crawler & a toddler and spills are inevitable.

A lil sneak peek into the living room. There are french doors that come out here to close off the living room from the dining room.

And here's the kitchen before. The color is here is actually gorgeous & we love the floors. So basically we just added our touches of home & love the outcome.

Before

After (and yes, those are fresh baked cookies. I'm so June Cleaver)

Before (again, not our stuff there)

After (Dustin & Brooklyn adore that Ernie cookie jar. It was a definate keeper)

Before

After

And my favorite part of the kitchen, my plate rack.

There you have it! More pics soon to follow in an upcoming post! I can't make any promises, but hopefully it won't be another 2 months.