And many moooore...

It starts. The month of birthdays is a go-go. Our family is growing literally by the year. Since 2005, on Dustin's moms side, there has been a baby born every single year. We just talked about who had dibs on the 2011 baby....ya, not me. Maaaaaybe 2013, 2014, we'll see. On Dustin's dads side, there's been a baby ever year since 2006 with one more coming in 2011. Anyways, the summer is definately the busiest month of birthdays. In June we've got Eli, Corlyn, & now Emily {and ME}. In July there's Addison & Blake. In August there's JJ & Ali. And September is the big one. Not only do we have Brooklyn, Cameron, Grady, & Hadley, but we also have my Grandma, Dustins Grandma, Dustins dad, and our wedding anniversary. And Labor Day. I'm exhausted just writing that. Too many cake temptations are never going to allow me to lose these last 4 lbs of baby weight (and 20 lbs of Chipotle, Bakers fries {did I mention drenched with ranch?}, and Barq's root beer). More about this whole weight thang in another post.

So anyways,  from the end of August to the end of September, our weekends are packed. Last Sunday was Ali's 9th birthday party. When Dustin & I first started dating, she wasn't even 2 yet. And now she's 9 & growing into such a pretty young girl.

This was the first time all 4 grandgirlies have been together! Ali, Emmy, Haddie, & Brookie <3

and this one cracks me up. Emily's chunky leg dimples, Hadley's stink eye, Brooklyn "the cheese sits alones" face, it's all good.

Next up we've got Brooklyn's birthday party this Saturday! I am so excited to see her face when she sees all of her Minnie Mouse party decor. Let's hope the weather is as beautiful as it was on her 1st birthday.

2 Months Old

I can't believe my baby girl is already 2 months. FYI, I'll be saying this monthly....it's just going so fast! Sooo what's up with Emily now? We'll start with her stats. Like I mentioned in my Y3W post, we took Emily to the pediatrician last week and she's weighing in at 12 lbs 11 oz and is 23 inches long....definately living up to her Chunkaroo nickname :) This past weekend I packed up all of her newborn (she's been out of those for awhile, but I've been lazy shmazy) and her 0-3 clothes. Yep, my baby is in size 3 and some 3-6 month clothing. Which means that Brooklyn's hand me downs in that size are the completely wrong season (late fall, early winter). Aww nuts, guess we gotta do some shopping.

Sleep wise, Emily is amazing, especially for having colic. She naps well during the day, but gets fussy & restless in the evening. So we do our best to keep her comfortable but having her upright, in her vibration bouncer, or up against our chests. Her last feed is always around 11p, right before we go to bed, and she usually sleeps until about 4 or 5am. Except for last night, when she slept for 10p-8a!! My boobs were like cement, owwwchie!

Emily is still being swaddled at night & sleeping in her bassinet in our room with her womb bear. Well, mostly in her bassinet. When she does wake up in the middle of the night, I bring her in bed with us to nurse her and we both end up falling asleep. So we do a little co-sleeping, which I like because it gives us extra snuggle time.

Eating wise, well she obviously likes too. We had quite a bit of difficulty this month with nursing because of her thrush, but we are doing much better now. I'm so glad because nursing had become so painful that I was tempted to quit. I had started pumping & giving her a bottle and also had to supplement a few meals with formula. But like I said, we're good now.

Playwise, Emily is finally starting to show some personality. For the first month, babies are so...well, they're boring. Eat, sleep, cry, poop, wash, rinse, and repeat. Now that she's smiling & cooing, she's a lot more fun. We've put her on her playmat under Mr.Sunshine, but she isn't a big fan yet.

She's great at holding her head up and looking side to side when she's laying on her belly. She really isn't a fan of the binkie, she prefers to suck on her fingers. She cracks me up when she nurses & then just looks up at me with a mouthfull of milk and gives me the biggest grin. Or when she's trying to get comfortable & she does her Cartman grunt.

I'm gonna say it again....I can't believe my baby girl is 2 months old.

I had to post this one. Dustin said she looks like Dan Connor bwaaahaha.

And for comparison...

1 month old

and 1 week old.

Happy 2nd Month-Day, Emily Kay. Stop growing for Mommy's sake, mkay?

Y3W

Join in the fun =)

I took Emily to the pediatrician last week because she wasn't feeling well. She had been very fussy & cranky & wanting to nurse every hour for comfort. Only problem with that was I was becoming very sore. I thought she was having a latch issue because I was almost to the point of tears when she would nurse, it was that painful. Well, it wasn't latch issues, it was thrush. The dreaded thrush. No wonder I was in pain! She was also diagnosed with colic, poor baby girl. So we've started her on Zantac which has helped out alot. I was given some Nystatin cream for myself & Nystatin oral suspension for Emily and I'm soooo glad to say that nursing is back to being nice & bonding =)

Anyways, last week at 7 weeks, she weighed 12 lbs even and was 23 inches long. We went back this week for a weight check up and she weighed in at 12 lbs 11 oz lol She's a growing girl for sure!! Look at those munchalicious cheeks & delicious muffin top, who wouldn't want to gobble this girly right up?

And just to compare, here's Brooklyn at 7 weeks. 11 lbs 6 oz and 21.5 inches long.

I love my lil num yummy babies <3

Brattie Fest 2010

We have an event that occurs in B-Town every year. When you're in school, it marks the end of summer. When you're out of school, it marks the one time a year that you get to run into (or avoid) people from high school who have gone their seperate way. When you're underage, you get a big red X on your hand...but look for your older friends or family to sneak you a sip of beer at the Beer Gardens.

It's where downtown is blocked off, German music is played, there's cream puffs, strawberry shortcake, cheese on a stick (yes, a stick), bourbon chicken, rice & beans, fried veggies, carmel apples. But everyone is there for one thing...BRATWURSTS!

We've had too effin much some construction going on downtown, so last years Bratwurst Festival was held at the Fairgrounds. We didn't even bother to go & I was bummed because it would've been Brookie's 1st festival. This year was even better because it was Brookie & Emmy's 1st festival. I was mostly excited for Brookie to get to watch her very 1st parade. Aaaaand since she had been sick the week prior & her nose was running like Forrest, I had been bribing her with cotton candy to get her to use a Kleenex. (What? It worked & my couch is snot free). So it's an understatement to say that she was stoked for the "cotton candy parade!"

We headed out Thursday evening. Thank Goodness we live nearby uptown. It only took about 10 minutes to walk. (Excuse my hair por favor. Remember what humidity does to it....Monica "Weird Al")

"Hollywood" loves her new wagon. She begs to sit in it & it's so nifty with a seatbelt & cup holders. And a big thanks to Dora for teaching my child to wear her seatbelt "so we can be safe, Mommy!" lol

Emily is also picking up on the Dora leasons.

Dustin's stepmom owns a store downtown, so we had the perfect view of the parade from right in front of her store. It was suuuuuper hot that day, so Emily chilled inside with Nana while we watched the parade. Let me tell you, Brooklyn was in heaven!

She waved to everyone who went by.

Smiled at everyone.

And was in complete aww of the marching band. Aunt Kendra must've been luring her.

And she got her cotton candy. I'm a woman of my word....and when we passed the vendor, she had a meltdown.  

Brooklyn had so much fun Thursday night, we decided to go to Fridays parade as well.

Again, it was hot but not as bad as Thursday. I offered Brooklyn some of my lemonade, but all she wanted was to eat the lemon. Yep, my child eats lemons. Whenever we go to a restaurant & I order water, I ask for 2 lemons so she can munch on one.

And our besties joined us for the fun!

I love how they're just lovingly smiling at each other.

"I kissed a girl and I liked it"

Absolutely love this

She's a proper lady, has been since the womb.

In a few short weeks, us 5 girls will turn into the 6 Chicks =)

And sweet Emily, she was so good & basically slept the entire evening.

Saturday was our one & only night to be able to head uptown with some friends, thanks to MawMaw watching the girls. It was really great to see & talk to friends we haven't seen in awhile. Like Abbey & Keri (who is getting maaaaarrried in October!)

And we had so much fun with Dustins friends from work, Kathy & Devon. And my amazing SIL Tiffany :)

Aaaaand Dustin had a pretty good night as well lol

Hard to believe summer is over again. BUT I am soooooo ready for fall! Hoodies, pumpkin patches, Halloween, football, grilled cheese sammiches, chili, cider, fudge! I love it all.

P.S....Don't forget about my Q&A in the Lurkers post. I'm an open book =) And thank you to those who've commented & for leaving your blog links! I love reading up on others & who wouldn't like seeing pictures of such adorable children?!? And you followers, thanks! 24 now, woo hoo!

Lurkers Unlurk!

So I have 20 followers....not much, but a big thank you to those who do. Anywho, I have 20 followers, but I'm told by many that they read my blog daily. So I'm challenging you lurkers to unlurk by doing a free for all (within reason a-course) questionaire. Ask me anything. Tell me what you like about my blog. What you don't like. What you'd like to see/hear more of. Tell me how amazingly precious my babies are. Whatever you want. I wanna hear about you too so if you have a blog yourself, leave a link! I love reading new blogs.

Lurkers unlurk! Show yo face! Let's all be fraaaands =)

ETA~~>22 followers now, keep em comin! Don't be shy!

Are Ya Ready?!?

It's that time of year! FINALLY, Ohio State football starts in a mere 9 days and we Stauffers are stoked, being huge Buckeye fans. For the past few weeks (ok, months) I've been online looking for cute outfits for the girls to wear on game day. I saw cute little cheerleader uniforms, jerseys, & t shirts. But nothing special. Personalized shirts cost a fortune (seriouslly? $40 for a shirt with an "O" on the front & her name on the back? Don't think so)

Soooo I decided to head on over to heaven Hobby Lobby & see if I could find something there to make for the girls. I hit the jackpot.

In about 15 minutes, I turned a plain white tee & a plain white onesie into these.....

And it only cost $8.50 a shirt to make. You can't really tell in the picture, but their names are black with white polka dots. And they're all iron ons, which was a cinch. I think a vicious cycle has started, especially since I bought a 5 pack of shirts & onesies.

"Hi, my name is Ashley. And I'm a personalized-aholic....."

The Many Faces of Miss Emmy Kay

 

Oh & did I mention that when I took Emily to the pediatrician last week (where she was diagnosed with thrush AND colic), she weighed in at 12 lbs even. That's a 3 lb weight gain in 5 weeks. I adore my lil chunkaroo.

Whose Who?

My husband is not a photographer, admittedly so. He whines when I ask him to take a picture, doesn't center or focus anything, and he despises being in pictures, so much so that I've had to bribe him to put on a smile for our recent photo shoots. (Now in his defense, we've had 6 photo shoots in the past 3 years. But I'm a picture whore, he knew that when he attached the ball to the chain!)

But when it came to his daughters big day, he was a total snapshotaholic. I think it's because he knew I would be missing so much having to stay in recovery & for that, I'm soooo thankful.

I was going through some pictures on good ol' Myspace today while the girls napped (poor girls are sick. Congestion+fever+clingy+irritability=sad girlies & a worn out Momma). I found a picture of Brooklyn & I instantly remembered a picture of Emily. This makes me heart melt....

We've been told by so many people that the girls look soooo much alike. I think you can definately tell they are sisters, but besides the nose (which is all me) I think Brookie is my mini me & Emmy is Dustins.

To compare, I've found some *extremely poor quality* newborn pictures of us.

Wouldn't you agree??