Happy Halloween!

We had trick or treat last Thursday.  Last year it was perfect autumn weather, but this year it was so stinkin cold. We're talking 'layers of fleece, mittens, runny windburned noses, keep your 4 month old inside' kinda cold. So Emily rocked her costume indoors...

and Hadley Ariel & Brookie the peacock went out for Trick or Treat. In style of course. Except they got a liiiiitle too comfortable in the wagon {with a big fleece blanket covering them} and just wanted rolled up to houses to stick out their bag, say "Trick or Treat! Thank you! Bye!", and then off to the next house.

Along the way, we met Bert & Ernie! And were being lurked upon by Ghostface back there.

After about an hour of TOT-ing, we headed to all the grandparents houses and met up with the girls cousins.

Brookie absolutely loved Trick or Treating. She's been asking to go every morning since. And the candy. Ohhh my, all of her candy. Good thing these aren't her permanet teeth.

Happy Halloween!
Love, Brooklyn

and Emily =)

P.S. Remember, the 30 days blogging challenge starts tomorrow!

4 Months Old

1/3 of a year old. Seriouslly....Seriouslly?!?

Sweet Emmy Kay, I cannot believe you are 4 months old today. You've become so much more active this past month. We've had so much fun with you! I love how excited you get whenever Daddy or I walk in the room. Or how your eyes brighten up & you giggle whenever your sister does something silly. I love this little person you are becoming.

Sleep wise. Well, up until last week you were sleeping {yes still in our room & yes still swaddled} 8 hours a night. Then one night you decided "Hmmmm...my tummy isn't quite as filled as I'd like. So I'm gonna wake Mommy up 5 times a night just for a little snack." Not fun. Not fun at all. So we decided to start her out on a tablespoon of rice cereal, which went pretty well and she has started sleeping at least 6 hours a night again. She's also doing something that Brookie didn't do until well past a year old.....

Putting herself to sleep. I guess everyone is right & the second time around is when you put your learned lessons into affect. And the whole "put baby down drowsy but awake" concept is TRUE! lol

Emily is such a calm baby. Now that her colic is completely resolved, the only times she ever cries is when she's hungry or super sleepy. Her gummy smiles make my day and her giggles make me beam.

Speaking of beaming, when she rolled from back to belly for the first time, I was so proud! Although she still hasen't rolled belly to back, she's getting better at tummy time. She lifts her head completely off the ground and sways side to side, but just doesn't complete the roll.

On her 3rd monthday, I guesstimated her at 14 lbs. She had her 4 month check up Thursday & is weighing in at 15 lbs 11 oz (90th %) and 24.5 inches long (75th %). Y-A-Y for chunky babies! =)

The doctor did say that she does have a very small right umbilical hernia, but that it isn't causing her any pain and should resolve itself by the time she turns 2. He also mentioned that we could start her on veggies whenever we wanted, so we're thinking of getting some squash or sweet potatos for her soon.

Brook & Emily together still gives me the greatest joy. The way they giggle at each other is ridiculously cute and even thought Brook has shown some jealousy {more so over attention}, she absolutely adores her baby sister. At the doctor, Emmy was tired and fussy during the exam. Brooklyn kept saying "What's wrong, Sissy? It's okay. Brookie's here". And Emily is kissed and hugged by Brookie at least 20 times a day. This is what I've always imagined. This is what makes 2 girls 21 months apart 100% worth all the tiring times.

Look how much she's grown. I mean, who is that 1 week old down there??

Happy 4th Monthday, Emily!!! I love you so much pretty girl.

Pumpkin Carving!

Typical us, we always wait until the last minute to carve our pumpkins. I was ready to last week, so I got the girls dressed all autumnly and took a couple pictures...

 And then we never got to carving them. I'm pretty sure that was the night Emily had a double blow out {spit up & tushie} and so we just put it off.

Well, tonight is Trick or Treat, so we got them done last night. Brookie had to get her sillies out first. I love her face here & the fact you can tell she's jumping. {Notice how un-autumnly she looks}.

I looooove this bush in our backyard. Known affectionately here as our "fire bush", it's leaves & berries are such a gorgeous red. I so wish I had a nicer camera {one day soon!!} to capture the beauty of this.

 Ready to scrape out the goop. Or as Brookie called it, the "ew nasty gross" stuff.

 We made Daddy do the "ew nasty gross" part. Ewww bare hands!

 Emmy Kay joined in the goopy fun =)

 Ta-Da! Finished products!

Like I said, tonight is Trick or Treat and I will have the prettiest peacock and most beautiful bumblebee in town.

30 Day Challenge

Not to be confused with the 30 Day Shred, my friends {shudders}. But during my usual dose of daily blog stalking, I came upon this blog by Katie and spent over a half hour reading. And I saw that she was doing this fun 30 day blogging challenge and I, as always, was late to the game. So I thought to myself, "Self. Why don't you do one yourself?"

Good idea, Self.

In the good ol' Myspace days, I used to love doing the surveys and questionaires. And I thought, like Katie, it would be a good way for my readers & followers to know some more about me. And for me to know more about you!

So starting November 1st, I'll have a daily post for the whole month about these topics.

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your favorite recipes

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-What's in your makeup bag

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture

Join in the fun! All you have to do is grab my button {to the left} for your post and then come back here & link your blog so I and others can read it.

Start brainstorming! The challenge begins in 6 days!

An "I Do" Date Night

Last Saturday, Dustin & I got to have a grown ups only night for our friend Keri's wedding while the girlies were with MawMaw. Can I just tell you how excited I was to have a reason to get all dressy dressy? If I'm not wearing {all white, ugh!} scrubs at work, I'm wearing jami pants and hoodies or old high school shirts. Throw in the occasional comfy tee and jeans with boots and that's my wardrobe. So I was super excited to get the chance to shop for a nice dress. And I found the cutest dress at Kohls...even though LC rocks it much better than I did.

And HELLO, does my husband clean up nice or what?!?

The wedding itself was beautiful. I adore fall weddings with all the beautiful colors. Thom & Keri are such an amazing couple. Thom's from Boston {or Bawwwstin as they say it} and even though we're extremely anti Red Sox, we all managed to have a fabulous night with his family & friends =)

Liz & I. 2 Momma's ready for a fun night!

Loved the carmel apple table favors!

I love these guys. Jeff & Fishpaw have been friends with Dustin since elementary school and have been "my boys" since Dustin & I met. Such great friends.

Classic!

Are these seriouslly not the cutest things ever?!?

2 hours into the reception with an open bar.....'nuff said.

Best part {besides the open bar, of course} was the photo booth. So much fun!

Ya...I never look in the right spot in these things.

CONGRATULATIONS KERI & THOM <3

New & Improved

I never understood that line. If it's new, how is it improved? Shouldn't it say Old but Better? Oh well, it made a nice segway to the point of this blog.

Construction complete!! Whatcha guys think? Thanks to Julie, the Shenanigans is lookin all spiffy. She's great to work with, definately highly recommended!

Best part? She must've realized the inner Gossip Girl love I have in me, hence my signature =)

Enjoy the new look everyone! And thanks so much for reading. If you're a fan, follow me and/or grab my button for your blog. I honestly love blogging about the random shenanigans of our family and hope you all enjoy reading them.

P.S...Rice cereal is the greatest thing since McDonalds $1 sweet tea. Emily has STTN the past 2 nights. Sha.Maze.Ing.

Rolie Polie Olie

As promised, video of Miss Emily rolling =)

Rice & Rollin'

Where, oh where, has my baby girl gone?!? It's been a week of firsts for Miss Emmy Kay and I cannot believe how quickly she's growing. Last Wednesday she rolled from her back to her belly. I was sooo proud of her. It's amazing how excited you get when your child accomplishes a milestone. It's so funny when she rolls now because she gets stuck on her belly and won't budge. That's right, she's doing things backwards. She can roll back to belly....but not belly to back. This girl absolutely hates tummy time. Despises it to the point where she'd rather lay in a puddle of her drool then simply roll back over. {p.s. I have a video of her rolling over (and my annoying voice encouraging her) but YouTube is deciding to take 8 years to upload it. But I promise to get it posted here soon}

Another first this week was rice cereal. We weren't going to start solids until she reached 4 months, like we did with Brooklyn....

however, we've entered the 4 month wakeful period. Long story short...it sucks. Apparently babies around this age wake more often before they double their birth weight. I mean, have you seen this lil girl's thighs? Double her birth weight would put her at 16 lbs 8 oz and I swear those thighs gotta each weigh at least 2 lbs. Add in the delicious gobbler & smooshy cheeks, I thought for sure we'd be at 16 lbs!

I never knew about the wakeful period. Brooklyn was a craptastic sleeper as a baby, so we went through the 13 month wakeful period. And now I remember how I felt during those times. Dead.to.the.world. Last Friday I just burst out in tears when my alarm clock went off before work because I was exhausted & didn't think I could function. Emily refused to sleep in her crib or bassinet so she was in bed with us, and I can never fully sleep when she's with us. I'm uber paranoid about the covers smothering her or my arm fat depriving her of oxygen in the wee hours of the night. And she woke up at least 5 times to eat. It got to the point where I just kept my breast out all night long so she could snack whenever she felt like it. I maybe got 4 hours of sleep and after having a baby sleep at least 8 hours for the past 2 months, it was definately break down tear worthy.

So we decided to start her on a little cereal mixed with breast milk. And she could've cared less for it. She was so giggly when I was trying to feed her that she just kept spitting it all out. I did manage to get probably a tablespoon or so in her, so hopefully that'll fill the belly juuuust right for at least a night of 6 hours of straight sleep....pretty pleeeease.

Ready for chow time!

 "Seriouslly Mommy? Just gimme da boob"

When Brookie came downstairs from her bath, she saw that Emily was eating cereal. And even though she just finished dinner, she begged for a bowl of cereal herself. But, as she told me, she wanted "my Mini Mouse wheats!"

::siiiiigh: My little girl is growing so fast.