7 Months Old

Another month gone by already sweet girl? This one went by especially fast for some reason---maybe it's the new year, maybe it's the fact that you changed so much in this month, I'm not sure. But this sappy Momma doesn't like it :( Slow down Emmy Kay, stay my little Buggy forever {in a perfect world, eh Mommies?}

Like I said, she's changed alot this month. Grown up some I suppose. For instance, we can plop her down on the ground and leave the room without worrying she'll tumble over. This also means that playtime with Brooklyn is much more fun. (Especially when she plays with her favorite toy there--a singing farm.)

Brooklyn is so smitten with Emily. I swear it's so adorable. She'll just say "Awww, hers loves me!" or "Whose the pretty girl? Whose my little sissy??? Whatcha doooooooin baby girl?!?" I'm a puddle. She also loves to try & make Emily smile during our monthday photo shoots. This one from today cracked me up.

Emily has her 2 bottom teeth now {as you can see in the first picture} and her grins are even more adorable. She says MaMa everday (which turns me into an even mushier puddle), just started saying DaDa, and now we're working on Sissy. She isn't ready to crawl yet, but she does scoot herself backwards with her hands. Her hair on top is growing into a beautiful dark blonde, like Brookie's, but because she sleeps on her back and tosses and turns her head at night, the back is still peach fuzz. Em also gained a new friend this month--the binkie! I definately enabled this one, mainly because I was getting sore from being her human binkie.

This girl is an eater. At her 6 month check up, she weighed in at 17 lbs 14 oz and measured 26 inches. (Side note here. At her *late* 2 year check up the same day, Brooklyn weighed in at 30 lbs and 40 inches tall. FOUR-TEE. Our pedi just said "Wow, that's pageant height!" Don't worry, you won't be seeing her Toddlers & Tiaras anytime soon.) Anyways, Emmy now eats 3 solids a day. She absolutely loves oatmeal made with breast milk, sweet corn puree, and ham & pineapples. Still can't get her anywhere near anything green, but we're working on it.

Sleep wise...the infamous question every Mom hears no matter what age her infant is--"How does she sleep at night?" The first 4 months, I beamed fresh faced & said "Amazingly." Now when asked, I take a fork lift to raise my eye lids and grumble curse words. It got to the point where she was only sleeping while in bed with us. I can't sleep with her in there. Naps, sure--I could snuggle up to her for a good 2 hour nap. But all night? I'm never fully asleep. So this weekend we attempted Ferber (please leave your flame torches by the door.) Friday night she cried for about 45 minutes (with me outside of her door going in every 5-10 minutes to reassure her that I was there and everything was alright--ya know, just my heart was breaking, but she was safe & sound) and she slept for 3 hours. Woke up, cried for 10 minutes, then back to sleep for 2 hours. Woke up for a feed, then cried for 5 minutes and slept until 8.

I'd call that a semi success.

Last night she went down drowsy and cried for maybe 5 minutes, then grunted herself to sleep {while Dustin & I laughed in the hallway.} She woke up once to eat, went back to her crib after, whimpered for a couple minutes, then slept until I had to wake her at 9!

SUCCESS! We'll see how tonight goes. And can I just thank the Lord right now that Brooklyn could sleep through a freight train piling through because she hasen't woken up once during this transition for Emmy.

Happy 7th Monthday sweetheart. You are such an incredible joy in our lives, so pefect. xoxoxox

Giddyup Bullseye

Brooklyn's newest favorite game to play with Dustin. Momma's tried...but my giddyup is on hiatus.

She'll beg to ride Bullseye and when Dustin gives in (which is pretty often), she runs off to find her cowboy hat, puts in on, and tells Dustin Bullseye "Giddyup Bullseye! Jessie's ready!"

How adorable is this?

And keeping in with the Daddy's girl theme, check out Brookie reading one of her favorite books. 2 guesses as to how she came to love this.

"No more pictures, Momma! I readin Slider now, okay?!?!"

Date Night

Ahhh, such a lovely concept. Dustin & I took full advantage of my Mom's offer to have the girls sleep over last night so we could go out to dinner, watch a movie, and get some interrupted sleep (although it wasn't interrupted for me. I'm still breastfeeding...nuff said.)

So after we had lunch & a lil Michael Jackson Experience on Wii {which, by the by, is crazy fun & addicting}, we said about a hundred good byes to the girls and were on our way. First we went to the mall, where I had giftcards to Gymboree, Victoria's Secret, and American Eagle from Christmas burning a hole in my wallet, to spend. We ate at Red Lobster {because we had a coupon...could we BE any more elderish?} and had to wait forever! When the hostess announced a party of 2 who didn't show, I was half tempted to go up & say that was us. Then Dustin reminded me that we could get "whacked off" for doing so. {Tina Fey fans, anyone?}

It was so nice to be able to have dinner & a conversation without rocking Emmy in her car seat & scolding Brooklyn for trying to stand in her booster seat. Then we caught a 10pm movie....we honestly felt like teenagers again. We saw Black Swan....it was intense. I read it was either a love it or hate it movie, we both loved it {for different reasons more than likely.} Very dark, very well made, very good acting. Pusscakes McGee here had to cover my eyes for a few scary scenes, so I had to rely on Dustin to fill me in. Definately recommend it!

After sleeping in until 9 {which has been unheard of since....I'm thinking.....}, Dustin & I picked up some Bob Evans breakfast to take over to Mom's for all of us. It was a pretty lazy day today, which was so nice. I love makeup-less jami days at home. We tried to watch Sleeping Beauty, but Brookie wasn't much of a fan.

Tonight before bed, we did our nightly rountine as usual. Except when I told Brooklyn it was time for our prayers, she did them word for word by herself. I was SO proud of her! I had to get the camera and ask her to say them again. Such a big girl she's becoming, I just adore her.



I hope you all had a good weekend...maybe some of you even got to sneak a date night in with your love :)

Let's Not Forget

Since I started this blog back in July 2009, I've always relied on myself to write down what Brookie, and now Emily, are doing because if I don't write it down, I forget. Just the other day, I came upon  

this post and smile...{and cried.} I'm just so grateful to myself for posting these types of things. I don't have this video on my phone anymore, but I'll always have it here.

Now, if you're a Mommy, you know how ridiculously fast your babies grow. They're doing something new & different everyday.

~*Brookie now does knock knock jokes. Only she says "Donk donk!" When we ask "Whose there?", she says "Brookie". "Brookie who?" "Brookie Kay Stauffer! hahahaha!" Silly girl knows her middle name is Grace & Sissy's middle name is Kay. But she thinks she's being so funny when she switches it up {and she is.}

~*Brookie also likes to play Duck Duck Goose. The 4 of us will sit in a circle & she'll go around to each of us, tap us on the head, and say Duck....Duck....Duck...but never Goose. This goes on for awhile until Dustin just starts chasing her around. 

~*B also can't eat M&M's (or "nemanems") or fruit snacks without shouting out the color before popping them in her mouth. "A owange nemanem Mommy! A owange nemanem Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" and will continue until I say "That's right Brook".

~*Emily adores Brookie's old taggie. I got it for B when she was a couple months old. It's fleece with a giraffe on the front & her name personalized on the back. But she never really carried it around or snuggled with it, she was more of a binkie dependant. A couple weeks ago, Brookie found it in her toy chest and gave it to Em. Since then, taggie has gone everywhere with her. Naps, bedtime, playtime, car rides, she loves it. And those of you who know me should be proud. Of course my initial thought was "She can't love this one! It doesn't have HER name on it!", but I'm over it. I think it's cute she carries around something of her big sisters. Plus I found something better to put $30 towards (2 words..Ga.Ga. more on that in a later post.)

~*Emily now reaches for anything she can gets her hands on at the dinner table. She got a fistful of my mashed potatos last week and proceeded to put her entire fist in her mouth. Then dove in for seconds.

I wish I could bottle the girls personalities right now and save it for the days of a 13 & 15 year old.

Weekend Update

What a busy weekend we had. We started Saturday with lunch at the Olive Garden (my favoritest restaurant & one I frequent waaaay too often. So much so, the hostess' know the girls names) and then I just HAD to hit up Old Navy's 40% off already marked down clearance sale. I was pretty bummed that it was picked over in fall stuff in 18-24 for Emily, but I did get her some fleece lined jeans, 2 fall dresses, and fleece one piece for $6 total. And Brooklyn got a cute magenta corduroy skirt, glitter tutu dress, 3 fall dresses, and a pair of jeans for $15. I also got Brookie 2 Christmas shirts for 50 cents each and Emily a Halloween shirt for a quarter. Oh me oh my how I obsess over a good deal.

The girls & I then went over to Kendra's to see our 3 besties. Seriouslly, these 4 girls are absolutely adorable. It makes my (and Kendra's) hearts so happy to see them together.

The 2 big sisters show off their fake 'cheeeeese' smile....

and their goofy ear to ear grins.

Emily & Olivia, friends since the womb.

Sunday morning we had Emily's baptism. It was beautiful & she did so well. Even though she fell asleep about 5 minutes prior to the service, once that water hit her noggin, she was wiiiide awake!

And Brooklyn did so well up there watching. When Emily started crying she shouted "Oh no!"

Being introduced to the church family :)

We were so blessed to have our family there for Emily's special day, especially her grandparents and great grandparents. {Unfortunately the flu bug hit Dustin's dad & stepmom :( }

Our sweet family. We are so blessed.

 Grace Church is so special to us. It's where we were married, where Brooklyn gets her middle name from, where Brooklyn & Emily were baptised, where we feel at home. Such a beautiful church. And Pastor Ebert has been amazing. He's who married us & baptised both girls.

Afterwards, we were all starving so we headed off to the mexican restaurant. Hadley & Brookie got juuuuust a lil silly there.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6

I hope you all had an amazing weekend as well!

On the Droid

 Normally I stalkerazzi the girls with my beloved Canon. But sometimes I make do with my good ol' Droid camera, especially when we're just out running errands. If only they made Rebel quality that could fit in my pocket! So here's a couple pics from my phone...

We went and visited Brookie's friends at Old Navy. She gets SO excited when we pass the store---starts shouting "I wanna see my dog! I miss my dog!" If this guy had a price tag on him...he'd be home with us for sure.

Brookie also had a little playdate with Mason. Isn't he the cutest, most stylish little boy you've ever seen? These two are adorable together...so much so, Laura & I have already betrothed them to one another. Hope they don't mind!

Look at this sweet face. Emily is such a happy baby, her smile makes me giddy.

And, by the by, tooth number 2 made it's appearence on the 11th. She no longer resembles a carnie, yay!

This girl is a cereal-aholic. She should be--I went through a gallon of milk and at least 2 boxes of cereal a week when I was pregnant with her. So it doesn't come as a shock to me when almost every morning she asks for a bowl of cereal. Rice Krispies and Honey Nut Cheerios are a fav.

Good til every.last.drop.

Welcome to our bedroom at 6am on a Wednesday morning. Dustin has to get up early for work, but these are my days off. I don't think the girls got the memo though....

and oh yeah, Brookie still rocks her Santa jams. She was heartbroken when the tree came down and Buddy the Elf, Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph had to be packed away in the attic go home to the North Pole, so we compromised.

I love this. Reminds me of that one scene in Forrest Gump when Forrest and Forrest Jr are sitting together watching Sesame Street on the floor.

Peas & carrots--my sweet little girls.

Snow Day!

And this is only the beginning of the first blizzard of '11. While MawMaw stayed warm inside with Emmy, Brookie & I took advantage of it being 24 degrees (and not 7 like it was last weekend) and played in the snow!

She loved it!

The only way I got her inside was telling her she had snot on her face and that there was a sippy cup of hot chocolate waiting for her. That along with her first love (her belly button) and "Up", she was a happy girl.

Then once Dustin got home, guess who insisted on going back outside to help shovel? My big girl :)

As much as I love having snow days, the planner in me is becoming uber paranoid. Emily's baptism is this Sunday and I'm hoping out of town family will be able to make it in. Back in January 2009, we had to postpone Brooklyn's baptism for a week due to...you guessed it, a blizzard. So for the love of my OCD, let's all hope for a clear Sunday!