Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year!

We've been so very blessed and I want to share a little something that has been on my mind...

As I sit and rock sweet Emily to sleep I usually sing "Jesus Loves Me" but since its Christmas I've been singing "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manger". Mostly I hum out loud b/c I'm sure I'm getting the verses mixed up in my head. Anyway, the words and story in those songs have really touched me more this year than ever. A baby changes EVERYTHING, but more significantly, the birth of Jesus changed our world. I feel a little more connected to Mary now that I have a baby than I ever have. Makes sense, right, that maternal instinct. I just can't help but wonder a few things about that night in Bethlehem so very long ago.

First of all, how did she do it, without drugs that is?!?! All the mamas out there that did it get props in my book b/c I chickened out. More importantly, Mary gave birth to our SAVIOR! What an important job she had.

Second, can you imagine holding that tiny babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and thinking "you're going to save us one day"!?!? What an awesome responsibility. I hope and pray that Emily has a wonderful life and grows up to do great things, and I know that Blaine and I are committed to raising her in a loving Christian home. We have a lot of responsibility but nothing compared to Mary and Joseph.

Lastly, how wonderful it must have been to celebrate the birth of Jesus for those shepherds and wise men right there when it happened! We were so overwhelmed with joy when Emily arrived that if I had been there knowing I was seeing Jesus, my heart might have exploded! The miracle of life is awe inspiring in itself, but the birth of our Savior is something to celebrate BIG TIME. I'm talking heavens rejoicing and angels signing celebrating! He is going to save us y'all!

The story of the birth of Jesus is just so special b/c without him we would be nothing. But along with his birth we have to remember his death and the reason for it. Right after Emily was born I remember having this realization that God sacrificed his one and only son to die for our sins. I mean, I knew and believed this most of my life and I understood that it was a tremendous sacrifice but not until I had a child myself did I fully appreciate his love for us. He sent his SON to die for YOU and ME. Wow. I cannot imagine the heartbreak he must have felt doing that, but I am so grateful. So very grateful. I know that as a human I could not have done that. The love a parent has for a child is crazy but God loves us crazy plus infinity.

So this Christmas celebrate the birth of Jesus and thank God for sending him to save you. For without Jesus we would be nothing.

Merry Christmas y'all!

8 months old!

Today Emily is 8 months old!

Time is flying by!  We're doing more and more solid foods, still breastfeeding, and learning to crawl!  I am pretty sure her two top teeth are trying to come in too (cue the song, "all I want for Christmas are my two front teeth"! haha!).  Still not sleeping great, but doing better.

Just this week she's really getting good at the army crawl and she sort of scoots on her butt. She's very good at reaching for stuff and inching her way closer to something she wants.  And this morning she figured out that she could get from sitting to on her tummy so she can crawl which means we're about a week away from trouble I'm afraid. It's really exciting to see her do new things, but man, I'm going to miss these days where she'll stay put so I can get things done!

 

We put her long hair in pigtails, can you see them?!?

We went to Henderson this past weekend for my Grandaddy's 80th birthday celebration, my mom's birthday (we won't say which one) and to celebrate Christmas with the Moss side of the family.
It was a fun filled busy weekend.

Emily and her Great Grandaddy

opening presents from Great Grandaddy and Clareese!
She got some really fun new toys!--THANK YOU!!

My dad got a new puppy a couple of weeks ago so we all got to meet Beau. He's such a cute lab and quite bright. Matt, my new brother-in-law, says we're going to play the game at Christmas where we have to guess if the toy is for Beau or for Emily!  He seemed to like this duck they got him best but he did grab her baby dolls a few times!

And she of course rode the lawn mower! She did this for the first time at my sister's wedding but I didn't get a picture. She looks like she was having a fun time!

I'd like to note too (for memory book purposes) that 12/12/2012 was this past week and that its the last time something like this will happen for another 88 years! The significance being that while we probably won't be around to see 01/01/2101, Emily could very well be! How cool is that?!?!

We love our sweet Emily to pieces, happy 8 month birthday!

Christmas Play

Emily's school had their Christmas program Tuesday night. It was the cutest thing. Especially since they let the baby class participate. 

Precious.

She was hanging out in her stroller beside her BFF Clare Miller, I swear those two are always together!
She even got to sit on Santa's lap and she did great! She was a little curious as to who was under that beard but she definitely wasn't scared.

It's the Holiday Season!

Thanksgiving has come and gone...and Christmas is creeping near! What a fun and busy time. We are so blessed.

We spent Thanksgiving at Blaine's parents' house. My parents came and so did our friends Chandler and Kelley Adams and their kiddos. It was really fun!

My dad taught Emily to open the drawers in her room and now when I put her down she wants to get them open. So fun to watch her be so curious. 

She had fun trying on his hat too. I'm pretty sure there is a picture of me as a little one just like this too...I'll have to find it at my parents'.

We've thought about doing other Christmas things like parades and tree lighting but that just doesn't fit into an infant's sleeping and eating schedule so we've not really done anything.  Maybe we can ride around and look at Christmas lights one night.  Emily has been dressing up in her Christmas cutest though.

Blaine and I have had a chance to sneak out to a couple of parties thanks to the grandparent babysitters. Sleeping for Emily hasn't been great so she was a bit of a challenge for them but we all survived and maybe someday we'll get some sleep. I swear once she turned 6 months old its like she woke up all of a sudden. *sigh* I guess with the runny nose and teething its to be expected.

I'm not nearly as ready as I should be for Christmas. I actually thought I had an extra weekend but just found out I was wrong. Ugh. Guess we'll go shopping between naps and feedings :)

7 months old!

Today Emily is 7 months old!  What a cutie pie, right?!?!

Let's catch up a little...

She's obviously sitting up on her own.  She can scoot backwards on her tummy but can't go forward yet, however she still rolls to where she needs to go and will even turn around and come back to you, backwards of course. She's getting up on her knees and rocking like she's ready to take off and crawl.  Blaine said that she got from her hands and knees back to sitting one night this week when he was getting her ready for her bath. I didn't see it so I'm not sure. ;)  She likes to turn her play mat over and play under it now too.

 

And speaking of rolling...yup, she rolled off the bed this weekend. :( She's fine though, don't worry!  I still haven't recovered so we won't talk anymore about it.

She's majorly teething (and not sleeping well), there's even a little tiny tip of a tooth poking through on the bottom! 

She's been eating more solids! She's had carrots, green beans, puffs, cheerios, peas, prunes, bananas and sweet potatoes. She really likes the things she can feed herself the best.  She just started letting me feed her something with a spoon.  She HATES rice cereal and oatmeal. Actually gags on them. Very dramatic.  We're still nursing just as much as before though and its going great. She's using her sippy cup for water like a big girl. One sippy cup gave her pretty bad gas though. So much that they had to call me from school b/c she had gotten really upset when her tummy hurt so bad. So we put that one away for now.  She does great at restaurants too now sitting in highchairs!

 

We've been to another NC State football game...this time kickoff was a little earlier and she did great. The best idea Blaine had was for us to ride a rickshaw from our parking lot to the stadium instead of walking the whole way which was so fun! 

It was a beautiful fall day but our seats were in the shade and it was FREEZING. Emily was wrapped up nicely but we were a little cold. 

My sister's wedding was this past month too...It was beautiful and fun! But I have to say that Emily was such a trooper and we could not have gotten through the weekend without Blaine's amazing help. He was on duty except for feedings and he was awesome, thank you isn't enough.  Here's a sneak peek picture of us changing Emily out of her dress and getting ready for bed.  I think Daddy was getting worn out! I'll post more when i get some more pictures.

 

Emily is such a joy to our lives. We have the best time loving on her and watching her everyday. We laugh so much and are so blessed to be her parents.  Everyone here is a little under the weather and we spent the day yesterday snuggling in bed and taking care of one another. I love my little family to pieces.

She has two of these toys by Vtech and loves playing with the lights on them

She likes to grab books off of her side table and "read" them

she LOVES this jumperoo and has finally started to really jump high in it

she likes to roll under the couch and play hide and seek with us

I think that's it...XOXO

 

Halloween Fun!

Better late than never, right?

Emily had a really fun Halloween!  She dressed up at a chicken (or maybe it was a duck, we're not sure).  

Her class at school dressed up and they were all SO cute!

Here's Emily with her friend, Clare Miller.

Later that day we went to Blaine's office for the girls to see Emily in her costume. 

She was such a trooper all day and didn't even mind being in that funny hat!  She didn't fit in the carseat with it on so we kept having to change in and out of it too.  Even Aunt Kelli liked wearing the hat!

We tried to go "trick-or-treating" at the neighbors houses but no one was home :( It was only 5 o'clock!  We did get a funny look from one of the teenagers down the street though.

So we loaded up in the car again and went to "trunk-or-treat" at church.  Emily met up with her friend, Greta Apke, and her dad Mike there.  

She had fun stealing candy from Grandma and Aunt Kelli while they were passing it out to the other trick or treaters!

This was the funniest picture taken all day!  Wonder what they were thinking?? (probably: your mom too, huh?)

Emily is 6 months old!

Emily had her half birthday on Saturday! The past 6 months have flown by (but ya'll already knew that)!  We've been so busy I haven't had time to post.  My CAbi business has also been keeping me pretty busy when Emily is at school and in the evenings after she's in bed. 

We had her 6 months doctor's appointment today and she weighs 17lbs 12oz and is 25 1/2 inches long...growing so much! She's teething pretty bad and has to have her hands, a toy or a paci in her mouth at.all.times!  She also had shots today, poor baby. 

Mostly I just need to catch ya'll up on some pictures.  But I'll throw in a little commentary just for fun. 
Let's start from a month ago...
 

My parents came for a visit and I decorated our front door just in time to get the Halloween festivities started.

 

 

Blaine and I took Emily to visit the Sandhills Community College Horticultural garden one beautiful Sunday afternoon. I had never been there and I've lived here for 10 years now. We'll definitely go back when more things are blooming b/c I can tell it's going to be beautiful.

We celebrated my birthday at lunch with Blaine's mom, dad and sister. Emily was squealing LOUDLY b/c she was so excited to be sitting with Grandma and trying to drink from her glass!  I know that everyone in the restaurant was glad when we left.

This was supposed to show off her Kansas Jayhawks outfit from her Aunt Kelli but this shot is much funnier!  She has a ball rolling on the floor and has gotten VERY good at it.  She's starting to try and get up on her knees a little but can push herself all the way onto her hands at least.  I think seeing all the other babies at her preschool has really helped with her liking tummy time.

This is one evening before dinner on she and Blaine's "nature walk".  They survey the yard to make sure everything is growing like its supposed to and she gets to touch the pine needles and has even picked me a rose. Such a sweetie!

We've been able to go visit my parents quite a bit lately. Mostly b/c my sister has been coming home to work on details of her upcoming (3 weeks away!) wedding.  This trip was for her dress fitting and bridal portraits I think.  I was able to find this jumperoo to keep at my parents' house for Emily and she loves it.  See how she has a towel under her feet? Not anymore, she can touch the floor now!  She loves to bounce too from the look on her face!

She's just hanging out with her twin PaPa here and chewing on her Sophie the Giraffe.  Unfortunately Sophie doesn't squeak anymore. I had to boil it b/c she had a little bout with thrush and I was trying to kill the bacteria. She's all better for now but that stuff can be hard to get rid of so we have some medicine on hand just in case.

Emily's GiGi was showing off her pretty Stella and Dot necklace while we were waiting for Allyson's dress fitting at the bridal salon. She's so curious now and reaching out for everything.

Emily went to visit her daddy at work one day to shop for some new insurance. He was able to save her TONS, you should call him and have him save you some too! hahaha!
Sorry for the blurry picture, I was trying to snap it before she fell out of her seat.

Aunt Kelli helped her type out her application on the typewriter! They had fun exploring the office that day!

We took Emily to pick out a pumpkin one beautiful Saturday. It wasn't a real pumpkin patch but just some road side stand. She didn't care either way.

See how curious she is...this isn't the first time I've caught her trying to roll onto the bottom shelf of a bookcase! 

So cute in her monogrammed overalls from her Grandaddy and Clareese! 

And this is miss priss sitting pretty in her tutu and t-shirt looking precious.  She's sitting up pretty good but still needs a little help. She's fell and banged her head a couple of times on the hardwood floor or a toy but she bounces back quickly (we've learned the art of distraction).

This isn't a very good picture but I wanted to share it. Emily is not really one to snuggle. But sometimes when she falls asleep nursing and I put her on my shoulder to burp I can't help but leave her there for a little while just to savor the feeling. Its my favorite part about nursing and being her mommy. I love her so very much and how could you not love this sweet face?!?

We're so proud of Emily and how much she is growing and developing. Its such a blessing to watch her and to get to love on her and hear her laugh everyday. I just want to freeze time...