10 months old!

Yesterday Emily turned 10 months old!  She's such a busy little bee I could hardly get her to sit still for a picture...(warning: LOTS of pictures and videos on this one)

 She's VERY mobile and its a matter of days probably before she's walking for real. YIKES!  She pulls up on EVERYTHING and has taken a few steps pushing her rocking chair or walking toy just this week.  We now have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs because this is one of her favorite exercises!

She's saying "mama" finally! yay! and of course "dada" "nana" and "baba" although we don't know what those last two really mean!  She'll babble all day going through her alphabet and it's so sweet to hear, especially from the back seat of the car.

She loves to pull up into the refrigerator or freezer and can open the pantry door where she proceeds to pull out everything on the bottom shelf. I just let her explore...She's opening drawers too and pulling everything out but she can't figure out how to NOT mash her fingers.  Climbing into the dishwasher is also something she likes to do. I only let her do it when I'm unloading though...dirty dishes are gross!  She also loves to pull out the laundry from the basket and mess up what I've already folded. We do a lot of picking up after Hurricane Emily, that's for sure.

We love to make her laugh because she has the cutest little giggle. It really is my favorite thing to do.

She loves to play peek-a-boo!  This is an older video but still funny! Oh and she'll shred a tissue, napkin or magazine in no time!

School continues to be a great place for her to play and learn and I enjoy the break. Although we can't seem to figure out naps around school days but that's OK, summer will be here soon.  These are the valentine treats she took for her teachers and classmates.

Speaking of treats, this girl is quite the eater! She's nursing great still and loves most everything she's tried.  Lately she's been having chicken and we usually let her try whatever we're having. She's doing great with feeding herself. She's drinking water out of her sippy cup too but really loves this Camelbak water bottle i got her.  It says its for ages 3+ and Blaine doesn't even know how to drink out of it!  I love mine and she always wants a sip when I'm drinking it so she has her own now. Except she pulls it out of her mouth before she swallows so her shirt ends up soaking wet!

I've been doing a lot of consignment sale shopping and my mom was able to meet us for one sale. Here's Emily driving her car!

We've gone to the park and played on the swings too and she LOVES it. I want one in the backyard but we have such nice parks here that we should really just go to them.

Blaine is staying busy at work and we go a visit sometimes. Its nice too that he can come home for lunch and play for a little while with us. We love that part of our day!  I'm starting to have some CAbi shows and stay busy with that during nap times and in the evenings. When my samples arrived we snapped this picture of Emily (on the far right) and I sent it to my rep at CAbi and they featured it in the weekly newsletter last week! I was so excited!  Blaine is always such a good help with everything, especially schlepping my CAbi samples and I really appreciate all that he does.

Finally, this was the funniest video... I took it while we were shopping at Hobby Lobby one day...the end is the best (I think she thought she got caught!) We've laughed and laughed at this video!

Our baby is growing up...and its so fun to be a part of her life. We love our baby Emily to the moon and back!

Snow day!

We had a typical NC winter this past weekend! Friday it was 65 degrees and Saturday it snowed! Actual real (BIG) flakes fell all day long. It was too wet at first but then it started to stick to the grass and huge flakes were falling. It really was pretty. It snowed like that for most of the day then turned a little more wet and stopped sticking as the day went on. But it was still on the grass and roofs of houses and was pretty.  We took Emily out for a quick walk in it since it was her first snow.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Love, Love this little baby girl!
And her sweet daddy of course!

9 month update

Emily is 9 months old...her last month in the single digits! She's getting so big. She had her well baby dr's visit on last Monday and she weighs 18lbs 2oz which shes been hovering around for a while now. She's 26.5 inches long! We're all still a little sick right now with colds too.

What have we been up to? Crawling, pulling up to standing, talking, sleep training (more on that in another post), climbing up the stairs, and teething mostly! Emily loves to climb in the refrigerator since its a good height to pull up on. She's really good at crawling on all fours. She used to sometimes let her right leg stay straight while she's on her left knee, it's pretty funny to watch! She always wants to get in your lap if you're on the floor with her and treats you like a jungle gym! She loves standing up! Poor thing is also cut 4 top teeth at once too. One of the eye teeth have popped through and one front tooth, but you can see the others making their way down. Teething sucks! We've been freezing wet washcloths for her to suck on and they seem to help. So does Tylenol at bedtime. She's got a little runny nose and a pretty yucky cough too. She constantly has a paci or her fingers in her mouth but I try and keep it out so she'll talk more. I love listening to her babble. She's saying "dada" "ah da" "nananana", and sometimes "lalalala", all very cute. No "mama" yet though (sigh). She likes to open close her hand in a wave movement when saying "dada" and if you make that same movement she'll say it. So funny!

Since I was in San Diego at the CAbi Scoop, Blaine was on his own a couple of weekends ago! They did great! My mom and his mom helped out and everyone survived. I loved getting pictures and updates but I really missed being away that long. It was hard, but I managed to reconnect with my CAbi sisters and we had a wonderful time. And did I mention that while it was freezing and snowing here that it was 75 and sunny with no humidity in beautiful Southern California?!? We should move there! The fashion show to see the new Spring collection was fabulous and the clothes are to die for, my favorite so far! Let me know if you want to hear more about what I'm doing with CAbi!!

Emily is doing great at school and has so much fun everyday. I enjoy the break too. I spend a lot of my time now keeping her from pulling the lamp off the table, eating grass, climbing up the stairs to the bonus room, and going behind the toilets! It's fun to see her mobile though, and most of it happened over night it seems!

New Year, New Things

Well Christmas was a blast! We all got very spoiled of course. After spending a few days in Henderson with my parents we came back to Pinehurst to be with Blaine's fam. I won't bore you with the details but here are some pictures.

 

 

 

Blaine got a shotgun from my family and has really enjoyed learning to shoot it and spend time outdoors. My two favorite gifts that Emily received were a sweet NC State dress sewn by Blaine's mom and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book from Hallmark that has my dad's voice recorded reading it. Both are so very special!

the upload picture feature is NOT working, sorry...I'll try and post again later!

Another unexpected gift was from our friend Emily Bost at church who gave our Emily her signet ring. What a treasured gift! Emily B said that she wanted it to go to another Emily and no one in her family had one. Such a thoughtful and sweet thing!

And since Christmas, Emily has been growing and changing like crazy! She's getting from her tummy to her bottom, crawling in all fours, pulling up in your lap (or anywhere really), saying "dada" and "ah dada", and opening and closing her hand like a wave. It is SO fun to watch all of this transpire! We have had to lower her crib mattress once already and within a week need to do it again b/c she's pulling up to stand! She's so active and squirmy, I sort of miss my immobile baby. Here's what I caught her doing before we lowered the mattress...

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!