My Life In Small Square Photos

We did it! Caleb and I finally decided to join the 21s century! 2 weeks ago, after a lot of talking, researching,and hitting a few "bumps" along the way, we officially had both new iPhones in our hands. 

We're never going back. We are so enjoying these new "toys" and in the meantime trying not to let them take over our lives. 

Just as big as getting a smartphone for me was joining Instagram. Friends and family had been begging me for months and now I know why. It's so fun to see little snapshots of my loved ones every day lives. I've been enjoying sharing the small things in my every day life too. 

I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites from the last 2 weeks on here too. 

So, without further ado, here they are:

 I got tendinitis in my wrist and thumb around a month ago and had to wear a

 brace/splint thingy. This is me announcing and celebrating that for the most part, 

my wrist has healed and the brace is off! 

I may or may not be taking too many photos of Emsley, but I'm all too aware that my baby days are almost over. So, I'm soaking up every little last minute of her babyhood.

Besides, babies are so perfect and photogenic. 

I mean, c'mon, look at this beautiful face and perfect little foot!

EASTER! I got some great photos on Easter. Here are my 3 little E's all dressed up for church. Oh my heart!

Here's Ethan trying to "catch" water from a squirt gun. 

(No, not an Instagram pic, but a must share).

And, our best attempt at a family photo. :)

Ethan's latest thing is picking dandelions and bringing them to me. 

The best part is that he calls them "candylions". 

I won't correct him anytime soon. I love it!

Ellie had a "Princess, Pirate, Pizza, Pop" party at preschool and she was SO excited! 

She loves any excuse to dress up!

And last, but certainly not least, some nature shots. 

I took this on the way home from dropping Ellie off at preschool last week. The weather was gorgeous all week, and I was feeling so lucky to live in the beautiful state of Colorado.

This is my favorite so far. I took this as the sun was setting at the park.

Well, that sums up my day to day life in photos. 

I fear I may never use my real camera again. 

Now, if only I can convince Caleb to take some "couple selfies" with me. We have VERY few photos of the two of us together. I'm so going to work on that. ;)

Emsley at 10 Months

Our dear, sweet baby girl, how can you be 10 months old already? It's hard for me to believe that in 2 short months our baby days will officially be over (sniff sniff).

Emsley, this was a big month for you, with a lot of firsts. This is what your life was like at 10 months:

~I'm guessing you weigh around 17 pounds.

~You wear mostly size 9 months in clothes, but you are beginning to wear a few 12 months.

~You still wear size 3 diapers

~You decided this month that you would much rather eat table food than baby food. I still feed you baby food from time to time, but you are much more happy when you are feeding yourself, and eating what we're eating. Even though you don't have a mouth full of teeth, you can gum up most anything.

~Speaking of teeth, A BIG first for you this month was seeing your first tooth pop through your gums! Yeah! Your first tooth is your lower right central incisor.

~You still take a bottle right when you wake up, right before bed, and between meals. About 4-5 bottles a day.

~You are a wonderful sleeper! You sleep through the night (most nights) in your pack n play, and then join us in bed in the early hours of the morning (5ish) to sleep another couple of hours.

~You still take a short nap in the morning (a little less than an hour) and a long nap in the early afternoon (2+ hours).

~When you are healthy, well rested and well fed, you are a very happy baby. You love to smile and giggle and sometimes you even have a really loud laugh.

~I think you might be a singer. Whenever I'm singing or you hear music, you start "singing" along. It's so sweet!

~You have mastered the crawl and you get around very quickly now. You are very social so you will crawl wherever you can to be with us.

~Another first this month is that you pulled yourself up for the first time. This happened just within this last week so you are still falling some. I believe you will be "cruising" in no time. :)

~You love to be on the floor to play and to watch Ellie and Ethan and giggle at the funny things they do. You are a pro at sitting without support.

~You really enjoy bath time, except when Ethan is splashing too much. You like to splash and play with the bath toys.

~You never stop moving now, and because of this, you don't like to sit and snuggle much. Some times when I pick you up you rest your head on my shoulder as a way of hugging me. :) I'll take whatever I can get.

~You're growing really close to Ellie and Ethan and you love just being with them. They continue to make you smile and laugh all the time now. I can tell that you can't wait to be "big" like them and to run around with them. Truth be told, they adore you quite a bit too. :)

You even enjoy having your cousin Kailey around now too. :) Although, the last time we got together you kept trying to crawl on top of her and kiss her too much. ;)

~We continue to call you "Em" more than any other nickname. I don't know where this nickname came from, but I often hear Ellie and/or Ethan call you "Ems-a-bee". I kind of like it. :)

Emsley Jeannette, you are a joy and a blessing to our family. We all love doting on you and loving you for the sweet baby that you are. I look forward to what God has in store for your life.

Spring Has Sprung (and a random catch up)

Whew! I don't get to blog nearly as often as I'd like to these days.

There are so many things that I'd like to blog about, so hopefully this random post covers most of them.

First of all, spring has finally arrived here in our beautiful state and the weather this week is going to be nothing short of perfection! Upper 60s and low 70s and bright and sunny. Yes!

We celebrated Ethan's 3rd birthday this past weekend with our family. Caleb and I were a bit anxious to enjoy some spring weather and may have jumped the gun a bit. For his party, we decided to go to a local park, eat picnic foods and let the kids run and play. The only problem was the weather didn't want to cooperate. Instead of warm spring weather, we got overcast, windy and cool spring weather.

 Oh well, we planned a party and we were determined to have a party.

I couldn't hold back my smile when I looked over and saw Ethan throwing the Frisbee with Caleb. Ethan actually did a great job (he throws a Frisbee better than me) and it was fun to see them enjoying some father/son time. I felt like I was just beginning to see a glimpse of what the future holds in terms of Ethan and Caleb escaping to get some guy time in. :)

In spite of the weather, we all managed to have a good time!

Emsley and Kailey, the babies of my family. They're a hoot together. 

And of course Em is doing what she does best, eating. Ha ha.

Someone, AKA Ashlynn, was a little less thrilled to be forced to be outside. ;) Looking great Jenn!

Caleb and I keep commenting on how much we're enjoying Ethan right now. He seems to have finally gotten over his "terrible twos" for the most part, he's speaking SO well, and he just says the cutest things! The other day we were in the car on the way home from church and from the back seat Ethan said "Uh guys, I don't like kissing." Too funny!

Speaking of church, I don't think I've mentioned on here that our family has been looking for a new home church again. It's a long story, and I don't want to share too much, but after much thought and prayer, we decided to leave Dayspring (the church we were at for a little over a year) after the first of the year. I still can't say enough how wonderful the people are at that church, and they were very good to us. We just discovered that we didn't line up with some of their theology and doctrine, and although we wanted to push it aside, unfortunately the differences ended up coming up more often than we thought they would. It became a distraction for us, and we felt it was best to make another church our church home.

I'm very excited now because it looks like we've found a new home church and I'm loving it! The worship and the sermons are incredible, and every week I walk away feeling like the Lord really spoke to me in a way.  The church is called Mill City. Now I'm just looking forward to getting connected and meeting new people in a small group setting.

The weather today was so beautiful that the kids couldn't wait to get outside to play. This morning Ellie, Ethan AND Emsley spent a lot of the morning soaking up the sun, playing hopscotch and mostly searching for bugs. I posted this picture on Instagram.

Oh yeah, my sisters have been trying to get me on instagram for some time now and several weeks ago Jenn decided to take the reigns and create an account for me. I'm really loving it, BUT most of the pictures are taken with our ipad and they're often times grainy. I can't wait until I have a smart phone with a better camera...

So yeah, Caleb and I have finally decided to join the 21st century and get smart phones! We were hoping to have them by now, but it's a long story and it looks like it will be a few more weeks. Still, by the end of the month, a whole new world will be opened up to us. ;)

 I'm suddenly aware that my kids are growing up too fast. In just 4 months I'll be sending Ellie off to kindergarten and I will no longer be spending all day with her 7 days a week. I seriously don't know where the last 5 years went!

This picture is exactly what I mean by poor quality and grainy, 

BUT, I took this today and I think Ellie looks beautiful here.

And our sweet baby girl is quickly approaching her first birthday and along with that all of her big milestones. She pulled herself up for the first time today, she has some teeth now, and I know it's just a matter of time before she decides it's time to run around with her older siblings. I'll put more details in her 10 month post coming next week.

I think that covers most things on my mind lately, hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later. 

Happy spring everyone!