Miss Emsley at ONE YEAR!

Wow! I can't believe I let a whole month go by without blogging!

There's so much I could blog about now. We've had a fun-filled, busy summer (a little more busy than I'd like to be) with baseball games, birthday get-aways, a retirement party, swim lessons, etc. Not to mention that I've taken on the task to potty train Ethan by the end of the summer. It's been a one step forward, two steps back experience. :(

It's already been quite a different summer (for the better) than last year when we were dealing with a newborn Emsley in the NICU. We're so glad to have those days past us!

I'm hoping to find some time to blog about all of these things, but until then I really wanted to blog about Emsley at one year while it's all still fresh in my mind.

My baby girl is one year old. I can't believe it!

Emsley, this is what you are like at 12 months old;

This was another big month for you with lots of firsts!

-I'm guessing you weigh between 18 and 19 pounds and are around 28ish inches long! You continue to be our biggest baby. I'm looking forward to getting your exact stats at your one year check up.

-You are wearing size 3 diapers, only one size smaller than Ethan. I have a feeling you will get into the biggest size we've ever bought by the time you become potty trained.

-You are wearing size 12 months in clothes and most of the clothes you are wearing your sister was wearing at 18 months! I wonder if you will be our tallest child too.

-You eat mostly table food these days. I'll occasionally give you some baby food to make sure you're getting enough fruits and veggies, but for the most part, you eat what we eat. Sometimes you'll get angry if we don't give you what we're eating.

-You still take a bottle first thing in the morning, right before bed and between some meals. We have begun introducing cows milk, and by the end of the month you will be done with formula. We are also introducing the sippy cup and you seem to be taking to it pretty well.

-For the most part you're a great sleeper. Some days you'll take a short nap in the morning (about half the time) and then every day you take one long nap (2+ hours) in the early afternoon. 

-Just this past weekend we moved you from the pack n play in our room to a crib in Ellie's room. As long as we live in this house, you and Ellie will share a room. Ellie is ecstatic about sharing a room with you! You slept 12 hours straight in your crib the first night! Occasionally, you'll end up in our bed in the early hours of the morning. :) 

-You still have FOUR teeth! It looks like two more are on their way though.

-Your hair is long enough now that you always need something to keep it out of your face. I most often do a ponytail or a bow barrette.

-You still occasionally say "Mama" and "Dada", but you added a few more words this month. You can now say "Hi", "Uh-oh", "Aah-duh (All done)", and "Dah (dog)". We are enjoying watching you grow and learn to communicate!

-You crawl so well that you get around very quickly! You're using anything you can to pull yourself up and cruise (walking holding onto furniture and other objects). I can tell you can't wait to run around with Ellie and Ethan.

-For the first time this month you learned to stand up without any support, and crawl up and down stairs. I have a feeling walking is just around the corner for you.

-You still love baths and have learned how to steady yourself in the tub without the bumbo. You move around very well in the tub now.

-You are very social and happy (when you're well rested and fed). You remind us a lot of Ellie when she was a baby. You love to be with people and you're full of life, energy and smiles!

-You are very ambitious and you want to take on the world (another trait that reminds us of your older sister).

-You and Ellie have a mutual adoration for each other, and you and Ethan are learning to love each other. ;) You continue to have a love/hate relationship with him. Nobody can make you laugh like Ethan, and he can be so sweet to you at times, but at other times he is still a bully! We are working hard with him to make him stop bullying you. This month was definitely better than the last. It will be fun for us to see your sibling relationships grow and change over time.

-Nicknames- "Em" is still the most used nickname, but Ellie and Ethan still like to use "Emma" (only Ellie calls you this) and "Ems-a-baby".  Ethan hardly ever calls you by your "real" name.

On June Saturday June 14th, we had a wonderful First Birthday party for you. Both sets of grandparents, all of your cousins except for Nehemiah, and most of your Aunts and Uncles came. We hosted a BBQ and an ice cream sundae bar. Unfortunately a rainy day moved the party inside and our plans to eat outside did not work out. It was a bit chaotic in the house with that many people, but we all had a great time. Your cousins and siblings sang "Happy Birthday" so loud that it frightened you a bit, but you perked up quickly and dug right into your chocolate cupcake! 

The best part was when you picked up your dress and smeared it into your cupcake and frosting and then put your dress in your mouth. You are such a ham!

 Here you are being social and loved on. :)

Sweet Emsley, this first year was not easy considering how you started and the fact that you were sick so much. You have come so far! I wouldn't trade a minute of this past year though. I enjoyed all of it even more knowing that you are my last baby. We all adore you and love you to the moon and back! You've added so much joy and so many smiles to our family. I'm really excited to see what your future holds and what God's plans are for you. You are truly our "gift from God". 

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!

Christmas Break Part 2

On our way home from the cabin we had dinner at my parents house to have dinner with my family and the Janelle family. We've grown up with the Janelles and we get together every Christmas break. I always look forward to seeing everyone.

The next morning Caleb and the kids made me breakfast in bed to celebrate my birthday. Caleb then informed me that we were getting away for a night to continue the birthday celebrations. :) 

I'm such a lucky girl. Caleb is very romantic and always does a wonderful job of surprising me and spoiling me for my birthday!

After packing up all 3 little ones (this was my first night sleeping away from Emsley) and myself, Caleb and I dropped the kids off with my parents and headed for lunch at Panera. Caleb didn't tell me what was planned, only that we were getting away. 

After Panera, Caleb suggested that we go for a little walk and he walked me right into a new massage place. He had planned the massage, but my parents wanted to pay for it. Did I mention that I'm a lucky girl? So, I got to enjoy a wonderful, hour long massage. :) It.was.heavenly!

After the massage, Caleb greeted me with my favorite drink from Starbucks (Cinnamon Dulce Latte) and we headed to Denver. 

We headed straight to the hotel, The Curtis close almost right on the 16th street mall. 

We had never stayed at this hotel before and it was awesome! Every floor has it's own theme. For example, the 13th floor is the horror movie floor. When you reach the 13th floor, the elevator plays "Heeere's Johnny!" from The Shining. 

I'm not a huge fan of horror films, so thankfully we ended up on the 11th floor, the chick flick floor. Perfect if you ask me. :) We relaxed a bit and then showered and got ready for dinner.

We had dinner at our very favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory on the 16th street mall. 

After splitting a delicious dinner we decided to try out a new cheesecake and it was amazing! It was called Chris's Outrageous Cheesecake and it did not disappoint! Even though we split the cheesecake we couldn't finish it all!

After dinner we wandered the 16th street just a bit. We stopped in at Bath and Body Works to use up a gift card I was given for Christmas. They were having this HUGE 1 day sale and I got a lot for the money!

By the time we were done shopping, it was show time at the movie theater for Catching Fire. We had heard that it was soooo good and way better than the first movie, The Hunger Games. We couldn't agree more. We loved it! The character development was so good in Catching Fire, and I loved the way they brought out the emotion to make you hate the capitol and President Snow just as much as the characters in the movie. I can't wait to see Mockingjay!

There's not much to say about the rest of our getaway. After the movie was over we went back to the hotel and to bed. The next morning we had a nice breakfast and then headed back up to my parent's house to pick up the kids and watch the Broncos game.

The next day or so was spent organizing and cleaning from Christmas and having some down time at home with the kids.

Our New Year's Eve celebration was perfectly small. We went to my parents house and played poker and Apples to Apples with my sister Jenn, BIL Jon, and our good friends David and Becky while the kids played and watched movies. Sometimes a small gathering is just what you need to ring in the new year. It was a very fun night!

We had promised the kids that we would do a night at a hotel with them while Caleb was off so we headed back down to Denver with them on the 1st. 

We found a GREAT deal on priceline and got this sweet hotel for a good price! 

The rooms were perfect for families! We had a mini kitchenette complete with a fridge and microwave and there was just a little separation between our bed and where the kids slept. Yes, perfect!

Really, the only thing the kids cared about was swimming, so we made sure to find a hotel with a pool and hot tub. We spent the evening swimming and watching movies/TV with the kids.

Here's a sweet moment with our girls the next morning. :)

The next morning we all enjoyed the delicious hot, complimentary breakfast and then we swam some more. After a somewhat slow morning we headed to the Denver Children's Museum and met up with Caleb's parents, his brother Josh and our niece Abby. The kids spent a good 2+ hours at the museum and then we headed home to crash!

After that, there was just a few days left before Caleb had to head back to work. We just hung out and enjoyed being with each other. I already miss getting to spend all day every day with my family. We sure packed a lot in in just 2 weeks. I love Christmas break!

P.S. We got Emsley's 6 month photos back from Nate and Amanda yesterday. I LOVE them! 

Here's just a few of my favorites: