Time with Mom and Dad

This is a picture of our babies. Maddi says Cocoa is her baby when she's not holding the real baby, Emalyn.

Maddi and I had some mother/daughter time Saturday. We went with Maddie and Lynn to see Annie. We had lunch at Cheesecake Factory before the play and had a great girl day. Emalyn was too little to join in our girl day so she stayed home with Daddy and Cade. Cade had a basketball game that day so before we left Brett was checking out the diaper bag to make sure he had everything he'd need. He said there were 3 diapers but he wanted to add some more. Maddi looked at him and said "dad, WHERE are you going?" Brett laughed at himself and Maddi's question and said, "just Cade's basketball game that's down the street." Ha! At least he could laugh at himself and his over preparedness.

Annie was very good, but they added some parts that weren't in the movie and took out some of our favorite parts. It was a great day until the car ride home when Maddi and Maddie were begging for a sleep over (they were together that day from 10:30-6:30) and got a little drama-ish when we said no over and over. Lynn and I looked at each other and said "they're only 9!" We are very afraid of the teenage years.

Cade and Maddi have been getting some "Daddy" time the last few weeks while they work on their cars for the Awana Prix. Cade's doing the race, but when they went to church last weekend to work on his car Maddi wanted to get a car too. They were painting their cars Saturday night and then Brett put the wheels on Sunday and they are officially done with their cars. Cade will race his Saturday.

Cade looks very weird here, but his car turned out pretty cool. It's a Texas Aggie car. I'm sure it will be the only Aggie car in the race! The kids had a great time working on their cars with Brett and I stayed far far away from anything car related.

Tummy Time and Toys

Emalyn has a favorite toy. This pig is from Omie and it sings songs and snorts and such and she LOVES it! She smiles so big whenever she sees/hears it. The kids love that she recognizes them and now a toy too. So fun!

Flashback...Maddi used to have lots of chins and stick out her tongue all the time just like Emma. Maddi is such a good sister to Emalyn and such a great help for me.

Tummy time! I can't help but think of MC Hammer, Hammer Time, everytime I say Tummy Time! Emalyn doesn't mind tummy time at all and she is getting so strong. She was looking at Cocoa in this picture. Everytime I talk to the baby in the high pitched baby talk voice Cocoa thinks I'm talking to her and she gets all excited and comes to see me. Silly dog...doesn't she know she's been replaced by a baby...

A little bit of a smile for Mommy. Sweetness!

Weekend Stuff

Brett and Emalyn were cheering for the Dallas Cowboys, but they still lost. Boo! Emalyn didn't have a Cowboys cheerleader dress so she wore her Aggie cheerleader dress. She'll get to wear her Aggie dress in February when we go watch the Aggie basketball team play Iowa State. Hopefully their basketball team is better than the football team was this year!

Emalyn fell asleep with her fingers in her mouth like this Saturday night. It was so cute and funny. She is still sleeping 9-10 hours some night but other nights she's only sleeping 6 or 7. Some days she naps great, and others she'll only sleep 45 minutes at a time. Oh well, she's sure sweet and she can do what she wants...she's the baby in the family.

I just love the way these two look at each other. Emalyn loves Maddi too, but Maddi's never wearing clothes when she has Emalyn, so no pics for the blog. Ha! That Maddi loves to hang out in her underwear, even when it's 10 degrees outside.

Cocoa had to get in on the play time too. She is still howling every time the baby cries. Sometimes she'll cry instead of howling, it's really funny, and REALLY annoying.

Cade told Maddi he was going to build a hotel for all of his Lego characters. They went to find the characters and then they decided to organize the Legos. They got off to a good start but fizzled out after awhile.

I found this box and helped Cade put some of the pieces in. Seriously, how can anybody need this many Legos? This is just part of the Legos. Cade has a plan of what he'll do each day to get it done by Wednesday. They had a half day of school Friday and they're off Monday for MLK and Tuesday. Didn't they just go back from winter break?!?

Snuggles

Everyone is still loving having a snuggly baby around. Cade adores his baby sister and loves to play with her and even feeds her from time to time. He was so excited that she was drinking her bottle so well from him and even drank it all. I am still nursing her but pumping too so others can feed her and so that we can get get her to stay awake for feedings. She gets all cozy on me and falls asleep so easily. Love those moments of brother/sister bonding.

We had a baby sitter on Friday night because Brett and I went to dinner for a work event for Brett. Our sitter was a lifeguard at the pool and has never babysat a baby before but has watched Maddi and Cade and they love her. She came over Tuesday while I got a mani/pedi so she could have just the baby and get some practice with her. Things went great and the sitter was very excited about Friday night. After we were gone for about 2 hours I remembered to check my phone and found I had 5 missed calls and 3 voice mails! 3 of the calls and 2 of the voice mails were from Maddi on the sitters phone. Maddi was so upset and worried. The voice mails went something like this "Mom, it's Maddi. Call me back right now. Something is really wrong with Emma. She's been screaming/crying for a long time and Bridget can't make her stop crying. She won't eat and she has real tears. I've never seen her cry like this before and I'm really scared. Call me." Then the next voice mail one minute later said "Mom. It's serious. Call me right now. Where are you? Answer your phone!" I called back and the baby was crying and Bridget told me Emma had taken a good nap when we left and then woke up and was crying and wouldn't eat. She said she was gassy. I told her to give her some Mylicon and keep trying the bottle and if she couldn't get her to settle down I'd have my neighbor come over. 10 minutes later I called back and Emalyn had settled down, drank her bottle and had a big poopy diaper. All was well from then on. Bridget asked me to talk to Maddi to calm her down b/c she was very worried. I assured Maddi the baby was fine and even if she cried again she would be ok and if she didn't eat, she'd be fine and I'd feed her when I got home. Poor Maddi was so worried but she seemed to be ok. I let her stay up with Bridget so she could see that Emalyn was fine and Maddi ended up falling asleep on the couch. Cade went to bed during all the comotion although he did complain he couldn't sleep with a baby crying. He fell asleep with no problem b/c Bridget checked on him later and he was fast asleep. We came home to a baby smiling and cooing at the sitter and all was well. Brett and I had a nice time away and it's nice that we're so much more relaxed with this 3rd baby.

Sunday evening while the big kids were at Awana's, I was talking to Brett from the kitchen and he wasn't answering. I went over and found these two snuggling/napping. I love how Brett has the remote control, house phone and cell phone with him so he didn't have to disturb his napping baby girl. So sweet. I guess they were worn out from our weekend of football partying and shopping.

2 months!

Emalyn Faith is 2 months old! Time flies when you're having fun. You are sleeping through the night and that means fun for all of us! You have slept 4 nights in a row of 9-10 1/2 hour stretches. Woo hoo!

This is a picture of her when I thought she was sleeping. Ha! She likes to take 45 minute cat naps throughout the day. Sometimes she'll take good 2-3 hour naps, especially if she's snuggling on Daddy's chest. Since Brett had 2 4 day weekends with Christmas and New Years, Emalyn took lots of naps with daddy. That made Daddy happy to get some snuggle time in, Emma was happy to get good sleep and Mommy was happy to get out and run errands and shop!

How cute is this hat from Amy T? Love it! Thanks Amy. My 2 month old is such a good, sweet baby. She likes to eat a lot and if she's not eating or napping, she's happy to chill out in her bouncy seat, nap in her swing or just lay around checking out her world. She is very happy and laid back.

She's getting so big. At her 2 month visit she was 10 pounds 10 ounces, 50%. 22 1/2 inches long, 60% and 39 cm head, 60%.

Maddi and Cade are still loving their baby sister. They love that she smiles and coos and really recognizes their faces and voices. It's so fun to watch their reactions to Emalyn.

She is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room but one day I'll get the courage to put her in her crib. I don't know why it's so hard for me to put her all alone in her room, but Brett's not helping the matter. Every night when I say I'm thinking of putting her in her crib he says "why? There's no reason to."

You can see I was trying all kinds of hair accesories. Black hat, black bow, pink bow, no bow, pink headband, etc. She's my little baby doll!

This baby with this sweet face had the worlds biggest poopy blowout at the movies the other night. Maddi and Cade were both sleeping over at friends so Brett and I went to see It's Complicated. She slept and then woke up with a huge blowout. As luck would have it...I only had 3 wipes to take care of the disaster. You'd think I'd know to keep the wipes full, I've done this before...but it's been a long time, and I'm a little rusty. TMI but this is my record of things to remember about our family.

Here she is in the bouncy seat in our bathroom. She loves to hang out in my bathroom while I shower, get dressed and put on makeup. We love you so much little Emalyn and we can't wait to see what the next month has in store for you and our family.

Happy New Year & Helping St. Judes

New Year's Eve Day started out with the kids doing something good for others. When Maddi and Cade were playing with friends on Wednesday, they decided they wanted to have a hot chocolate stand and they wanted to donate the money they raised to St. Judes Children's Hospital. How could you say no to raising money for that???

Don't you love the sign? I had to go to the store anyway to get things for our new years party so we got things for the hot cocoa stand too. The kids had made a list for me and it had cups with lids, marshmallows, and 3 jars of cocoa. They figured they needed 3 jars of cocoa to make 123 cups of cocoa. I told them one jar would be more than enough because I wasn't sure how many customers they would have.

The kids made 3 snow slides for the kids to slide down for free after buying their cocoa. Calley was getting on the mailbox to show me how one slide worked.

Here's Maddi demonstrating a slide too.

She kept falling off the sled as she went down the tiny little slide, not sure how that happened. After about 2 or 3 hours the kids raised $29.50 for St. Judes. They charged 50 cents/cup but several people donated more than that. They said they were gonna charge their friends 10 cents/cup. So funny. I am so proud of Maddi, Abbey, Cade and Calley for thinking of others. They've heard of St. Jude from school and my kids talk about it a lot. The kids want to write a letter with their donation to tell them how they raised the money. Great way to start the new year!

Later on New Year's Eve, we had two families over for some pizza, Wii and hanging out. Maddi was playing Mario Kart and Grace was cheering her on.

Jack playing Mario Kart.

Dave and Nolan having some snacks.

Ellie is our next door neighbor who is 6 months older than Emalyn. She used to look so little to me, but now she looks so big compared to Emalyn. Ellie looks at Emalyn in such a curious way, especially if Emma cries. Emalyn was cooing and smiling at Ellie. I just wonder what goes through babies heads. They will be great friends, I'm sure.

We celelbrated the new year at 7:00 and had cookie cake. The party was over after 9:00 so the kids could get some sleep. Brett and I were in bed after 10:30 but I did see midnight...I heard some noises and woke up to hear fireworks and looked at the clock to see it was 12:03.

2009 was a fun year full of good changes and many blessings for our family. Maddi is doing so great with her skin, school and emotions. Brett has a wonderful new job. We have a beautiful and happy baby girl. We all have good health and we have wonderful family and friends. Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us!