Busy Family/ 9 months

It has been a LONG time since I last posted. Sorry! We've been busy... and when we're not busy, I admit, we've been lazy. ;)

I'm working on a couple projects... still trying to finish Emma's crochet bunny (like the one I made for Lea). I am also trying to motivate myself to work on/finish Emma's first year movie. (I made a movie of Lea's first year that included photos and videos from her birth to her first birthday, it is an hour & a half long - i.e. lots of editing! - so, I want to do the same for Emma. It just takes a lot of time.)

Kevin has been working from home a LOT recently. At first it was a bit annoying as we don't have a dedicated office in this house. He works in our bedroom. But, the pros far outweigh the cons. He can pop out and see the girls throughout the day, he doesn't have to waste time commuting and he is home for dinner at 5:30 (rather than 6:30).

Lea had her first sleep-over at Uncle Dave & Aunt Sarah's house. They said she was good. ;) She seemed to have had a great time so hopefully she can do it again soon. I love having them back in NC!

Lea with Aunt Sarah the morning after the sleep over.

We took a mini family 'vacation' recently at Great Wolf Lodge (thanks to a Groupon deal!). Poor Emma was really sick the entire week before we planned on leaving. She had a fever for five days in a row! Other than that, though, there were no other symptoms. The actual morning we got up to pack the car, she was much better, so we headed out. Lea (and Kevin & I) had a blast! The water park was pretty cool. There was a fenced in toddler area, a big "tree house" area, a wave pool, a regular pool and a few big water slides for the adults/big kids. Everywhere you looked there was water dripping, spraying and dumping. Lea really enjoyed exploring and even some of the bigger water slides. Kevin and I took turns watching the kids so we could go on the big slides... a couple of them were HUGE. It was so much fun!

(I forgot to take a single "real" camera so all I had was my phone. It takes terrible photos... I have no idea why b/c it wasn't a cheap phone! Oh well... here they are...)

First she tried the toddler slide...

Then she tried the bigger slides!

And she rode them over and over again!

Emma wasn't such a big fan of the water (or the noise).

I made Kevin stand under the big bucket dump!

Emma had her 9 month well check after our trip. She is a petite 15 pounds. :) Other than a tiny delay in her gross motor skills (she doesn't like to stand on her own and shows absolutely no signs of trying to cruise around the furniture), she is as healthy as can be. She's a pretty cautious girl. She's not into "thrills" and observes her surroundings carefully. She very well may not be walking by her first birthday... the opposite of Miss Lea who is quite the adventurer and risk taker! Lea was walking at 10 1/2 months old.

Emma says "buh" and "blah" a lot. She likes making non-consonant sounds, like growling, raspberries, humming, etc. She waves when you say "Hi" to her. She tries to clap her hands when you say "Yay!" and if you say "How big are you? So Big!", she throws her arms up over her head. Believe it or not, she loves to eat! Every meal time, she likes to grab the sides of her hair, too. Not sure why... but it's pretty funny! She ends up with sticky, dried food in her hair every night. She can be a little bit picky sometimes, but once she has something she likes (avocado, banana, black beans, peas, puffs, strawberries, bread, chicken) she will chow down! She has three teeth; two on the bottom/front and one top "vampire" tooth. I call her snaggle tooth!

 

We had a couple snow days recently. Emma was indifferent but Lea & Bailey enjoyed playing in it!

Eating an icicle after the first "snow"...

It wasn't really snow... mostly ice. But we had fun ice skating on the sidewalk!

Making tracks through the second snow!

Daddy and Miss Emma

A happy dog!

Valentine's Day was fun this year. Lea got to take cards into school for her classmates. She made butterflies with tootsie roll pops as the heads. :) That night after dinner, we had chocolate fondue. Our favorite was dipping a marshmallow and then rolling it in crushed graham crackers. YUM!

We're slowly beginning the process of putting our house on the market. We have spoken with one realtor and have another one lined up to meet. We've been brain storming on things we want to get done beforehand, like power wash the house, steam clean the carpet and take a BUNCH of stuff to storage. We have been in this house for eight years this summer. While we haven't exactly outgrown it, we are very close! We want a house with a dedicated office for Kevin and a separate playroom for the girls. I also dream of having an actual laundry room (rather than a closet) and a big master bathroom! :) We've been looking at homes online for years now. We just found a new neighborhood that is the perfect location for us and the thought of building new is SO appealing. :)

Other than that... as if that's not enough... we're just trucking along!