thursday thoughts...........lots of them

This post is brought to you courtesy of iphone pictures from mine and Jason's phones since I have not turned any of our cameras on since we got back from the beach!
 
1. I've been in a bit of a funk lately but I think I'm finally getting over it.  I'm a creature of habit and don't deal well with change.  I have enjoyed summer vacation, but as teachers went back to work on Monday, my new role as stay at home mom officially started.  I found myself missing my teacher friends and the structure a new school year brings.  I decided to stop sleeping in (which is only until about 6:45) and waiting to get ready for the day once the kids were up.  I have started getting up at 5:45 and I alternate lifting weights and doing cardio in the mornings.  Once I'm done exercising, I shower and get ready for the day before Jason leaves for work.  That way I'm ready for the day once the kids wake up and I'm ready for anything that comes our way.
 
2. Because I'm not ready to "let go" of my friendships and school involvement, I have committed to helping my team run copies each week.  I went into school on Tuesday to help a little and then went to lunch with the girls.  I went back today and did the same and it was so nice to interact with adults and do some "work".
 
3. Bryce starts preschool on Tuesday so I took him to get a back-to-school haircut.  Kelly usually cuts his hair, but since they have moved and Bryce isn't over there while I work, I have been attempting to cut his hair myself.  I don't do so well on the trim so I decided it was time for a "real" haircut!  I took him to Sport Clips because I had a coupon for a $5 cut. 
 

 
I think it turned out great.  He's such a handsome boy!
 

 
4. With the start of fall and preschool, our schedule is filling up and I love it.  I just love structure and a bit of controlled chaos.  I feel more productive when I have things to do and list to cross off.  I bought a new planner tonight because my small calendar was overflowing.  I just love filling out a new calendar!

 

5. I have been working on getting Emmy and Bryce to nap at the same time in the afternoons. Bryce takes a 3 hour nap each day which would allow me to get a lot done if Emmy would sleep at the same time. She usually takes some sort of nap while Bryce naps. I bought some books tonight to read when I have a little down time during naps. I have heard so much about each of these books through other blogs so I indulged tonight at Barnes and Noble and spent a little of my birthday money. 

 

6. We went to a local baseball game on Monday night.  They have a promotion on Mondays that if you bring a McDonald's receipt, tickets are buy one get one free.  We actually ended up getting free tickets from someone at the gate so it was an even better deal.

 

7. My mom took the kids shopping today and Emmy came home with this bib.  I.LOVE.IT!  And I LOVE that smile.

 

8. Emmy has outgrown the bouncy seat.  It no longer contains her.  I'm so worried she is going to topple out.  She has also started pulling herself up, she crawled about two paces tonight, and she managed to get herself back up to a sitting position from her belly the other day ( I didn't see it happen, but she was on her belly and when I looked back, she was sitting up).  You can STOP growing up so fast now!

 

9. Bryce's legs are finally long enough to pedal his bike and he really enjoys riding it now.  He told us he wanted a horn for it.  Jason just happened to have one in the garage (because he NEVER gets rid of anything).  Bryce loves it!

 

10. It's safe to say that Bryce LOVES his sister.  Emmy likes him too!

 

11. I was very slow to join the Pinterest bandwagon, but I finally get it and it is safe to say that I am OBSESSED.  Monday's dinner was Pinterest inspired.  I made meatloaf in muffin tins the other night and "frosted" them with mashed potatoes.  Thank you Pinterest for adding some variety to our dinner selection!

 

 

back from the beach

We spent this past week at the beach and had such a wonderful time!  Bryce loved every second of it and Emmy was a perfect traveler yet again!

 

 

The boys get a little braver each year and venture out into the ocean a little more!

 

This boy can't possibly be my kid, ha!  I can't stand to have a grain of sand on me if I can help it, but he will roll all around in it!

 

Emmy enjoyed the beach.  She spent most of her time napping, but she stayed awake for some beach fun.

 

She enjoyed playing in her little pool. 

 

We spent a lot of time wrapped up in towels on the beach because it was chilly this week.  We had very cloudy mornings which kept the temperatures down.  With the breeze, it was cold!

 

Emmy girl is going to love the beach just like her brother.  I was impressed that she really didn't try to eat the sand all that much.

 

Testing out the water.

 

She loved every second of it.

 

My sweet babies.

 

I couldn't get Emmy to look at the water once I took her hat off.

 

We're so thankful to Jason's parents for taking us to the beach so we can make so many fun family memories!

 

(I'm sure you're wondering about Jason's hat.  He's just weird, ha!)

 

family pictures

Sandbridge 2012

I have always wanted to take beach pictures, but never wanted to pay for a photographer.  Since we have gotten better at using our SLR and editing the pictures, we decided to be our own photographers.  Well, we used our camera and Jason's sister took our pictures!

I bought Jason's white shirt at the beginning of the summer and then forgot about the rest of us needing shirts.  I went to Old Navy one day this week and was lucky enough to find a shirt for Bryce, Emmy, and myself.  I even found jean shorts for Emmy girl.

I'm really excited about how the pictures turned out.  Even though someone was squinting or looking away from the camera in most of the shots, I think we found a few worth framing!

The best part.........we just got to the beach today!  I'm excited to have it behind us and not have to worry about weather, time and sunburn later in the week.

From the iPhone

Emmy girl is getting so big! She's starting to ride in the front of the grocery cart and sit in a real high chair at restaurants! My mom and I went and got pedicures the other day while Bryce was at the pool and Emmy enjoyed tagging along. Bryce has been asking me when he can feed Emmy a bottle and well, today was the day! He enjoyed it until his arm got tired, ha!

catch up

Bryce is going to be going to preschool 2 days a week this year and I'm getting excited.  I'm not so sure he's totally excited yet (he says he is going to miss me), but I think he'll love it.  I was so excited when his school supply list came in the mail.  Since I won't be teaching this year (and I'm obviously not a student anymore), it will be the first time in 25 years I have not gone back-to-school shopping.  We headed out to Target this week to get the things he needed.  These things are mostly for the class and not specifically his, but it was fun.  We still need to get a book bag, but I'm not ready to fight that battle because he'll probably want some silly cartoon theme where I would rather have a pattern or single color.  But, it is for him and I want him to love it!   

He happened to find an old stuffed animal of mine this week and carried it around the house for a day.  Totally unrelated to school supplies!

The babies from our recent baby boom in our small group are starting to turn 1.  All the kids in our small group came together on Thursday to celebrate Maggie's (white shirt) 1st birthday.  I lined all the kids up from oldest to youngest.  Emmy girl still doesn't get the concept of the camera and the jumping parents and silly sounds!

Good friends of ours were in town this weekend so we met up at Starbucks this morning before they headed out of town.  We were excited to meet little Kaleb.  He will be 1 next month.  Boy do we wish they lived closer.

Bryce didn't want to be left out of the picture taking!

Our sweet babies.

I've been a bit under the weather this week so I've been taking very little pictures and going to bed too early to blog.  Hopefully after a doctor visit this week and some more testing, I'll be on the mend.  We're headed to the beach on Saturday and I NEED to be well.

6 months

Emmy girl is 6 months old today.

Height: 25 1/4 inches (25th percentile...I think)

Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (10th percentile)

Head: 16 5/8 (25th-50th percentile)

I know she is getting bigger, but she still seems so small to me.  I guess having Bryce around helps her to seem like she's staying my small little baby forever!  They grow up TOO.FAST.

Emmy is so fun at this age.  She is a happy girl and really only fusses when she gets hungry or tired.  She and Bryce enjoy each other's company.  I know that won't be the case one day!

She does well being passed around to new or different people.  Bryce seemed to have attachment/separation issues very early on. 

She is wearing size 2 diapers and 3-6 month/6 month clothes.

She only rolls over her right side from back to belly.  She doesn't enjoy being on her belly for long before getting fussy, but she rarely rolls herself back to her back.  But when she does, she completes the roll and goes over her left arm.  She has gotten stronger and can hold her chest up for a while.

She has really gotten stable at sitting up.  She loves to sit and play with toys.  I'm still afraid to leave her unattended while sitting, but she is getting better.  Sometimes she can regain her balance or catch herself with her arm.

We have introduced quite a few foods.  She seems to tolerate them all, but doesn't eat very much.  She has eaten rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, bananas, apples, and peaches.  I have peas and green beans but I haven't tried them.  She loves bananas the most.

She still nurses every three hours during the day.  I have been able to stretch some feedings to 3.5-4 hours.

Her sleep habits still don't compare to months 2-4 when she was sleeping through the night.  I think she has finally outgrown the swaddle.  She rolls to her belly to sleep and usually falls asleep within 5 minutes.  Staying asleep is a different story.  I can usually get a 2 hour afternoon nap out of her.  I'm still feeding her once in the middle of the night most nights.  Some nights I don't have to feed her, but I do have to help her get back to sleep.  I look forward to us both getting a full night sleep again real soon!

Her hair is finally coming in a bit and it seems pretty light.  We still think she will have brown eyes even though they seem hazel right now.  She doesn't have any teeth yet.

She rode in the front of the shopping cart like a big girl today and loved it!

I am enjoying watching her change and grow and I'm so excited I won't be going back to work a month from now when school starts.  Best decision I ever made!

Bryce at 6 months



sunday smiles

comparison

I found a couple baby pictures of me while I was at my parents' house the other day.  I'm not sure how old I was in the pictures, but close enough to Emmy's age to make some comparisons. 

We've always said that Emmy looks like Bryce and Bryce looks like Jason. 

Even after bringing these pictures home, Jason doesn't think Emmy looks like me.  I would probably agree, but she might have my nose?!?

What do you think?

our little swimmer

Bryce definitely stepped out of his comfort zone the past two weeks, but he has come out a braver, more prepared swimmer!  He loves the water and he loves to swim, but he likes it on his terms.  I'm just happy that he has learned some survival skills that will help him in the water.

He learned how to swim to the wall and grab the edge if he needs a break.

He's even strong enough to pull himself out of the water and out of the pool.

Before these lessons, Bryce wouldn't have dared put his face in the water.  Now he can jump in and go under the water!

He wasn't thrilled about it and came up quivering most times, but he did it!

After jumping in, he learned how to take off and swim.

They taught him to roll over to his back in order to rest and catch his breath.  At the beginning of the lessons, whenever his mouth was opened he was crying or screaming.  The instructor told him the only sound they should hear is "ahhh".  It was so cute to listen to him whenever he came up because you would hear a sweet, innocent little "ahhh".

He even learned how to go under and retrieve dive sticks off the bottom of the pool.

He brought his own cars and dive sticks from home for extra motivation.

Bryce had a different teacher his first week who helped get him acclimated to the water, but this week, Ms. Maria really worked wonders for him!

We dodged the storms today, but had to run to get out of the torrential rain after the lesson so we finished our photo shoot at Jason's parent's house.  Here is Bryce with his certificate.  He passed!

We went shopping last week at the start of swimming lessons and Bryce picked out his swimming surprise he wanted if he did a good job and was a good listener and tried his best.  He got ribbons each day from the teacher (which he loved), but he was so excited to get his monster truck when he got in the car.

I hated how scared, anxious, and emotional this made Bryce, but he did a great job and learned water survival skills that will help him in the future.  This was a great program and I'm thinking of putting him in a once a week lesson in the fall/winter so he won't lose his confidence or skills  by next summer.