8 months old!

Emaline has had yet another month birthday.  And, she continues to change, and grow.  She's now up to a little over 20 pounds!

I feel like she's really taken off in her development.  She has just started to crawl and transition from crawling to sitting.  She's speaking sentences!  Well, she says, "Hi, Dada!" She says some other things too...She says, "mama", "ga"(for Gavin), "nite nite", "ka" (for book), "du" (for duck), and of course she says, "dada" and "HIIIIIIIIIIIII! DADADADADADADA!"

She loves eating puffs and anything else that isn't pureed vegetables.  She loves to read, too.  Her favorite book right now is "Violet's House".  She loves petting the dog "upon his fluffy head". 

She continues to be opinionated and as independent as she can be.  She is unaffected by the camera and will not sit still for a minute for me to take any good pictures!  She's getting quite a few teeth at the same time, which has been really bothering her...especially on the day of our photo shoot.  Her teeth and me aggravating her was just too much to take! 

 

 

 "I am so done with this, mom!"

I

 

She is still our sweet pepper.  I appreciate the different personality that she brings to the table.  Let's see if I'm saying that when she's a teenager...

7 months old!

Emaline is 7 months old...how the time flies.  Although she didn't have a well visit for height and weight, she did have a sick visit for her first ear infection.  She got through it fine and weighs an impressive 19 pounds 9 ounces!  She has four teeth now as she's gotten a couple on top. 

She is still a pepper and wants most things she can't have.  She's pretty vocal about letting you know what she wants.  She has started to creep...a little bit.  She can really turn herself around 360 degrees when on the floor.  Her most notorious move is the "skydiver".  She lifts her arms and legs up off the floor and puts her head down like she's in a free fall.  Then, she looks up to see how far she's moved, which is not at all.  

It is getting more and more difficult to take pictures of her.  She wants to go all the time!  The only way I got her to hold even a little still for these was the dream light!

Emaline is a sweet, beautiful little girl, and I am having so much fun watching her grow!

Christmas time 2012

Christmas was definitely more fun this year because Gavin gets "it".  We did Elf on the Shelf and an ornament that counted down the days until Christmas.  It was fun waking up every morning to see what "Elf on the Shelf" got into.  Yes.  That is what Gavin wanted to name his Elf on the Shelf.  I don't know where he gets his creativity!  Elf was mostly pretty mischievous this year making messes for me almost every day!

Gavin had fun picking out a Christmas tree and decorating it.  It wasn't uncommon for him to wear his Santa hat around and insist that you wear one too.  I love his Christmas spirit.

Nana, Paw Paw and Aunt Michelle came over one day to help decorate cookies and listen to Christmas music.  That really was so much fun!

Christmas was at our new house this year, which was great! Gary and I were up at 4:45 AM...I think because we were just excited!  Emaline woke up first Christmas morning, and Gary went to get her.  I heard Gavin get up, and I ran upstairs in excitement.  When I got upstairs, Gavin was in Emaline's room just hangin' out.  I grabbed him and hugging him trying to infuse some excitement!  We came downstairs, he opened the door to the study, and saw the huge jeep Santa left him.  He said, and I quote, "Oh, wow.  EM!  LOOK WHAT SANTA BROUGHT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  After showing Emaline her gift, he finally got excited about his.  I think it took a minute to process.  I'm pretty sure this jeep was bigger than he expected.  Once he got it outside, he didn't want to come in for anything!  Not even to open more presents.  Nothing topped the jeep that day, and he is still telling everyone what Santa brought him for Christmas.

We had brunch at our house.  We had way to much delicious food! The morning was like a whirlwind...we ate, opened presents and then everyone disappeared...except Michelle and Leonard who, by the way, announced that they are expecting in August! It was a great time and over too soon.  But, the great thing about being so close to family is that we don't have to wait for special occasions to get together!

Emaline is 6 months old!

Emaline had her 6 month well check the other day, and she continues to grow well.  She is now 18.5 pounds and 26.5 inches long.  She is starting to eat more food.  She really likes squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, and apples.  She doesn't care for pureed chicken too much, but who can blame her? 

She just gets cuter by the day, and I just keep falling more and more in love with her.  She is such a fun girl to be around!  She loves to roll around on the floor from her back to her stomach and grabs at just about anything she's not supposed to have.  She is so opinionated and moody!  Sometimes, she's quiet and pensive.  Other times, she's expressive and loud! But, she is always a sweetheart. She has definitely won the hearts of everyone in this family...even Gavin is so smitten with her.  He can't wait for her to wake up from naps to "play" with her. 

She had her first cold this week and is handling it pretty well.  She wakes up at night sometimes, because she can't breath, but she really had been pretty unaffected.  She actually laughs after I suction her nose...who is this kid?!

 

Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving quickly came and went...we had a large gathering over at Gina's house.  Turns out, Danny's two sisters were going to be in town and wanted to join us...we had about 25 people and enough food to feed 50!  Everything was delicious!  Gavin had a blast playing with other kids and their toys.  Uncle Danny took the kids on a hay ride in the back trails.  I think Gavin felt so special because Uncle Danny let him drive the tractor! 

We finally celebrated a very belated birthday for Michelle and a one day early birthday for Gary. 

Speaking of turkeys, the next day was Gary's birthday (love you honey).  Our good friends from Dallas joined us for dinner and cake, as did Michelle and Leonard.  Gary got some cool Saints stuff, including some nice stuff to wear to the game that Sunday! Dad, Ellie, Michelle, Leonard, Gary and I got to go to the Saints vs 49ers game.  Even though it was a horrible game, it was a great time!