Updates

Rachel here. So I thought I'd update you all on what our family has been up to the last couple of weeks. We've seriously been shuffling guests in and out of here like a Starbucks drive thru but have had a great time doing it. :) We're looking forward to a couple days off before heading to Maryland for Jackson's 2nd bday party. I love all these birthday parties because it gives us a great excuse to catch up with friends. It does, however, give me HUGE anxiety about planning Reese's party. I'm not overwhelmed with the work it takes to pull it off... it's more of the fact that my little nugget is going to be 2. Although with everyday that she gets older... she learns something new and becomes more and more hysterically funny. :) More on that on her monthly birthday post. I will, however, share this picture of her new toy that Grandma and Grandaddy got her.

Then there is my smallest nugget. Emma Grace really is such a good baby... as long as we stick to her schedule! During the day I've got her eating every 2.5-3 hours. She wakes up, I feed her (breastfeeding is going smashingly... thank goodness!), we play for a little while, swaddle her, and get her to sleep all within 2 hours... otherwise she'll scream and scream and scream. She sleeps for about 30 min to an hour, and then we start all over again. We try to get her to sleep "for good" between 8 and 9. Last night she went down at 9... IN HER OWN ROOM... BY HERSELF... and was out until 230. Bryan took that feeding. He takes the feeding after a long sleep, so I can pump. It works out GREAT! She managed to pass back out and stay asleep until 730 this morning! HOLLER! We were so excited. Of course we're not getting our hopes up too terribly much for the short term, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's such a relief! :)

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Bryan is busy working. He's been in and out of Blacksburg/Abingdon for the last couple of weeks. While he has been in Abingdon... he hasn't been spending the night out of town, which has been SUPER helpful at night. He doesn't get to see Reese at all because of that, but his support at night is more than wonderful. Because he has clients in Blackburg, we're lucky enough to see a lot of him during the day. The last couple of days he's been working at home until about lunch time and then heading out into the field. The flexibility is great, but of course it doesn't come without a price. We know that in a few short months it's Abingdon time for 2 months, and the girls and I WILL NOT be going out with him this year, so we're trying to enjoy the time with him as much as possible.

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I'm trying to accomplish a deep clean of the house. We're constantly shuffling in new toys, stuffed animals, clothes, and tons of other things for the girls and us that our house is starting to resemble the homes you might see on "Clean House." NOT GOOD! I'll be going through as much as I can and putting some in storage in the attic, getting some ready to sell on Craigslist and a possible yard sale come early summer of next year. We're slowly outgrowing our house, so the plan is to make the best of it while we can before we decide to sell. If we want to start showing this house within the next year... it needs a serious overhaul! Another big project... cleaning out the picture frames. I've been choosing some of my favorite pictures of Reese from the last 22 months and now some new ones of little Emma to place around the house.

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In the next couple of months we have a trip to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania planned, a big 2nd birthday bash, and many Hokie football games to enjoy. Perhaps we'll slow down soon... or when the girls are both out of the house. :)