Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...

... look what I did today for the first time!!!!!

Snow removal 101

I've been helping Daddy with all of the shoveling:

My life is over...

Rachel here. Today after completely dousing her lips in chapstick, THIS ONE declared "look at me... I a princess!" Say huh? A princess... please no. I'm not sure who she learned this from... but when I find out... there will be words. At least I still have THIS ONE... even if she does only have hair on one side of her head. :)

Snow snow go away

It's been warm here. And by warm I mean 40 degrees. :) BUT it WAS warm enough to start melting the snow... meaning... I can see my turtle sandbox, and I think I heard him calling my name.

Little helper bee

Reese here. Yesterday... by 8 am... I managed to make the living room look like this:
Mommy eventually told me to clean up my mess... so I ran immediately for the Swiffer. :)

Self feeding

While I have in no stretch of the imagination mastered self feeding... I try...

... well, I pretend to try anyway. :)

Comparison

8th month comparison. Reese is on the left and EG is on the right. :)

8 months old... a day in the life...

Cute right? :) I failed to realize until we were done with our photo shoot that her shoe was half off... life's a beach. Anyway... I decided to tackle this month's entry as a day in the life kind of go. I've got a couple of extra fun things to mention to, but we'll get to those in a few. Here we go!

Little booger has been waking up earlier and earlier these days. I remember this phase with Reese. She would wake up, and we would let her talk and play herself back to sleep, which she did beautifully. Emma has become pretty good at that same scenario, however, sometimes she gets unruly, and I'm afraid she'll wake up monster #1, so she gets away with getting up earlier with me. We hear her stirring first around 5. That ain't happening. We ignore her, and she usually gets herself to sleep and wants to get back up around 625. I finally crawl out of bed around 645, go downstairs, start a fire and warm her bottle (6oz).

My original plan with breastfeeding was "if I can make it 6 months, we'll call it a success!" I made it 6 months and decided to keep going because it was going so well. Then the goal was to just take her until May. I have enough of a stash of frozen milk in the freezer to last quite some time, and it would have been plenty for the entire month of May and into June until she turned 1. HOWEVER, I got such a wonderful opportunity to go to California with my girlfriends from high school, and I COULD NOT PASS IT UP. I haven't been away from Reese for more than 4 nights in her entire life and not a single night from my Emma Grace, so as much as it kills me to leave them... I NEED this break... especially after this time Bryan has been out of town. We're headed out the second week in April... that put a kink in my nursing schedule. I was having anxiety about the whole thing, and then little precious Emma started to get a little rough and ugly with me and made the weaning early scenario a little easier to swallow. So needless to say I have a little over a month to wean my wee one. Last week I started giving her a bottle of formula in the morning (while I pump, which I'll continue doing until the second week in March). Yes I have milk in the freezer, but I need her to get used to the taste of the formula because she'll eventually have to have it, and she's uber hungry in the morning and will eat just about anything I'm pretty sure. :) We'll start taking nursings away and replacing them with bm/formula mixtures, and then eventually have her on formula... but not for long because then she'll move on to sippy cups of whole milk (we're gonna switch her all at once like Reese to save too many acts of drama). I'm not making my second goal, but we both gave it a hell of a go, and it was a HUGE success.

She'll play with Reese and I, and even some by herself (but not for too long because she is literally attached to my hip and cries and cries and cries if she can't see me or feel me), until she's ready to eat again around 9ish. I'll give her some EB oatmeal (with bm in it... she WILL NOT take it made with formula) by itself or mixed with EB mixed fruit breakfasts. She usually sleeps about an hour and a half to 2 hours... until it's time for her to eat yet again. :) I nurse her, and then she's up to play for about 2 more hours until... you guessed it... she's ready to eat again. For lunches she gets either a homemade fruit or non green veggie and a nursing. Then it's naptime again. She'll nap again for about 1.5-2 hours until she eats again... just nursing. We play our little hearts out until 5/6ish when she has a nice green dinner (or sweet potatoes... which are one of her favorites) and a nursing before bed around 630-700. That's 6 meals... 3 milk only... and 3 solids/milk meals. The goal by the time I leave is to have 4 6oz bottles and 3 solids only meals.

When it comes to foods she likes... just about anything. :) She hearts peas, green beans, broccoli, sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, squash, pears, apples, blueberries... she hates avocado, banana by itself (if it's mixed in with something she's fine), and I discovered after finding her crib covered in vomit that she doesn't fancy mangoes either. :) As far as finger type solid foods, she likes puffs and yogurt melts, but she can't feed them to herself yet. I've given her arrowroot cookies and mum mums, but she's not all about working for her food yet.

We've discovered she can in fact roll from her belly back over to her back... she just doesn't. Argh. She does it all the time in her crib. She is however desperately trying to crawl. She can get all the way up onto her pelvis and rotate completely around. We've constantly found her further back from where she originally started on her play blanket. It cracks me up how they move backward before they can figure out how to go forward! Today I caught her rocking herself to get her butt on top of her legs. Reese started the downward facing dog around this time too before she started to crawl, so we're curious to see if EG will follow suit.

Emma Grace is a very quiet little thing in general, but can really let out some adorable giggles. She's been doing the gaga's, mama's, and baba's. I posted a video of her clucking with her tongue... she's just so sweet and special. Before we know it she'll be 1! I've also started planning the party already. :) Crazy? Perhaps, but I remember being so bent out of shape over Reese's 1st birthday party... I know I'll need the extra time. Hint... think luau! :) Until next month... ooooh... when we finally have some measurements! :)

Comparison

Rachel here. I haven't done a good comparison in a while, so here you go! :) These are all the girls' 7th months. Reese is on the Left, while Emma Grace is on the Right. Seriously people... how are Bryan and I soooo lucky to have these two in our lives?!

Sorry Aunt Kerry...

Rachel here. I'd like to take this moment to apologize to my Aunt Kerry... I'm sorry for making you french braid my hair each and every time I would see you when I was little. :) I now know how annoying I must have been to you. I don't think I would have realized this though if I had not had a daughter of my own who requested from me this evening... "Mommy I have pitty hair!?" This is about as "pitty" as I got with this baby fine head of hair.

It may have looked something tragic... but my Reesie LOVED it! :)

Ohhhhh Daddy

Rachel here. So I've been experimenting with coupons the last couple of months and have done an astronomical job at saving us hundreds... yes hundreds... of dollars thus far. I literally make our grocery list based on what is on sale that week, what I have/can find coupons for, and any promotional shenanigans they might have going on (for example a "buy 10 of these items for $10... and get $5 off of your total bill... blah di blah di blah). I made a list and had Bryan go out for me this past Saturday. He did great getting all the items at the various places... however, he came home with these from Food Lion:
Are we big Oreo eaters? No... we do love them... but we don't often eat them. HOWEVER... Bryan made a killing. He got these 4 packs of Double Stuf and 4 boxes of Cakesters for $3. YES... $3! The Oreos were buy 1 get 1 free, and then when he went to check out the cashier said "you know there is a coupon on that board for buy 1 Oreo get 1 Cakster free right?" Good god. So he brings this into the house along with Reese's peanut butter cups, peanut butter M&Ms, and cheesecake... and then he leaves town. I'm already losing the weight battle at the moment with him being gone, but now he does this to me! I sure hope he still loves me when I'm taking up 2 seats in an airplane/movie theater. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day

Saturday after the birthday party of the decade, Grandma and Grandaddy came to watch Emma Grace and I. Mommy and Daddy went out for an early/quick dinner, just the two of them, for Valentine's Day. It was lovely for them! Don't worry though, they didn't forget about the baby sister and me...
... they got us these adorable little outfits for our Build a Bears! Aren't they cute?! We already had the bears, but Mommy wanted to get us something other than candy... seeing as how EG is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too young obviously, and I'm not permitted to take part in such luxuries very often. Instead of getting us tons of stuffed animals for each holiday (because we need them like holes in our heads), our bears will get new outfits instead (idea per an old friend of Mommy's!). Cute right?! Sadly Mommy couldn't get me to pose nicely for a picture and Emma just slobbers all over her's. :)

Bonne anniversaire Aly!

Okay we're not really sure how/when this happened... but Alyson is 1! We were blessed enough to attend the big shindig this past Saturday. It was filled with friends, cake, presents, and a little paci stealing. ;)

Our dear Aunt Angie (Uncle Tommy was there too), trekked it all the way from Newport News for the day... it was so awesome to see her! We can't wait until her little baby makes his/her premier this summer. :)

It was really nice to just be able to relax and visit with friends. Now that my sister can sit up, she's much more fun and sociable.

I was the oldest kid there, so I made sure to keep all those babies in line. :)

Let her eat cake!

Let ME eat cake! Those were the best Elmo cupcakes EVER for the record.

Aly got some really great gifts! She lost interest fairly quickly, but don't worry... I helped pick up some of the slack. (Sorry Laura!!!!)

Aly was way more interested in showing us her downward facing dog. :)

I did, however, act as the garbage girl... Daddy was my assistant.

Aly's daddy got her a very special gift...

... her very own lefty softball glove!

Thank you Funk family for a super great afternoon 'o fun! :)

Attention Gma Nita!

We saw this cardinal (at least that's what we're assuming he is) in our backyard the other day. He was nice enough to stay put until Mommy had time to grab the camera. We immediately thought of you. :)

My Reesie

Rachel here. I thought it was about time for a little update on My Reesie. First off... I'm just not sure what I did to deserve two beautiful little girls, but I'll take them. :) Reese is turning into such a sweet mannerly little girl. Does she have her moments when you just want to strangle her? Of course. Thankfully they are truly few and far between. Honestly the only time you see her being ugly is when she's tired. Bedtime has become much more bearable. She still likes to give Daddy a hard time (she is not one to like to miss out on things, so if Daddy is home from being out of town or we have company... she screams bloody murder... good times), but compared to a couple months ago... it's like heaven. She says please and thank you, I'm sorry, excuse me... it's sweet to hear her say these things on a cuff when it's appropriate... she's really learning. She's very caring to all. Just the other day she came up to me, looked me in the eyes, and said "gimmee a kiss!" Ugh... I heart her so much. While she loves to play games with Daddy when it comes to giving him hugs and kisses, she loves to be affectionate with us.

When it comes to Emma, Reese is in love. She loves to touch her and play with her. Emma spits up, and Reese is the first to get there to help her. I'm not sure how much longer that will last though because Em is becoming more and more mobile. A couple of weeks ago Aly and Laura came over to play. Aly is super mobile and loved crawling over to Reese and touching her face. It was beyond precious... unless of course you were Reese. At one point, while Reese was in the fetal position on the couch trying to escape Hurricane Aly, she said "I no lika Ayee!" Awful... yes... but luckily Auntie Lu laughed. Reese will be very distraught when it's Emma trying to poke her eyes out. :)

She's becoming a very smart little girl. You often hear her singing her abcs and counting as she goes up and down the steps. We were watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" this afternoon and there happened to be two Mickey's on the screen. Reese looked at me and said "ooooooh... one Mickey... two Mickey!" I could die! She's still a big singer and loves to dance. Potty training is going great. Our only accidents these days are #2. She is still having serious mental anguish at going poop on the potty. Argh. She's definitely a peeing champ though and can even hold it and go in public when she needs to, which is nice. We're using Pull ups with her during nap/bedtime and if we're running errands... sometimes she wakes up wet... sometimes dry... and she's in underpants at all other times. She's just all around a great kid who constantly makes us laugh and smile... and sometimes cry.