I Won, I WON!

I just realized that I won a contest for a new blog design by Fab K and I am SOOO excited!! I just love all the blogs that she designs, so keep checking back for my new and improved blog! :) Also, check out Fabulous K's blog...she's having another contest right now!

Pictures...as promised!

Ok, here goes...like I said I hadn't downloaded pictures in a really long time so here are a ton of random pictures from the last month and a half!

My mom turned 50 on April 9th and we surprised her with a party! Emma Kate stole the show. Here she is with her Aunt Maddie.

The party just pooped her out!

Aunt Teppy came for the party too! :)

The day EK got her 4 month shots I took the day off just to hang out. Here we are taking a few pictures before heading to the dr's. I couldn't believe how good she was doing on her tummy! She usually hates being on her tummy, but this day she loved it!

After her shots she was running a little bit of fever so we put a wet wash cloth on her head...doesn't she look adorable??

Emma Kate's good friend Kyler turned 1...here she is getting ready for the big party!

And here she is with all her friends! (Kyler, Katie Lynn, and Colin)

Like I said earlier, I think she likes sleeping without the swaddle!

Just a cute picture after her bath one night!

Here's how we had a sneaking suspicion she might be ready for solid foods....she couldn't stop staring at Brice's food one night while we were eating!

So for her 5 month birthday she got rice cereal!

She LOVED it, but eating from a spoon is hard work! She has since tried oatmeal cereal too...I think she likes rice cereal better though. Once school is out we are going to start her on fruits and vegetables. I am planning on making her food...we'll see how that goes! :)

Emma Kate's 5 Month pictues, once again, Denae did a great job!

Will even joined in on the photoshoot! I think Emma Kate was saying "Hey, don't you think you get your picture taken enough!" :)

My 1st Mother's Day was such a special day. The past several Mother's Days have been kind of emotional for me, I longed to be a mother so badly and at times it seemed like I might never be blessed with that opportunity. I feel so lucky to finally be a mommy, but even more than that to be Emma Kate's mommy! Brice did such a good job of making me feel special that day (and everyday!). He and Emma Kate gave me a new pearl ring and earrings along with 2 books and a DVD!

Here we are on Mother's Day with my mom, Aunt Maddie, Aunt Teppy and my grandmother Nette!

My Granddad even came to help us all celebrate. Emma Kate loves to hear him "quack"!!

And we're ROLLING!

Yes, that's right, our big girl finally rolled over all by herself! Tuesday when we got home from school we were playing in the floor, she layed on her side for a really long time and then finally just rolled on over. I think I scared her half to death the first time because I was screaming and clapping. She was looking at me like I crazy or something. Who knew first time mommies would get so excited about these little milestones. After my little celebration for her I all the sudden started to get sad! My little baby girl rolled over! Oh goodness, I'm really not sure why I get so emotional about every little thing! Anyway, she went on to do it 3 more times and I even got the last time on camera. I'll see if Brice can help me download it and I'll post it. Unfortunately she hasn't rolled over again since Tuesday, but she loves laying on her side so I'm sure she will really be rolling in no time.

Also, I have TONS of pictures to post. I realized I haven't downloaded pictures from my camera since before my mom's birthday - April 9th! LOTS of things have happened since then! Maybe I'll get around to that sometime this weekend. :)

So Long Swaddle

This has been one of our best friends since Emma Kate was born (I highly recommend it to any new moms out there), but Thursday night we decided it was time to finally say goodbye! She was getting to the point where she could get her arms out of the top and she was no longer able to stretch her legs out all the way. I was really worried about how she would transition to sleeping without it because she was such a good sleeper with it, but so far so good! It was so funny, every time I would go check on her the first night her arms were straight out to the side and her legs were straight down. It was like she was saying "I'm FREE!"

Also, we're contemplating starting her on cereal. For the last week she has been waking up at about 4:30 every morning. (Another reason we decided to try sleeping without the swaddle). I had been feeding her, but the last 2 mornings I decided to just leave her in there and see what she would do, and she ended up just talking and playing until 7! Crazy girl!! We're definitely going to have to get this straightened out by summer. :) So, when did all of you start your babies on cereal?

Update

I have every intention of blogging more, but for some reason I just can’t seem to find the time! I feel like I’m in a hurry from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. Hopefully updates will come a little more frequently once school is out. And in about 5 weeks I will officially be a stay-at-home mommy! I am so excited about that!! I’ve known all along that I would like to stay home, but I didn’t want to make any decisions for sure until we at least tried working/daycare. I think I decided after the first day back at work that I definitely wasn’t working next year! It has been one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I think it will really make me appreciate staying home even more now. Emma Kate has done great at daycare and we really love her teachers, they tell me everyday how much they are going to miss her. It’s kind of funny, I get giddy everyday as I’m pulling into daycare to get her, it’s like I can’t get back to her classroom quick enough!!

In other news, Emma Kate had her 4 month checkup last week and she’s growing like a weed! She now weighs 14 lbs. 4 oz. which puts her in the 50th percentile and she’s 27 inches long which is off the charts!! I couldn’t believe how much she had grown since her last appointment. And of course she had to get those awful shots too. Luckily she did really well with them this time, other than running a little fever they didn’t seem to bother her at all.

Here’s the link for some family pictures and Emma Kate’s 4 month pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. I can’t believe it’s almost time to take 5 month pictures!!

And if you don't want to go through all the pictures, here are a few of our favorites.

March in Pictures

March was quite a busy month for us, as you can tell with the lack of blogging, so I decided to update everyone with pictures.
We took several walks this month when the weather permitted. This is a picture of Emma Kate's first walk around the park without her stroller. I'm not sure if she's too crazy about the "Snugli" yet, or maybe it was the hat that is way too big!
The girls even got to go on a few walks too!
We attempted to go on a walk in her big girl stroller, but unforunately it was too windy so we opted for a walk around the living room instead. :)
I think she likes her big girl stroller though!
I turned 26 on the 15th. It's funny, when you get this age birthdays really aren't a very big deal. However, Brice did a great job of making me feel special on my big day. He cooked dinner and he even ordered me a chocolate cake! I also got to have lunch on a few different occasions around my birthday with some of my sweet friends. Overall, it was a great 26th birthday!
Here we are getting ready to go meet Emma Kate's new teachers. She told me that she wanted to look nice when we went to meet them so she could make a good first impression. I think it worked because her teachers love her!
Emma Kate also got to have a fun playdate with her BFF Will. Here they are playing with some of her toys.
Too bad Emma Kate got tired and missed out on all the real fun. We had intended on playing a game that night with Chris and Denae, but when I came out from putting Emma Kate to bed I realized that Chris and Brice had other plans. They thought it would be fun to roll Will up in the Wall Street Journal.
Brice then proceeded to make newspaper hats.
He was nice and made one for everyone so that we could all join in on the fun. You can't really tell in the pictures but he made everyone's unique. Denae's even had an opening on the top for her hair to stick out of! Needless to say, it was quite a fun night!
We also celebrated Emma Kate's first Easter. This picture is actually from the week before. We gave her her Easter basket a week early so that we could all enjoy it. And of course I forgot to get pictures of her with it on Easter.
Easter morning.
Emma Kate turned 4 months on Friday (I know it was actually in April, but I'm just lumping it in with March since who knows how long it will be before I blog about April :)) In honor of her big day, we got her a much needed new toy! HA! All my friends with babies have been raving about this toy, a Rainforest Jumperoo, however since we already have an excersaucer I didn't think we really needed one. Well, our neighbors had a garage sale on Saturday and I saw this one sitting out in their driveway. I told Brice to go check it out and they only wanted $20 for it. I thought that was quite a bargain so we now have one more baby toy to crowd up our ever shrinking house!
Since returning to work we all like to sleep in around here on Saturdays. Here is Brice and Emma Kate enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons in bed.
Last Wednesday after church I decided to let Emma Kate play in just her diaper. She just looks so cute naked! She also started trying to roll over when we were playing with her...I think she will be rolling over on her own soon!
And Emma Kate told me that she is REALLY ready for summer (oh wait, maybe that's me that's REALLY ready for summer!!!) so we decided to try on her new swimsuit.

Hope you enjoyed March in pictures....maybe it won't be a whole month before I blog again. :)