The newest on Emily

Things have been a little hectic lately so haven't had a chance to write....

First there have been a few new things for Emily. Since about the time that she had her professional pictures taken, she has been enjoying her feet--she likes to grab onto them, play with them, trying to put them in her mouth, etc.

She also has discovered that she can combine her coos/talking with blowing bubbles at the same time. She has been having lots of fun with her new way of "talking". She has never been much of a spitter upper, but I may have to start putting bibs on her with all the drool she's now making. Haha.

Also, she has been smiling and "laughing" for sometime now, but tonight was the first time she's had real giggles. So cute!

She is also getting really close to rolling over. She gets about 3/4 of the way there, and is trying very hard.

I also put her in the bumbo seat for the first time this week, and she did a great job sitting up on her own/supporting her head.

We've had some beautiful weather (which I am sooooo going to miss). We had almost summer weather last weekend. As we're sitting with short sleeves on, Matt's watching a sporting event where it was snowing. I was like, yuck, where is that? He responds "I don't even want to tell you". It was NJ of course. Man, I am going to miss the early spring here and the warm weather. ANYWAY, with the nicer weather lately we've been taking more walks together as a family and playing outside more often. Now that Emily's getting older we have her sitting upright in the stroller rather than in her car seat and she absolutely LOVES it. She loves sitting like a big girl and getting to look all around.

Her sleeping schedule has also been shifting a little...She is definitely up longer stretches during the day now. Recently she also started to go to bed earlier (I am following her lead with that). Prior she was going to bed between 10-11ish, and recently she started going to bed between 8-9ish. It is good and bad. In one way it's nice because I've had more quality alone time with Matt after the girls are in bed. But on the other hand, night time was when I'd have my quiet gentle moments with Emily that I don't really get to have as much during the day with Ashley up playing and going and doing. The other not so nice part is that with the later bedtime, Emily was sleeping through the night and waking up between 7ish to 8ish which was amazing, but now with the earlier bedtime she's been waking up in the middle of the night again around 3 or 4....not so fun. Although now the past two nights she's been going back to bed later again. You never know what the days (or nights) will hold at this age when it's not a set schedule yet.

It's getting late so I'm going to end here and update about Ashley tomorrow or sometime real soon. Have a few new occurrences with her and also with friends and house stuff. Will write more soon.

Little free time

Taking advantage of a few quiet moments...they seem to be far and few between these days...


Cute little updates.
First, there is Ashley. She has been sweet lately. She wants to do everything like mommy, or have mommy do everything like her. For instance, if I (attempt) to put a bow in her hair, she picks one out for mommy to put in hers too. Or if mommy is putting something on, she wants it too. She also does it with Emily sometimes. The other night I had Emily in her room during story time before bed. We were on the floor, so Ashley was going through her drawers and picked out a hat to wear, then another one for her sister to wear too. Or if Ashley is dressed up in her tutu, she wants Emily to have her mini tutu on as well. It's cute.

It's also cool to see her recollection with things now. She has memories of things, even going back a few months. For instance, today is the 1 day a week she goes to "school". As we were driving there, she was talking about how she got a boo boo when someone bit her finger (this was at least 2-3 months ago).

She is also funny with Emily. Apparently the novelty has worn off. There are still plenty of times when she loves her and wants to play with her and help with things, but then there are other moments when Emily is cramping her style. For example, the night when she had hats on the two of them--she wanted to share and be the same with the hat thing, but when they were laying next to each other, Emily was reaching for her and apparently "in her space" and Ashley was making faces and turning away from her.

Ashley continues to have such a great personality--she is a happy go lucky kind of kid. She's fun, sweet, kind, outgoing, she loves to explore and is constantly on the move. She loves to learn and do all day long.

Emily continues to be a sweetie pie. She's always full of smiles, and looks into your eyes with such joy and love, it just melts my heart every time.

She loves to watch what everyone is doing. She loves her big sister and is intrigued by what she's doing. I bet she can't wait until she can play along with her!

Emily is getting close to rolling over, so that's a start. She's starting to be better with tummy time now, and doesn't scream as much as she would. And she loves to be on the floor in the middle of all the action at home and at play dates.

 Pre-bedtime fun

My silly girl

 Fun playdate with special friends Eli and Katie Wagner

 Ashley at her favorite place in the world, Chuck e Cheese

Pic of Ashley and I that we took at Chuck E Cheese...not bad for just a tokenAshley playing with her sister and singing to her

I love my girls so much, and am so thankful for them each and every day. There are some hairy moments at times, but all in all it's wonderful.

Emily's 3 month pics

I took Emily to get her 3 month (professional) pictures taken. Poor thing is sick for the first time with a little cold, but that didn't stop her from being full of her sweet smiles. 

Update

Just wanted to post a quick little Emily update. She is such a sweet heart. I think she is going to be our more sensitive child. She loves to be held and cuddled, and would be thrilled if you held her all day. She also responds to things around her. Sometimes Ashley plays loudly as a two year old does, and it'll startle Emily and she'll even make a sad little pouty face like she's about to cry. She also already gets distracted when she's eating, and wants to see what Ashley is doing, or what's on tv if it's on at the time.  She also has a sweet temperament about her.

She is also getting close to rolling over. She reaches for a toy and gets about 1/2 way to 3/4 of the way to turning.

She also has a very strong neck! She HATES tummy time (I think it upsets her stomach with her reflux), but she can sit up and totally support herself for a long time when we hold her or carry her.

Ashley is funny. She's starting to "tell on us"--and reports an event. For instance, the other day Matt took Ashley for a daddy-daughter date lunch while the photographers were here to take pics of the house. I was asking about her time and Ashley goes "Ashley cookie"--apparently daddy had bought her a cookie, but didn't want to tell me since he didn't bring one back for me. Haha.
Also the other day we had gone to Monkey Joes (a fun place filled with bounce house/activities and toys, and Ashley had so much fun that she cried when she left. Later that day when asked what she did at Monkey Joes, she said "Ashley cried". Lol. It's too cute. It's also cute how she talks about herself in the 3rd person a lot.

She has had some moments of the "terrible 2" stuff with blatantly not listening and occasional full blown temper tantrums on the ground kicking. That hasn't been fun, but between her age and all the change and chaos going on around her, you can't blame the poor girl. She's been a good sport though.

Ashley's best friend is Eli Wagner. She's always talking about Eli, and asking if he's going to be at places that we're going. She even says "Eli" when we are going in the same direction as his house.

The finished product

So after a couple weeks of pure insanity, our house was officially put on the market today. Figured I'd share some pictures of the finished product and our staged home since I recently posted the "before" pics. 

Our master bedroom

 We painted the bathroom lighter and painted the cabinets

 The girls rooms stayed the same with the exception of removing personal pictures

 Our spacious bonus room without toys

 Our staged living room

 The bathroom stayed the same other than painting the cabinet

 Dining room stayed the same other than having to "declutter" by removing the bookshelves

Laundry room cabinets were painted

 Bathroom stayed the same other than adding some "green" to spruce it up

 And drumroll....Our "new" kitchen--painted cabinets, new handles and hardware, granite countertops, new sink faucet, new(er) stove that's less of an eye sore...and we moved our rug into here

....oh, and new wall color 

What do you think??