Photo Update

 Here are a few recent pictures of Emily:

Love that smile

Being goofy 

Crazylegs 2012 Team Caleb! 

Cuddling with Daddy after finishing Crazylegs

Projects and Pregnancy

Now that I am officially in my third trimester of my second pregnancy I am feeling the push to check things off the to do list. The hard part is in order to check things off of the list you need energy. Energy is something that I have been lacking this entire pregnancy. Everything is harder this time around. My doctor likes to tell me that I am pregnant with a toddler so of course things are harder. While he is right I get annoyed at his lack of sympathy. We are slowly checking the to do list off, which is a good feeling. It is just different then the first time around, that is for sure.

Emily is growing up so fast. She is talking a lot these days. She has started to string words together into sentences and has discovered a new favorite word, Mine. It used to be cute when she would name everything as hers "Emmy's milk", "Emmy's bunny" but now it is my or mine. "My sit here" and "My sandy" (a sandy is a sandwich in Emily speak). She is also the energizer bunny stuck on repeat. I wish I could steal some of her energy for myself.  As for the constant repetitiveness, I know it is excellent as far as development but the repetition has a way of wearing a pregnant mama down.

Em does say good morning to my belly and gives it kisses. She is one of the sweetest little things. I am trying to soak up every moment where it is the two or three of us. Because in 11 weeks (give or take) we will be a family of four.

Happy Easter

We hope everyone had a very happy and blessed Easter.

Family Fun

Yesterday we headed out to A to Z Farm in Oregon, WI. It is about 15 or 20 minutes from our house. A friend recommended that we take Emily. It is a farm where they have a live birth barn of sheep. You can get up close and personal with sheep, pigs, cows , and other farm animals. We told Em that we were going to visit some animals. She was very excited. "Aminals" is one of her favorite things to talk about these days. Once we got there is was apparent that Emily prefers animals from afar but she did have fun walking around and pointing at the baby lambs. It was something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon.

I think Emily has begun to realize that things are going to change very soon. She has become very clingy and doesn't like to let me out of her sight. I am trying to remain patient with her and also trying to remind her that daddy can help out too.

Talking Up a Storm

Emily's vocabulary is increasing every day. There are days that I am amazed at what she says. Like the other day when she picked up a purple crayon and proudly yelled "PURPLE!" as clear as day. Or this morning while we were watching the garbage truck outside she said "Green Truck". It is so fun to be with her right now. You can see her learning new things every second. She likes to mimic what we do and repeat everything. One of her favorite words to repeat is patient, but I can assure you she still doesn't know what it means.

One of Emily's favorite thing to do is name things. She loves going through all of the kids names that are in her daycare class. And at the end she always points to herself and says Emmy! Everything is Emmy thins and Emmy that. She is so proud and happy when she figures out that something is hers, like Emmy's bunny or Emmy's milk. She gets a big smile on her face.

With the birth of #2 around the corner I have purchased several books about becoming a big sister. These have become some of Em's favorite books to read. She will point to herself and say sister. I am not sure that she really understands it but at least she is getting comfortable with the idea, or so I like to think.

We are working on getting Emily's big girl room set up. This coming weekend we will be doing some painting. I have had fun picking out a new bedspread and other things for her room. Since we didn't find out her gender before she was born it is fun to now get some girlie things and leave the lions and giraffes behind. I am hoping for a smooth transition from crib to bed. Any suggestions are welcome!

Blessed

With everything that is going on in the world I am learning to count my blessings. As of late I have realized how truly blessed we are. Not only do we have daily amenities but we have each other. Kevin and I will be married for 5 years this year. Our daughter is healthy and thriving. She is talking up a storm and is loads of fun these days. Baby #2 is doing very well and is extremely active in its little home. Some days seem really hard but in the grand scheme of things we have it pretty easy. Every now and again I need to remember to stop and take it all in.

Sickness

I am waiting for the day that sickness leaves our house. Emily has been cutting teeth this past week which has brought fevers, running nose, and coughing fits at night. Kevin has been battling a cold for awhile now and I came down with a crazy stomach virus this past weekend which ended with me in the ER taking in fluids. I am doing fine now but it was a little scary while it was happening. The baby is doing well considering the illness. But now I am done with all of the sickness.

Sickness aside things have been uneventful in our house. Kevin has been working a lot with a couple of major deadlines in February. Emily and I have spent a lot of our time coloring and playing with stickers. This seems to be her new favorite pastime. I have started feeling the baby move more often which is a nice reminder of things to come. I have my 20 week ultrasound coming up. We are not planning on finding out the gender but are looking forward to getting a peak at our new little babe.

Helping Daddy work

She loves wearing her winter accessories indoors