Getting your money's worth

1 swimsuit, 3 summers.   I would say we got our money's worth out of this suit.  I love the first picture the most.  The muffin top, the chunky thighs, the ginormous head.......nothing I love more than sweet, chunky "little" babies.

eighteen months

This months post is a little late....I am still battling computer problems.  This month's collage is all iPhone pics, which probably captures our everyday life better than the big camera anyway.

So here is what we have been up to lately:

• Emmy's words (mainly said on her own, sometimes needs prompting): Daa-doo (Rudolph), bumble  & herbie (from Rudolph move too), wah (wipe), bapple (pineapple), nah-noo (thank you), bow, bobbo (bottom), goooooo (immediately when we get into car), why-buh (diaper), I'm sure there are more- these are just the new ones
• She is using utensils much better, I have ditched the plastic take and toss forks and we use little cocktail forks.
• 3 molars this month: Upper Right (Jan7), Upper Left (Jan11), Lower Right (Jan23)
• Went to the dr for wheezing and got placed on 5 day, low dose Prednisone.  Helped while on meds, but then got worse again afterwards
• Emmy loves Nasonex and saline spray to be sprayed up her nose..weird, I know
• When frustrated, Miss Thing stands and stomps her right foot repeatedly
• She can count to three!  Well, kind of.  I say one, she will say two, I say too, then she yells THREE!
• Most often, Emmy will either forewarn or tell us as soon as she has gone poopy.
• She loves to practice putting on and taking off clothes.
• The moment she gets strapped into the car seat, Emmy starts to take off her shoes and socks.  Just like momma, those toes need to be free!

This last month, just like all the others, has been the best month yet.  Sooooo much learning, soooo many new words and new mannerisms revealing themselves.

Here's a little collage...I think in a future post I'll explain what most of the pictures are about.

Already The Skeptic

I'm gonna let the pictures do most of the talking here. 

Let's just say that the visit to the jolly ole fake Santa did not go so well.

15 months.

Oh my, I have a 15 month old!  My little baby is not such a baby anymore!  Here is what we have been up to since the last month:

• Trip to Indiana for Elyse's birthday, got to visit with our friends Meredith and Finn again.  Finn is so cute and such a hugger!  Elyse is getting so big, and has bypassed Emmy in height....almost there in weight.  Emmy and I flew out there with my parents, she did a good job!
• Pink eye and a few trips to the doctor.
• Emmy is now the proud owner of squeaky shoes and she really thinks she is hot stuff in her shoes!  She was starting to walk on her toes and these have cured that bad habit.  She is VERY close to running now.
• Up until this point, Miss E didn't care much about the boob tube unless it was "The Office".....but we found a show she cannot live without now....The Backyardigans.  My niece Grace also watched this show 7 years ago and it bring back such good memories.
• We bought Emmy a little Backyardigans couch, it's one of the collage pictures.
• In all the trips to the doctor, we found out that Emmy really hasn't gained even a pound since her 12 month appointment.  She eats, she's just moving so much more.  She is definitely thinning out, so she must be growing in height.
• Not too many new words, but Emmy is trying to imitate the things we say.
• We have rediscovered "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and her favorite part is "washed the spider out".
• For Halloween, Emmy was "Pebbles"- the only thing missing was the orange hair.  She was too cute.  We didn't do much trick-or-treating.....maybe next year.
• Emmy has a little "primal" yell...I'll have to scour the phone and video camera to see if I have it captured.  I'm afraid that if she continues, she'll hurt her vocal chords.
• If possible, this month has been more fun than the last month...it is so fun watching Emmy grow into her own little person, with her own little idiosyncrasies.

7*2 months

Our little girl is 14 months old and becoming increasingly more fun and stubborn each day.  Seems that rarely a day passes where she hasn't learned something or picked up a new habit (dear Lord, help me watch my behavior so she picks up good habits from me)

Here's the scoop:

• Hovering in around 26+ pounds, but walking now so my arm will probably lose some muscle mass in the upcoming months.
• Red hot chili peppers....phew, I cannot wait for the terrible twos and threes if you are already throwing these temper tantrums.
• You got your 6th tooth, I need to look at a diagram- but I think it's the right lateral incisor.
• You have some new words.  Some you can pronounce well, some you can't- but we love them all : book (bk), bottle (bah), banana (bobo), whoa, wow, uh oh (sometimes pronounced ut-boh), car (more like gaaa)
• I love your school b/c I know we work on body parts with you at home, but you are learning so fast and I know they must be working with you during the day too, you can identify: head, teeth, belly, toes, eyes
• You are starting to sign! Hallelujah.  You have an "emmy" version of PLEASE and sometimes you'll sign MORE.  We are still working on ALL DONE.  Most of the time you just throw food off your plate, but sometimes you will say "ahhh".
• I've placed your bin of books on the lower shelf so that you can go pull a book out, read one page, and then pull out another book.  You are a diabolical genius because you then keep us busy until your bedtime and then some how we end up being the ones that get to pick up your mess!
• You like to hold hands, you like for us to identify objects for you in books or around the room and on occasion you have walked to your high chair to indicate that you are hungry.
• You are consistently keeping your shoes ON, hooray!  I found a great deal on some Merrells today at Marshalls, I hope they fit!  You wear a size 4 now.
• You try to helps us get you dressed: put your shoes near your feet, push your hands through the sleeves.....such a big helper!
• Speaking of helper, hello wipes obsession.  You love to wipe your mouth, wipe the floor, suck on wipe...repeat.  A weird version of a clean freak?
• You don't like for us to distract you, ie carry you to the bathroom for your bath time if you were doing something else.  But if you enter the bathroom on your own will then we are A-OK!
• Really though, all of this independence is OK.  I want Emmy to be a strong woman who isn't afraid to stand up for what she believes, and to be a little fiesty.
• You like to climb up your slide and then go back down on your belly, sometimes your bottom.
• You sleep from about 730 to 630 with 2 short naps inbetween. You are taking milk from a sippy now, but you still take it as though it was a bottle
• This month you went to the Samson Mid-Continent division picnic and the Tulsa State Fair!
• We also had a fun night with our neighbors, the Plunketts at the park @ 41st/Riverside

12 month pictures

Hi friends!  I am coming to you live from a very uncomfortable, albeit king size bed in a Holiday Inn Express in Sylva, NC.  Emmy is snoozing (Hallelujah!).  We had a long night last night (she felt like being awake and playing from 230-445am and only feel asleep after two 5oz bottles and me patting her back for 10 minutes, this could have a whole post of its own) followed by a VERY.L O N G.DAY with only a 30 minute nap.  So, back to the Emmy is snoozing part- I think she's in deep sleep.  I have some college football on the tube and she's still snoring.  I think we are OK.  I think I can blog without her waking up.

Anyway, the real reason for the post....Emmy's pictures!!!  My very talented friend Shea Casey took these (as well as our newborns and 6 month pictures).  This was by far my favorite session.  Since E's best time of day is the morning, we got started bright and early at 745.  I was a little worried bc it seemed like she wasn't very smiley- but I am super impressed by the results.  Hope you enjoy...

EMMY IN FRONT OF THE RED DOOR @ TRINITY EPISCOPAL

FAMILY PIC AT SAME LOCATION AS ABOVE

WITH HER COZY COUPE ON BOSTON AVE, BOK BUILDING IN BACK

MOMMY, DADDY AND MISS INDEPENDENT

EMMY AND THE TICKLE MONSTERS

Happy Birthday Emmy Christine

Wow, I am still WAY too tired to write an actual 12 month old post.  So sorry to anyone who is waiting on that.  It took all my might just to make these 2 collages.  But I do hope that you enjoy, I will probably post these as separate images on FB so that I can write explanations.

July Pictures

I'll be writing Emmy's 1 year old post soon, but I have lots of family in town, lot's of preparing to do and I'm not in the writing mood yet.  But I'll leave you with some pictures of our Colorado vacation until next time

Independence Day

A few days late, but I've noticed that since I've been a mommy- everything is late.  I am sending birthday cards weeks late, wedding presents months late....agh!  But one thing that's not late is when I pick Emmy up from school...I get way too anxious to see her.  But I digress.  This post is about our celebration of Independence Day (which, I urge you to say "Have a wonderful Independence Day" next year instead of "Have a Happy 4th").

Every year, we take a picture in front of the cannas at Chris' parents house.  The picture of ALL of us did not turn out well on my camera...so you'll just have to settle of pictures of cute little kids.

Emmy and Jackson on the rock in front of the cannas.

Jackson running around.

First family pic in front of the cannas (a little thin this year, should be more voluminous next year)

Landon making "the face"

Reading the directions on the "Off" box.

It's 7pm, can you tell who is ready for bed?

Miss Anna Sophia enjoying the swings. 

10 months = 304 days old

I've been battling a sinus infection for 2 weeks and I just feel....ugh.  So since this is the fun, monthly update post- I will try to make it fun.  But to be honest, I'm sitting alone in my house while Emmy is sleeping and my husband is at work late for the 2nd night in a row- and I just don't feel fun.

OK, my pity party is over.

This past month has been so fun with some really cool milestones accomplished.  I hope Emmy really enjoys reading these updates someday.

• You are clapping, it's too cute!
• You stare and wave at people until they look back at you with full attention.
• You can crawl!!!!  You can go from room to room, but you never stray too far.  On May 23rd you crawled your first steps for Aunt Kim.  You never did the army crawl, scoot, etc.  You just went from nothing...to crawling!  I wonder if that's a reflection of your personality, are you going to be an all or nothing kind of girl?
• You are into a size 5 diaper and 12-18 month clothes and a size 2 shoe.  You really don't like to keep your shoes on though, we'll have to work on that one.
• You can wave, and you can actually do it when we say "Emmy, can you wave?" (well, you do it about 75% of the time.  I think you understand but sometimes you just don't feel like doing it)
• You like to hold your toys and rock them, and sway to music.
• We are working on simple signing: please, more, thank you and all done.  You are starting to use all done.  We don't allow you out of your high chair until you sign all done (even if that means doing it with assistance).  It's much more enjoyable than listening/watching you scream and stiffen your body in your high chair just because you can.
• You can go from all fours to crawling, back to all fours.
• You are pulling up to your knees and I think you are very close to pulling to a standing position.
• Listening to your own voice might be your favorite activity as of late.  You also make what we call pterodactyl sounds.  Some other popular sounds: growling, dada, mama (but not really used in context), ahh-duh (you make this sound as you are throwing things), and bah (for ball).
• Woo Pig Sooie!  You took your first trip to Fayetteville to watch a baseball game.  It was soooo hot that day, but you were such a perfect baby. 
• You start winding down for bed around 630 and are almost always asleep by 715.  It was a little rough there for a week when you learned to crawl.  You just wanted to explore inside your crib instead of taking naps and going to sleep.
• Ever since you had pneumonia you have been waking somewhere between 330-430 at night.  There are nights here and there when you sleep the whole way through, I am REALLY read for you to return to the wonderful sleeper that you are....maybe it's just a 2 month long growth spurt?
• You steal the hearts of everyone around you.  One 2-toothed grin and you have them! 
• You are a sweet little girl and I keep falling more and more in love with you.  You love going to school, and I am so happy for that.  But there are definitely days when I wish we could just stay home all day in PJ's and snuggle (although you aren't really big on snuggling right now since you are becoming so mobile).  Your daddy and I don't know what we did before you, and we don't know what we would do without you.  You have filled a huge void in our lives that we didn't even know existed.  We love you Emmy Christine Sanders.

So blog readers, if you've made it through all this rambling- you definitely deserve a picture.

8 Months Old...That's 2/3 of a Year

I can't believe Emmy is 8 months old! She is so busy nowadays.
A recap of the past month:

• You can turn circles on your tummy and your arms are getting really strong. You have started moving your legs, but no real crawling yet. That's ok though, things are still safe around the house!
• You love the jumperoo at school. When you jump you kick your legs out, then you bring your toes back together to land. It's so cute!
• You give the best kisses and hugs. When you give kisses, you open your mouth wide and grab onto the sides of faces and dive in.
• You take a bottle when you wake, cereal around 830, bottle around 945, lunch around 1130, bottle again around 1230, dinner at 530 and nurse for bedtime (645-715)
• I will say, hesitantly, that you are sleeping through the night. The past week you have been coughing and waking yourself up.
• You have 2 new teeth! The lower right just came through on the 4th and your lower left broke through today, the 6th. This is another reason why you aren't sleeping through the night. I'm hoping that once the cough gets better and the teeth completely emerge, you will sleep soundly once again.
• You turn to the sound of your name.
• You love food, any kinda any flavor. You have the chewing motion down really well, so we give you alot of new food to try.
• You can pull yourself up when we are holding your hands, but you haven't really extended that to pulling up on furniture.
• You anticipate things when we play. It's funny b/c you will start laughing before I even start tickling you. (Collarbone and thighs are the most ticklish areas)
• Your favorite word right now is "ba"...I need to get video of this and post it.
• Your hair is getting so much thicker! But it still looks like you have a receding hairline.
• You are wearing a size 4 diaper.
• When you are excited about things, you make a sound that resembles a steam boat? Not real sure how to describe, I need to get this on video also.
• You finally learned how to roll from your back to your tummy on Mar 29. Although we are excited for this milestone, we are realizing that it now takes longer to change a diaper.
• We spent your first Easter up at my parents in KS (aka Turkey Foot Lodge). We bought a matching outfit for you and Grace.
• You are happy 99.9% of the time and you love people. There are no signs of stranger anxiety at this point. You make everyone smile and you have the most addicting giggle.
• We love you more and more everyday. You have enriched our lives beyond anything we could have expected. I hope you always stay as sweet as you are right now. I pray that we are/will be the parents that you need us to be so that you may grow into a wonderful Christian woman.

she's a fighting Mangino.

If Emmy and Coach Mangino (ku football) were to enter a "fattest cheeks" contest, who would win? Man, this is a tough one to decide. I think he would win just by virtue of size of cheeks. But if we talk proportions, Emmy can hold her own.

Here's my lil punkin at the pumpkin patch. It was such a windy day, but she was a champ. She really loves being outside!
Here's my happy little girl hanging out watching some Baby Einstein! Yes, I have a couch potato. And yes, I might be enabling that habit.

This past weekend we traveled to my parents, then drove to Lawrence for the KU-OU football game. Chris was happy with the outcome, the rest of us ....NOT SO MUCH. The weather was beautiful, the trees were beautiful, and Lawrence is just beautiful. Again, Emmy did GREAT. She slept through about half the game. Wise girl. Who wants to watch their team get beat?

Little (or big) bit turns 3 months old here in a week and a half. I truly can't believe it! I have no idea where time has gone. I can't really remember life before Emmy (except I do know I had more time to do crafts)....but I'm OK with it all. I'd much rather take a little less sleep, less time to myself, more rushing around, etc to have this little girl. Completely worth 18 weeks of progesterone shots, 11 weeks of bedrest, no caffeine or wine, 40 extra pounds and too many doctors appointments to count.

Birth Announcement

After many hours of fiddling around, changing fonts, moving pictures, editing pictures, changing fonts again and finally deciding to STOP- I present to you Emmy's birth announcement. You've probably already seen it on facebook, but here it is just in case you haven't:

front:



back:


Many thanks to my friend SHEA for taking the beautiful family pic! Please go check out her facebook page for Shea Casey Photography. I would highly recommend.

Dealing With Change

So if anyone WAS concerned, I'm not REALLY going to start cereal yet! I'll just blame 1) a growth spurt, or 2) the bottle that she had. Probably TMI, but I think the sleep may have a little to do with her bottles of expressed milk. I usually pump right after she gets done eating and is in bed. So, from here on out- I'm going to make sure her night time bottle is the milk I had pumped from the previous night (lots of good fatty milk)...

Ok, onto the real meaning of thist post:

I found it very interesting while pregnant all the well-intended comments from people about pregnancy and parenthood. Those comments came across as either POSITIVE or NEGATIVE, nothing really in the middle. You know, some would say "this will forever change your life in the best possible way" and some would chime in with "oh man, you're never gonna sleep again, have time to yourself like you did before...wait for the teen years...yada yada"

Here's the deal: I think when big changes occur you can't dwell on how life was PREVIOUSLY. Your life is how it is at the moment, not how it WAS and not how it WILL BE. Why waste time thinking about how seemingly great life used to be, by doing that- wouldn't one just miss out on all the great things of the moment?

Life is full of changes, I think of where I was just 3 years ago. Fall 2006 Chris and I were engaged getting ready to be married. We lived in a craptacular duplex in Claremore (yes, together, for like 2 months before we got married...I know, shame shame). Chris was working for a small civil engineering firm in Talala and I was at my current work place. The next year we moved into a nicer duplex, still at our same jobs. Fall 2007 I start grad school for petroleum engineering, wow- does that change things up. Spring 2008 we decided to buy a house, I'm still at my job- but Chris has resigned from his and is looking. He finds a job just before our house, phew. We move to Tulsa, Chris lands a job at APAC and we start working on the house. Fall 2008 we get 2 pups.....then..... I come home from class one night very disillusioned about life. I figure out that what I'm currently doing isn't doing it for me anymore. The answer? Start a family! Summer 2009 Emmy is born.

If you ask me, it's a tremendous amount of change in 3 years. But I don't think much about how great things "used to be". What's the point? Things are too great right now to think about the things I miss from the past. Because, really, I'm not sure I miss the past. I love right now. How could I not?

funny onesies

"Miso Cute"
Yes- I think she is.

"I need a vacation"

Sure kid, you need a vacation like a fat kid needs cake.


"Princess of Wails"

But not at the moment.

"Little Miss Perfect"

Most of the time



"Diaper Diva"

No arguments from momma.



"I heart nap time"

But not during the evenings

Last full week home and a video of Emmy

It's bittersweet. I have so much fun hanging out with my daughter everyday, but I'm also ready for a little bit of "schedule" in my life. Emmy's school is about 8 blocks from my work, so I think for the first few months I'll drop by at lunch time to feed her if she's hungry. Or just hang out if she's not. Please pray for me next Thursday, my first day back- that we both will transition well. I think I'll be able to take her in Tuesday and Wednesday AM to get used to our morning routine. Little Bit slept in until 7 again this morning, wahoo! I love it. BUT, I feel bad for her b/c once I do go back to work she's not going to have the luxury of sleeping in that late- unless she can figure out how to eat faster. Like...down a 4-5 ounce bottle in 5 minutes fast

We had a good and busy weekend. My mom, "Mimi", came down Thursday to keep us company, Saturday we went to Rory's birthday party, and Sunday we went to a shower for Aunt Eden (who is expecting a girl in October), stopped by claremore to visit gma and gpa S and g-gma Pat for her birthday.

playing with mimi:

chatting with Tammy at the shower:























Great Grandma Pat:


















Whew, this past weekend was so busy.
Emmy's thoughts on it all: "forget tummy time, I'm ready for a nap"

Brave Girl

Emmy and I had a very busy day, we each had a dr's appt. I had my 6 week post-partum checkup. I can't believe it's already been 6 weeks, so crazy. As a thank you to my dr, Emmy and I gave her some stationary that I designed. We're all just so thankful for her safe 39 week ride inside me and safe delivery. It was a little scary there for a few weeks, and I'm so glad we didn't have a pre-term baby. As thankful as we are do the medical staff, believe me- we know that God was the one who was in ultimate control of the situation. We're glad he did His work through the hands of those taking care of us.

Appointment number 2 of the day was for Emmy girl. They noticed when she was born that she had a short little frenulum, "tongue tied". The pediatricians who saw her in the hospital didn't think it needed to be clipped. So we didn't do anything about it. But then around week 2, breastfeeding was not going as well and the latches weren't that great. So I made an appt with another pediatrician at the office (at 4 weeks) and she referred us to an ENT to take a look at it. She thought it'd be better to take care of it now, especially if I thought it was affecting her eating. Obviously, chubby cheeks as proof, Emmy is eating fine. But it hasn't been the MOST comfortable thing in the world.

So here are the pictures of our brave girl. The first is before the procedure, Dr H is trying to get a good look inside. The second is a picture I took right when we got home.

Sorry for the lack of GOOD pictures. My DSLR is sick right now and not writing images to the memory card. I have taken quite a few with my point and shoot, but it's just not the same. SIGH and a TEAR.

One Month

So this post is a little late, but little girl is already one month old. I was trying to think of something to do each month to track her growth and I'm going to do footprints (since that is something we have from birth also).

Here's what Miss Emmy has been up to the past month:

• sleep, eat and poop


• She gained ~3lbs from birth!


• She JUST started noticing fans, which is great since we have a ceiling fan in almost every room.


• She is tracking objects and likes the toys on her play mat and bouncy/rocking chair


• Tolerates tummy time and will turn her head from side to side.


• Likes to be swaddled, but can usually find a way to get her hands and sometimes her whole arms out.


• Can be quite gassy sometimes, but it doesn't seem to bother her. Chris and I find it fairly humerous.


• Has started, in the last week, cooing. Also, I think she has given us a few intentional smiles.


• Now into size 1 diapers.


• Has grown out of most of her newborn clothes, but still can't fill out her newborn shoes.


• Has just started having an fussy time anywhere between 7-10pm.


• Will go 4-5 hours between feedings at night, she has done this almost since the day she came home from the hospital.


• Has taken a liking to spitting up.


• Still looks like her daddy.


• Took her first road trip up to my parents in KS, she did great! Slept all the way there and all the way back.


• Has completely stolen our hearts.

I Love....

• 3 day weekends


• baked lays


• my ped egg


• fun colors of nailpolish for my toes


• how my nails grew when i was pregnant


• going on walks in the evening


• currently, the weather


• vacationing in Colorado with my family


• KU...anything


• taking pictures


• making greeting cards


• cleaning the kitchen..NOT, but it is a necessity


• my family


• Taco Bueno


• Sonic @ happy hour


• Jesus


• listen to calming music (Jack Johnson, Coldplay in particular)


• when Chris gets home from work before 530


• company! I get lonely and stir crazy at home


• HDTV, what a great invention....

but mostly, I love....

diamonds are a girl's best friend

Can't get enough of this little girl.